Wade & Butcher - To Restore or Not?

Hello gentlemen. I know we all talk about the questionable history behind our razors, and speculating who owned them, where they came from, etc.

Well, earlier this year I found one which includes such a history. It is a Wade & Butcher Silver combined with India Steel and accompanied by a letter dated August 7th, 1937 which details the razor's history. The letter states that the recipients grandfather found it on a confederate soldier's corpse in the battle of Chickamauga. This is of particular interest to me as I live in Chattanooga, which is just over the TN line from Chickamauga, GA. The letter lists the soldier's name as John Hickman, who did indeed serve in the 59th GA infantry which fought in the battle of Chickamauga. Additionally I've dated the razor to the mid 1800s which would fit the above description. Even though this proves nothing definitively, it's enough corroboration for me to speculate that this is likely the true tale of this razor.

Anyway, I bought this with the thought of restoring it as it would be very cool to have a razor in rotation knowing the history which is very relevant to me. I've had it sitting in my to-restore box since early this year, and I pulled it out this weekend to start the process. Upon inspecting the blade, I noticed a more problematic area than I initially realized very close to the cutting edge in the center of the razor per the following pictures:



Looks like a big area of pitting to me, which would warrant removing a lot of steel to get to a good shaving edge. At this point, I'm not sure if this really would be a problem in cleaning up the razor but am hesitant to start when this can be a really cool display piece as-presented considering the history. I'm about 50-50 on undertaking a seemingly risky restoration right now.

What say you? Should I attempt to restore or not?

I would find some period-correct scales and leave the blade alone.

Given the blades provenance I'd be inclined to have it professionally restored, which may be a bit costly, but in the end be well worth the money spent. Same goes for any of the documentation you have, have it professionally preserved. =)

Then do your homework... Find out all you can about the original owner. =)

Why not restore? Otherwise it will just sit there and pit worse. Enjoy the history of the piece for what it is, but don't be afraid to bring it up to user grade.

jlindy said:

Given the blades provenance I'd be inclined to have it professionally restored, which may be a bit costly, but in the end be well worth the money spent. Same goes for any of the documentation you have, have it professionally preserved. =)

Then do your homework... Find out all you can about the original owner. =)

Click to expand...

+1 What he said!

Thanks for the input guys! As far as a restoration, I'd just do a soak in CLR then sanding progression from 400-2000 then finish polishing with a polishing paper progression (30-1 micron). With a razor this old, I actually prefer some of the character remaining and will leave some patina. For the scales, I've got camel bone on the way to recreate the originals. The one side in the pic is pretty complete to trace the profile.

Generally I agree it's worth cleaning it up and seeing where it stands, then going from there. I'll update this as I progress, although it may be a bit of a slow progression.

what were the original scales? Bone?

mycarver said:

what were the original scales? Bone?

Click to expand...

Sorry for the delay here, but I haven't checked this lately. I believe the scales to be ivory based on the date and appearance:



I figure bone would be as close as I could get while keeping somewhat the original look of the razor. That being said, I'm not optimistic of the blade at this point. Looks like about 1/8" needs to be taken back to get a good edge:

Bad pits in a bad spot. I would have to tape the spine and throw it on a coarse hone, but it may mean a lot of lost steel.

In this case taping the spine is a big mistake. No reason for it. Actually more spine wear is what will be needed if width is taken off the blade. Taping the spine is going 180 degrees in the wrong direction .

that is unless you want an even greater bevel angle than you'll have when you decrease the width.

I agree with no tape to keep the correct angle. My next step is to go through a hand sanding progression and see where I stand. However, I'm leaning toward taking it to either my Atoma 400 or Shapton Pro 1500 and going for it. We'll see after I finish the sanding this weekend.

I hope it goes well.

Well I'm a bit more optimistic after starting sanding. Got most of the way through 320 grit work and it doesn't look as bad as I thought. Will keep cleaning with some more 320 work then on through the progression. After that I'll build some scales and decide whether to take her to the hones or not.

It may be a knee jerk reaction on my part . And I don't have the razor in hand. But that section of pits in the middle of the blade/edge gives me some concern . Hopefully it's just the photo .
If you're intent on using it I'd be inclined to first see if an edge could be had. Otherwise a lot of energy might be spent in vain unless the idea is if it doesn't shave it will still be become a nice wall hanger with some history.

That's a very cool razor and story, Austin. If it were mine, I would send it to mycarver for a master's touch. YMMV.

mycarver said:

...unless the idea is if it doesn't shave it will still be become a nice wall hanger with some history.

Click to expand...

That's exactly the plan! One way or another it'll be in my BR... either in my rotation or mounted in a shadowbox with it's letter. I say I'm more optimistic because I was rather curious if that part of the blade would just crumble away while sanding. It didn't and there appears to be at least some good steel under there. I'll pull out the DSLR tonight and get some close-ups of the spot for you to check out.

A picture may be worth a thousand words but a few passes over a stone will tell you everything you need to know . Pictures as I implied can be deceiving .

I've seen some pics where you'd swear the blade was toast and it cleaned up easily and others that the rust looked minor yet proved fatal.

Nice razor. Send it to mycarver. It'll come back beautiful

Here's what came out. This, along with the view from my 120x pocket scope doesn't look great. I still think I'll take her to a hone and see what shakes out, but that appears to be some deep pitting going on back into the blade especially in the top pic.

I've had the most "luck" on the bay. Antique stores around me generally have overpriced, sub-par offerings. Haven't had any luck in pawn shops.

That being said, I don't usually go for blades like this. I try to find decent razors that need minor cleanup. This one I took a flyer on just cause of the geographically relevant history.