Got an old wade and butcher bow and a wade and butcher barbers notch I had custom scales put on as my favorite sr razors Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Soooo, what's the plan? How far you going on the restoration? The blade looks to be in really good condition
Just picked this up. Paid premium but, real IVORY is impossible to come by today. From what I can find on the Sheffield Index Wade, Wingfield & Rowbotham, - (, merchts. & table, pen & pocket knife, razor and file manufacturers). Address: Tenter Street, in 1837. Recorded in: Whites Directory of Sheffield & Rotherham - 1837. According to this index this was the only year this Company produced Razor. Then in 1851-1852 Richard Wades name was dropped from the company name becoming Wingfield & Rowbotham. At which time the newly named Company began producing Razors again. I believe that makes this razor exactly 180 years old. At a minimum 166 years old, but if my research is correct then 180. The tail would make this also correct as that style tail was most common between 1830-1845 per this dating site http://strazors.com/uploads/images/articles/Identification.pdf
Lovely razor. The style and design of this razor looks more mid-19th century, so I'd venture the production date to be shortly before the name change in 1852. Either way, it's another great Sheffield piece!
What's everyone's experience with the ability of these old razors to hold an edge? How do they compare to your "newer" razors - e.g. early to mid 20th century?
@Karl G , I cannot vouch for all, but I have a couple, and the edges hold up just fine. They take just as sharp an edge as more modern straights, and they don't seem to degrade during the shave, or from shave to shave.
Karl, I've only shaved a handful of times with mine, but it took a great edge and no loss of keenness whatsoever. Kind of a chore (for me) to strop. Since it's a full wedge; the entire blade width drags across the strop.
I've had this for about a year actually, but due to travel and other things didn't use it for a while there. The more I do research on this, the more I cannot believe my UTTER LUCK to be owning this. When I got it (from Griffiths), it was INSANELY sharp, I ended up cutting my towel (there's a giant hole in my towel, to this day). Presenting the pride and joy of my household, an early W. Greaves, near wedge. The scales are sort of broken (you can't see it in the pic, but near the pins on one side there's a bit of the scales missing - i.e. it exposes a bit of the tail that should normally be hidden under the scale), but I'm glad griffiths decided to leave them on. I can't BELIEVE the shape it's in for being over 200 years old. Honestly, I've seen 50 year old razors at the local antique show with MUCH worse wear. I recently realized, however, that I've been shaving with it for a WHILE with it needing a rehone. Not sure if it's the "towel incident", or i rolled the edge (i am pretty new at this) or what...but I'm hoping Griffiths wasn't wrong about it being able to hold and edge! BUT...OMG i LOVE the shape of this. Between the wedge shape, the "smaller than modern razors" shoulders, and the slight smile this is PERFECT. In fact, i much prefer a DULL Greaves to a recently honed King Cutter.
Oh...interesting, is this true for older razors in general? As I mentioned before my Greaves SEEMS to be following this trend (I say "seems to" because it may just well be my newbish skills). Like it's crazy, most ppl said that dull razors are less comfortable, which initally made sense, but OMG that greaves...SUCH a comfortable shave, but aint NO WAY in hell i'm getting a BBS with it - at least in it's current condition.
LOL It isn't a Dull razor I guess you could look at it that way, but I would not call that an accurate picture of the difference in how the shave feels on the face Also looking closer at the pic, the double shoulder of your Greaves hints to a Re-grind at some time during it's life Many of them were sent back to the factory shortly after 1910 ish for factory re-grinds
oh hmm, yea i suppose not. I was thinking about this, and could some of the unique features of these old razors be because of the grinds? I mean it was mostly wedges and near wedges back then right? Now i'm curious if there's a trend you can observe regarding how a blade feels on the face and generally what era it was made in (assuming it was made as a typical example of the era's dominating style).
Hint: On Heavy wedgie blades, allow a slight bit of slack to creep into your stropping, you might find like many others it improves the action, which in turn improvs the edge Just a little less Taut, not floppy
There really isn't a Full wedge everything should have at least some Hollow I have seen two in the last 11 years of doing it professionally One was made that way by Livi years ago as a custom request The other was an old W&B that I am pretty sure slipped outta the factory and missed the Final Grind Station Also, there are generational differences through the years in steel production,,, You can't really compare a 1780-1812 ish razor to an 1830-1860 ish razor We also must keep in mind that we don't control the wear that was introduced in the last 200 + years I do have one near pristine early 1800's razor out in the shop, but I have never honed it or shaved it, That would be interesting to see how the edge comes out
No full wedge really? I never knew that. Dang, where did you get that near pristine 1800's razor? WOW! I guess the production of steel became a bit better around 1820-1830 right? i DO KNOW silver steel became more popular mid 1800s or so, so that'd certainly be different from what I assume is different steel prior to that (different how?). I always found it interesting how SO MANY historical events come into play when talking about history of razors - wars, popularisation of the steam engine, american and european revolutions...i learned more about history researching razors the last few weeks than i EVER DID before that. But that's what i mean, i was wondering if through the years there are certain obvious ways in which things changed that show up in how razors are (obvious examples ofc would be things like longer tails and more hollow grounding that became more popular and possible later that obviously changes how the blade is).
