Tribute to a W&B fav... maybe :)

Late evening on the bay a little while back and this caught my attention:

For $20, I thought maybe I wanted to learn how to sharpen knives (??no clue what I was thinking???), and that W&B at the bottom gave me the “insurance” that I wasn’t completely throwing my money away.
It turned out to be a 15/16” W&B near wedge, so I’m good. But the intrigue was what was behind door #2...

Well, that was all the pics I had and it was not good, but not horrible... okay, maybe it is.
An old Wade&Butcher For Barbers Use that is now about 7/8 near the toe.

Not sure why my brain went this way, but way, way in the back of it, I have always thought of getting a donor W&B and seeing if I could pay tribute to my favorite shape - The Ottoman Egyptian And Royal Windsor Razor.

(Not my razor or picture)
So there is the challenge... how close can I get??? I am at the starting line.
Tom

 

Wow, you have a lot of grinding to do, and not enough tang, near the heel. So, the dimensions won't be exact. You could possibly get near that dimension. The toe end should be easier. Now, the spine is another thing. Just not enough meat on the project razor.
If it were me, i would restore the blade as much as possible, and look to buy, the one you are looking for.

 

Now I think you might know me... not the sharpest tool in the shed and you are correct, this razor doesn’t have the swoop or the tang dimensions, but I think I can get close.
Here was my drawing of what I needed to remove:

I am a little over 2 hours in and I am digging the shape. Lots of work around the heel/tang and that point was not easy. Added that heel notch and trying to feather out the shoulder.

This is actually really fun. Need to eyeball out the rest before dark.
Tom

 

Putting Day 1 in the books!
Continued to work the heel shape and then started hand sanding with 220 after I put the dremel away. Never going to be a beauty queen but pretty drastic metamorphosis.
Start:

Close of Day 1:

Thanks for looking.
Tom

 

It looking good, so far. What tools have you used, to this point.

 

Thank you Scott.

All Dremel attachments so far...
Cutting wheel for the tip removal and to make some cuts into the underside of the tang to help with material removal in creating the thumbnotch. And a real thin one to create the heel notch.

Followed that up with many 60 grit sanding drums. Used that for finishing the tip, the shaping of the tang, and then the shoulder removal. I also used the drum to message the grind to spine transition and to try and remove the massive pock marks all over the place.

Finally, I like 180 & 240 grit sanding discs to slowly work across the blade face, parallel to the edge to try and even out the mess the sanding drums make. Not really worried about crisp transition lines, as those were sacrificed before I bought it.
Then on to the sandpaper!!!

 

Still plugging away...
Hit the 220 paper for a while but really did not like the feel or look of what remained of the shoulder.

So pulled the larger sanding drum back out - the 1/2”, and went back at it. Not really easy to do this perpendicular to the spine as the tool gets in the way with such a small radius drum. So went more at a 45 degree angle and took it VERY lightly and methodically across the blade face.

These pits are deep but there is a lot of steel to work with. Challenge was to remove steel without creating “waves.” Got to a point I liked and then pulled out the 220 and 400 paper and went back to hand-sanding. Then cleaned up some of the pits with Mother’s polish and steel wool.

Finally, I laid down some light 400 vertical scratches to blend some stray marks. Not sure if I’m done... but can vouch for a sore hand.

Picked out some horn with streaks that should accent the blade swoop. Maybe start that Saturday if it rains.

Enjoy your projects!
Tom

 

Still working the scales but was also playing with rocks .

I was using this razor to see whether this certain stone could be used as a bevel setter... and then I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play around.

5/8”, nothing crazy but the steel at the point and the break in the scales at the wedge were just begging to be made into a shorty.

And the wedge end...

But I was also designing the scales for the W&B. I like to use old scales to trace for my shape whenever possible, and just modify areas - in this case the shape at the wedge.

Then traced out on the horn.

Waaaayyyyy too thick of blanks, so a lot of work to do there.

See ya in a bit.
Tom

 

Shorty is coming along nicely - Friedr. Baurmann & Sohne. Dremel cutting disc and sanding drum for the round point profile. In the process of sanding down the scales at the wedge end - dremel drum and hand sanding through 600 at the moment.
About 1&3/4” long blade.

Got the W& B scales thinned down. Now need to skinny up the profile and make the contours.

Done for a Saturday.
Enjoy your projects!
Tom.

 

W&B scales are finished...
Taped my fingers to the top and then finished thinning & flattening on some 220, with my DMT325 as my flat support. Once that was done, used double sided tape to put them together.

Wanted to do something a little different than my normal - went thinner, wanted to keep the flat to keep the streaks (they are not that deep in this set), and then wanted to put in a contour by hand. Decided to count strokes, starting with 220 to remove material and get the angle, then continued with 2 sets of 20 strokes around the entire circumference, using the progression 220/400/800/1000/1500/2500. Turned out okay, but not sure how I feel about the flat look - I’ll wait to pass judgement once they are installed.

And because I can’t focus on just one thing, I finished sanding the scales and pinned the shorty. Here is a good example of removing too much material with a dremel drum sander and not leaving it for your sanding progression.

You can see the marks all over the wedge end. But again, this razor was headed towards the garbage, so no biggie.

Thinking a nice bone wedge for contrast to the streaked horn. Brass pins??? Probably.

Enjoy your projects!
Tom

 

I think those scales are beautiful with the flat look!

 

Thank you Brian.

 

I’ll second the flat look for the scales. Very nice work Tom!

 

Thanks Paul. They are growing on me. I need to get this wedge made up and put this puppy together.

 

And more procrastination... a small project in a project.

Got tired of having dremel attachments in a sandwich bag. I had this wooden rocker leg from a camp chair that someone was tossing. Original thought was to create a holder for DE’s, but that got shelved and I forgot about it. Well my frustration with finding dremel attachments got the best of me, so made this today.

Had a friend rip the legs lengthwise a few months ago, so all I had to do was find some hardware and spacers, then drill some holes. It will be sad to see the old sandwich bag go.

I am trying to promise myself to keep only the attachments I consistently use in this contraption.

Okay, time to get back to the wedge.
Tom.

 

Wedge is almost there. Wanted 3mm width near the blade so it could sit in this position:

About 1.5mm at the other end to make the wedge angle.

And why we mock up before pinning...

Centered, but need to take a little off at the top.
Getting there.
Tom.

 

Alright, she is pinned up and finished!!!

At this point, I hope she shaves, but I have all of $15 of materials (including the razor) in this build and it was a blast.

I started with this:

I was trying to pay tribute to this:


And I’m pretty happy with where I got. So here she is, my tribute to The Ottoman Egyptian and Royal Windsor Razor...

I’m pumped!


More shots in the next post.
Tom

 

Here are some more.
Backside:

Frontside:

Then some close ups of the horn... I really liked these blanks. Only wish they were thinner than 0.25” to start.

And one more.

Off to the hones... enjoy your projects!
Tom

 

Great looking scales. I hope the honing goes as planned.

 

Thank you Scott.

So do I... So do I.