(This post was last modified: 08-22-2021, 02:52 AM by Clive Russ.)
Wade & Butcher razor with honing kit
It's ridiculous! I couldn't resist buying another "bloodletter”, this fine hollow-ground 19thC Wade & Butcher with its original scales.
I didn't like the satin finish, so I wore out my finger polishing the faces of the blade and spine. I like to leave some original grind marks, hand polished. Hardened steel is... well, hard, so it takes a lot of rubbing to polish it.
The W&B arrived "shave ready", but not for my tender face, so I refined the edge (spine taped) with the 4", 10, 15, 20 k Suehiro Gokumyo stones, mounted on aluminum for the Edge Pro. The stone surfaces are slightly cambered. My 5000 Chosera is cracked because I accidentally ran hot water over it, expanding the aluminum faster than the stone. However, it's still okay to set the bevels. I also have some 3M film abrasives for setting bevels but seldom need to use them.
I made a cBN pasted, and plain, leather loom strops for polishing the edge after finishing on the stones. The smaller pieces of diamond pasted leather shown in the image are for use when traveling.
I have some "used" whiskers in the glass jar for testing the edge by the hanging hair rating system. The 10x loupe is invaluable for finding unsharpened parts of the edge and seeing bits of burr hanging off the edge, glinting in the light.
The shave was smooth and painless. The paper-thin blade sings like a fat lady.
Before storing, I wipe a thin layer of gunsmith's water-dispersing oil (Brownells) over the blade to prevent rusting during the humid summer months.
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