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Need help real quick, straight razor

Spider

"The Cadre Constable"
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Shopping at antique store. Found these two Wade & Butcher razors. Look ok, might need new scales. 1 is a wedge, other hollow. Are these ok prices? Worth the pickup?
 
Thanks guys. Wasn’t sure. I could always go back in the morning if they were priced ok.

I just don’t find too many W&Bs in the wild.
 
W&B's are tough to find in the wild for sure, KJ. If one of those were a FBU (for barber's use), I would say jump all over it. With these, after having them refinished and rescaled, you'll be lucky to have them valued at what you have invested.

The smaller razor has a lot of uneven spine wear and as a result, a lot of hone wear along the edge. The etching does look to be in good shape, however, for a razor that is most likely over 100 years old. There is some cracking on the inside of the scales around the pivot pin as well, which would be even more evident when the are cleaned up; almost to the point that they would need to be replaced.

The Celebrated is the more desirable of the two, but with the horn scales at the pivot pin being broken, it damages the value quite a bit, as having the original scales on those is part of the selling point. Repairing those scales would be rather expensive, and wouldn't look quite right in the end. This razor as well has quite a bit of spine wear on it, though pretty even. The bevel on it looks fairly straight as well, though it is rather wide. The blade on that one would clean up nicely from the looks of it, outside of possibly the toe, which looks like it has some corrosion that might have gone all the way through.

All in all, $39 and $49 for those razors are probably at the extreme top end of what would be considered an acceptable price, and only if you were planning on keeping them in your den as display pieces after having them rehab'd. They aren't worth it if you are planning on refurbishing and flipping them. Just my $.02...
 
The one on the left (lather well?) does have the odd spine wear but It can be explained by the wedge or near wedge shape of the blade. If it is/was in generally fair condition otherwise $40 isn’t too terrible a price. The scales can be renewed by soaking the whole thing with neatsfoot oil. It will not win a beauty contest but it would be a nice user grade razor. I have one and enjoy the shave, it’s the closest to a full wedge I have.

The one on the right is a hot mess but with a little work it would look pretty good. It has a fair amount of hone wear too but the edge looks clean so you wouldn’t need to remove a bunch more metal to get a clean edge. There are two ways to look at those scales, if they are still functional and allow the blade to rest safely then you could leave them as is (which would also mean leaving the blade unchanged) or you could pitch the scales and do a full rehab. The $50 price isn’t all that bad either way but it is beyond what I would pay. If you were looking for a W&B on eBay you would be hard pressed to find either of those razors at price very much lower. The appetite for Wade and Butcher is still pretty high.

of the two I would think the Celebrated is more sought after and worth doing the rehab if you were into that sort of thing. If you wanted a shave ready W&B the one on the left would be a better choice BUT it’s wedge/near wedge grind could making it harder to hone (clearly it has been honed without tape so it can be done).

Unless you were specifically looking for THAT razor I would pass. I am not afraid of project razors but those prices are a bit high for project razors. ...in my mind. Cool find though.
 
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