Masonic Wade and Butcher

[fordex]

Picked this up today. It’s in beautiful condition. Looks all original and still has a decent edge! I was going to clean it up with lemon juice and salt. I don’t know if I want to polish it and lose the etching. Suggestions?

 

[skyfire1]

I have one very similar to that one, beautiful razor. You do need to be careful and not polish out that etching. Mine is a pain to hone due to it's wedge shape and my lack of skill at honing wedge razors, but I am practicing. Enjoy.

 

[Corsair]

That's very nice. IMO the etching absolutely makes it so it'd be criminal to polish it out. Might be worth looking at a chemical treatment (maybe phosphoric acid?) and / or a very light / fine abrasive like pumice or autosol applied with a toothbrush in an effort to get it into the etching...? I've had good results polishing brass threads with autosol on a toothbrush, but obviously this detailing is a lot more fine.

Just throwing ideas around - I have no expertise in this field specifically so treat my suggestions with appropriate caution!

 

[FarmerTan]

As a Freemason, I find that captivating! I hope you get some more good help my friend!

 

[fordex]

So the salt and lemon juice wasn’t a good idea. Didn’t think about how it could have rusted it! But I did see that on a different thread on here anyways all is well I rinsed it with distilled water. I basically only used Never Dull for the most part. It’s basically cotton with an acetone in it. Took forever to do, but I think it was non abrasive.

 

[rbscebu]

Starting to look good. If you want to further improve the finish, I would speak to a few experienced jewellers about what to do - or even get one to do it.

 

[Frank Shaves]

The etching looks terrific! Do you have any idea if Flitz or Mothers would have also worked, or is Never Dull a different type of product?

 

[fordex]

Never dull is a different type of product I think. I couldn’t find flitz up here. I’m in the frigid north.