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My First Vintage SR - by George Buttler & Co

it will be interesting to see what your perception of this one is. sharpness types and evaluations aside......antiques feel smooth and comfy to me, but maybe I'm just biased.

either way hope you enjoy it!!!!

camo
 
Probably hijacking the thread a bit here, but glad you found some joy on Aussie Ebay. I check it regularly for straight razors and they all seem to be really expensive for what you get. A lot are rusty and chipped and still have starting prices well over $50 AUS. I did buy a couple of really nice razors last year at a good price but they seem to have dried up lately. Have much more fun looking at the French Ebay site - lots and lots of razors there, many for less than 10 Euros.
cheers
Andrew
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
The Butler left Brisbane last night. If all goes as expected, I should have it Tuesday.
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I hope the Butler needs some hone work before it will shave, otherwise it my upset the courting of my Revisor this week.
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I made this knife handle from a warthog tusk. Beautiful colors and it polished to a glassy shine. Plenty tusks available in South Africa, problem is to get them here in the UK. It’s not about the ivory, the concerns are about possible disease transfer to local stock.

BTW nasty material to work with. It stinks when you grind away on it!

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rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
I made this knife handle from a warthog tusk. Beautiful colors and it polished to a glassy shine. Plenty tusks available on South Africa, problem is to get them here in the UK. It’s not about the ivory, the concerns are about possible diseases.

....
No problem with getting tusks from Africa into Australia, provided they are put through a high-temperature incinerator by Australia Quarantine before they release them.
 
No problem with getting tusks from Africa into Australia, provided they are put through a high-temperature incinerator by Australia Quarantine before they release them.
Yeah been to Australia and New Zealand, paranoid, with good reason, they even check the soles of your shoes for soil.

I bought two bottle openers made from these tusks in South Africa at a curio shop, very cheap, so I could chance them getting taken away at customs. In the UK I would have pleaded the stupid tourist excuse, expecting a warning at worst.

Got away with it, but in Australia, you can expect a heavy fine if caught.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
My George Butler is now at the local PO ready for me to pick up. I will try and get time to go into town this morning and post pictures later.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Based on the spine wear, I would say that this George Butler "Shakespeare" straight razor has not seen a lot of use over the past 150 years. A sharpie test shows that it has been properly honed.

The edge passes a TTT at about 5mm to 6mm from toe to about mid-length, after which it drops off towards the heel. I will give it a full diamond pasted balsa strop progression before shaving with it.

The ivory scales are very thin and care must be taken when closing the razor not to bend the scales or the toe will catch.

With such thin scales, I thought that the balance point when opened 180° would be well away from the pivot pin. The wedge may be of lead as the razor balances within about 4mm or 5mm from the pivot pin towards the blade. That is what I am use to.

The razor weighs in with a mass of 47g. This is one of my lightest SR's. That is probably attributed to it being a full hollow.
 
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I have it!

The caseappears to be original, although someone has attempted some restoration on it.
The blade is 5/8 Dutch (round) point, full-hollow grinder, single stabiliser, jumps top and bottom. The scales are definitely true ivory.
looks like from seller pics and your pics that the spine is still pretty crisp with no telltale flattened spots from a lot of honing. hope she shaves well for you!!!!!

camo
 

Legion

Staff member
So, from the box it looks like it was once half of a matched pair. The box was probably leather covered.

Nice razor.
 
Your pics are better and it seems like a very nice razor. The fact that the scales are ivory makes them very special. I would be careful placing them in your de-humidifier box. Don't know if the ivory will dry out and become brittle.

Lead was a common wedge material, I have had a few with lead wedges.

The box - may have been a transplant in some part, or an attempt at a restore. Wonder if the previous owner did not take the Satin/silk from the original box and glued it to the present box?

Here is the box mine came in and it looks original to me.

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rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
When examining this blade today in good light, I noticed that is has a slight belling in the full-hollow grinde on each side.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
This morning I had my first shave with the George Butler "Shakespeare".

Since receiving this SR, I put it through a full diamond pasted balsa stop progression. This improved the edge's performance in the TTT.

My shave this morning was my normal preparation and using an Arko stick. This SR is my lightest (in mass) of any of my SR's coming in at about 47g. This lack of mass was definitely noticeable during the shave.

The GB was VERY comfortable to shave with. The only downside was the shave result. Where I expect a DFS+ result with two passes (WTG & XTG), I only got a CCS result. My fool's pass showed me that this blade's edge needs some more work to get it up to my shave-ready standard.

When I have time over the next few days. I will give the GB's edge some more love to see if I can better dial it in.
 
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