Wade & Butcher 5/8 square point vintage

[q345]

Hi all,
I picked this razor 'blind', asking the owner of one of the online vintage razor shops to choose for me a reasonable first razor to learn straight razor shaving in the range of 30-40$.

Got shave ready W&D 5/8 square point (full hollow I think). It says 'SPECIAL' on the blade and Wade &Butcher Sheffild England on the tang, photo is attached. It was in 2016, 5 years ago. Then I put my plans to learn SR on hold and resumed it half a year ago, in March 2021 with different razors. Since then I shave daily with SRs and manage to have very good nick and irritation free shaves. Yesteday I found this razor, which I didn't touch for 5 years and, out of curiosity, decided to try it.
Stropped 20 canvas 60 leather and got absolutely amazing smooth shave which rivals my more expensive new Boker and Ralf Aust.

Did I really got lucky and hit, accidentally, an exceptional razor, which should have cost me few times more or the sad truth is that a 'reasonable' vintage razor, honed / stropped and used with 'reasonable' technique which can be bought for 30-40$ can provide a nearly perfect shave and anything else beyond this price point is marginal improvements and fancy things like scales/artwork?
Photo is attached.I have no idea what kind of scales it has, looks like thin plastic.
I saw similar W&D razors on the web going for as much as 200$, but I has no idea about their conditions.

 

[totorlekiller]

If you are willing to do the clean-up yourself and can hone a razor, it is easy to find good 5/8 razors in the $20 range.
No matter how much you value your time, you got a good deal as getting to shiny takes time and so does honing.
It can be gratifying though to salvage something that look gone and make it into something beautiful that shaves perfectly.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

I think a lot of the W&Bs that are asking big money are older, near-wedge or wedges in the 7/8 or bigger size. Good vintage razors can definitely be had for $20-30, and frankly I've found more gems than duds, but a lot of that was blind luck. Two of my best shavers were under $20 and honed up quickly and easily; one of those I suspected would be pretty good, but the other I just bought because it had pretty scales.

On the other side of the coin, I had one that was cursed. Needed scales, when I went to rescale it I discovered the tang was bent. So I sanded out the scales so it would center. Went to hone it and discovered that it had major geometry issues, probably warped from tip to tail. Wouldn't take a bevel at all. You win some, you lose some. And a lot in between.