Wade & Butcher - returning!
- Thread starter Darkbulb
- Start Date
Blimey, so much jibber jabber about a name and chunk of metal.
In my opinion, what sets vintage manufacturers apart from todays artisans is the grind.
Back in the 'olden days' a fella would spend his working life grinding razors, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day...year after year. Hundreds of thousands of razors.
These guys jumping on the Custom, Artisan, call it what you will razor train have not a hope in hell of coming close to what they could churn out. They do not have the experience.
I have only had one modern razor that shaves like a vintage razor and that's from Revisor.
Crack on Mike, good luck, but you will never do the Wade & Butcher name justice.
In my opinion, what sets vintage manufacturers apart from todays artisans is the grind.
Back in the 'olden days' a fella would spend his working life grinding razors, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day...year after year. Hundreds of thousands of razors.
These guys jumping on the Custom, Artisan, call it what you will razor train have not a hope in hell of coming close to what they could churn out. They do not have the experience.
I have only had one modern razor that shaves like a vintage razor and that's from Revisor.
Crack on Mike, good luck, but you will never do the Wade & Butcher name justice.
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All has gone very quiet on this endeavour, but it seems things are progressing, albeit there aren't any pictures etc to report @pugh-the-special-one posted on FB asking for an update on the 16th April and the below was received;
Wade & Butcher Hi - yes of course! Our apologies for the silence of late, but the intention is to provide updates of substance. For now just know that things are moving well, and quality updates will be provided as and when ready. Thanks Gents.
@MichaelC do you have any more news for us?
Wade & Butcher Hi - yes of course! Our apologies for the silence of late, but the intention is to provide updates of substance. For now just know that things are moving well, and quality updates will be provided as and when ready. Thanks Gents.
@MichaelC do you have any more news for us?
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- 59
The way I see it, you can make billtong in Sheffield. You can even have legitimate SA branding by going into business with the owner of a well loved and respected SA billtong brand. But it's still Sheffield billtong with an SA brand name on it. Different ingredients, different people making the product.
I appreciate what @MichaelC is trying to do here - it would be nice to have a revived w&b like the 8/8 mentioned above, but, and it's only my own personal view, I can't consider it a W&B blade - the company that once was making these blades is no more than a name now. The products I love, were made a long time ago and have not been made for decades - nobody passed on any trade secret, nobody shadowed experienced w&b workers, learnt the machines, the behaviour of the metals and I'm sure there is more that I can't think of but the fact remains that none of that "passing the baton" type stuff happened. Passing the name on is pure business.
I would have personally preferred this new SA brand create some new blades of their own design, set a name up for themselves and then maybe at a later date, once a name has been established, take on reproducing some old w&b designs, should the quality be sufficient enough to represent such a well loved brand. Coming into any industry as a newbie and claiming to reproduce a 100 year old piece of kit that has set a high a standard across the industry is... arrogant/cocky/brave - pick your adjective. I mean I'm sure I read that these blades will be better quality. That's a massive statement for a new guy. I hope they are better - that would be awesome
But then again, it's not my business. I don't make the decisions. And if it all goes pete tong, who knows, maybe the price of legit w&b's will drop and I can grow my collection a little more
I appreciate what @MichaelC is trying to do here - it would be nice to have a revived w&b like the 8/8 mentioned above, but, and it's only my own personal view, I can't consider it a W&B blade - the company that once was making these blades is no more than a name now. The products I love, were made a long time ago and have not been made for decades - nobody passed on any trade secret, nobody shadowed experienced w&b workers, learnt the machines, the behaviour of the metals and I'm sure there is more that I can't think of but the fact remains that none of that "passing the baton" type stuff happened. Passing the name on is pure business.
I would have personally preferred this new SA brand create some new blades of their own design, set a name up for themselves and then maybe at a later date, once a name has been established, take on reproducing some old w&b designs, should the quality be sufficient enough to represent such a well loved brand. Coming into any industry as a newbie and claiming to reproduce a 100 year old piece of kit that has set a high a standard across the industry is... arrogant/cocky/brave - pick your adjective. I mean I'm sure I read that these blades will be better quality. That's a massive statement for a new guy. I hope they are better - that would be awesome
But then again, it's not my business. I don't make the decisions. And if it all goes pete tong, who knows, maybe the price of legit w&b's will drop and I can grow my collection a little more
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OK so we shouldn't get too excited about this, granted it is an eye catcher with the great name he is using, will have to wait and see about this copy he has.Believe it or not...but the old Wade & Butcher company is returning to market.
Starting next year they will be back at doing what they did so well in the past - making straight razors - and they will still operate out of Sheffield!
Their tweet 3-4 weeks ago has been 'confirmed' on a number of sites (now even on their home page) as real and it seems like a much loved brand will be making a return in 2017
UPDATE:
Meh. Not made in Sheffield. Not even made on the same continent. No ties to the old manufacturing apart from owning the name.
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