Thread: Sometimes a Gamble Pays

I don't mean to make anyone gnash their teeth over this - well - okay maybe a little...

I was wandering through the listings on ebay looking for blades that may have been listed generically (and missed by most) and came across an auction for what was listed as a "No Name" razor. It looked too heavy and balanced to be a Pakistani blade and I've not seen a Chinese blade that looked like it, so, I took a chance. Won it for less than $40 delivered and received yesterday.

Well after cleaning up the tang a bit and looking at it through a loupe it's actually a Southington Cutlery 15/16 from New England (late 1800s I think). A little rust that's easily cleaned up, a honing, and maybe new scales and this should come out pretty sweet for a bargain purchase! Almost no hone wear and the bevel is pretty small. I guess the seller didn't take the time to look it over very well and didn't look at the tang using a little magnification - or didn't care. Too bad - the manufacturer's name and mark was under just a little grime.

Here's pics from the auction. More to come after I can clean it up completely and maybe rescale it (scales are not likely original, they're too long). Looks to be dead-on straight so it should turn out to be a smooth shaver after honing. Not sure if I'll keep it or not but I'll decide after making it pretty again.

Very, very nice, I'm loving the big blades. Congrats!

Just had a very fine shave with my 9/8 W&B Chopper, with some awesome DR Harris Arlington shaving soap, followed by the alum block and some Pinaud AS...the big old blades are in a world on their own.

Can't wait to see that one cleaned up and shave tested!

Very nice! I had a gamble myself this week and won a nice clean Bismarck.

It's almost begging to have the blade mirror polished and a nice heavy set of angular horn scales with a silver spacer.

Nice gamble :<0)

Originally Posted by Iceni

Very nice! I had a gamble myself this week and won a nice clean Bismarck.

I was looking at a few of those! Glad to see you got one. I remember that post of your when it came in - very nice score!

Thanks all - now I have to put a little work into this to see how I can finish it. I'll try to grab a few pix of the manufacturer marks in case I wind up sanding them away!

Great looking razor! Early American razor as well, Southington Cutlery was founded in 1867 to about 1914, mostly employed Sheffielders in their early years, im sure it will turn out to be a very good shaver something like a Sheffield blade. Enjoy!

Great score! Gotta love those atypical search results! :-)