Thread: Marshes & Shepherd tapered

Originally Posted by Hthomas

What's a tapered blade ?

If you follow the ebay link you will see the razor in the sale has a blade that tapers down at the toe, it was made that way not worn that way.
P.S.
Jimmy is faster.

Originally Posted by Hacker7

Hey rezDog, if you want in the future you can ship to me and I will send them your way for cost. Just putting it out there.

Thanks for the offer, it is too much handling and messing around.

Originally Posted by Hacker7

I bought that razor and 4 others. I got the Wostenholm & sons, the older Wostenholm, The Wade & Butcher and the Frederick Reynolds. I thought they were great finds. Let me know what you think. Can't wait to see them. I wonder if the numbers on the scales are carved in.

Congrats, hope it's a good shaver, shoot me a pm when you get tired of it

Originally Posted by jfk742

Congrats, hope it's a good shaver, shoot me a pm when you get tired of it

Thank you. If I do part with it I will put it up here first.

Originally Posted by Hacker7

I wonder if the numbers on the scales are carved in.

At least on the couple Lummus razors I have, the numbers / dots were carved in and then painted.

I only have a single Lummus, and Yes, they are carved in and painted. Personally, I was not very impressed with those razors. I think I put in a single bid on one of them? Just not enough to make me want to break my promise not to buy any more razors until Sept.

Well if you bought one now you could not buy until October. I received them today and the numbers and dots are indeed carved in. I wonder what was going through his mind. I don't think I could do that. They are in not so great shape considering they were part of his collection albeit some 90 years ago or so. I purchased 7 razors (RAD got the best of me) some seem to have been a not so great attempt at a regrind. The one in the best shape was the old Wostenholm stub tail. I will try and post some pictures tomorrow.

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

At least on the couple Lummus razors I have, the numbers / dots were carved in and then painted.

Did you do anything to those razors or just left them as is?

I bought a couple of the razors from that seller. Interesting enough, he only lives about 5 miles from me, so I did local pickup this afternoon. The numbers are etched or carved in. The dots are drilled. The razors are not in very good condition. But, I bought a couple of the cheapos. From what I could see, none of the razors were in great condition. The draw for me was that they were in his collection. The fact that the scales are etched and drilled I didn't want to spend $50+ on them. Don't know if that makes sense. That's just me. My two have some light rust on the blades which I will remove, but wont do much else. I'll do some very light cleaning of the scales, but don't want to mess up the etching or drill holes.

From what I can see, just my opinion, I don't think he was into restoration, just collecting and cataloging. And I don't think he much cared about condition, just here's an example of X, here's an example of Y. Not here's a beautiful example of X and here's a beautiful example of Y. But who really knows? It may be that his premium condition razors got kept and put in special private collections or museums. The ones that were for sale were the culls of the collection. OF COURSE, this is pure speculation on my part and I probably shouldn't be expressing an opinion when I'm really ignorant on the subject.

The seller bought about 20 of them in a lot of some online auction in NY. He's not really a hardcore collector/hobbyist from what he told me. Keep an eye out he's going to list some more razors and relist the ones that didn't sell.

57vert I think your speculation is on the money. I know some of Lummus's collection went to a museum in Mass. The ebay seller bought a lot of 20 from the Robert Doyle auction who bought most of the Lummus collection. From what I gather Lummus had a severe case case of RAD. I will also remove the rust and buff up but will leave in the condition received. I think that these razors are a bit special in that they were owned by these 2 men who were such authorities on straight razors. They are refered to all the time in our group. Since the passion for things from the past and history fuels alot of the reason we collect these razors. Money comes and money goes no matter how we use it. I think these razors are special and for me I'm proud to own them. they say the best time to buy something is when you can. I paid a bit to much for some of these but for what they bring to me on a personal level was money well spent.