Thread: New York Scrimshaw Terrier

Happy New Year!

My last project of 2014 came about as a bit of a surprise to me. Somehow, the razors seem to dictate what I do next.
Bad newz....Perusing Fleabay! Saw an old bone scaled Garanti Solingen with an image scrimshawed that seems to have been the artist's village. Got infatuated with the little thing and wound up winning it for a sweet song! We all think of scrimshaw as having to do with ships, whales, etc. Here was one done by a landlubber in neat detail. I tried to think of the artist, where he/she was and what the buildings meant. I saw the seller was an antique dealer in Norwich, NY.
Off to the Google I go and realize it had to be a local piece in looking at old buildings there.
A plan formed and I messaged the seller. NICE person. Explained I loved it and wondered if she knew any history.
She explained that she bought it at a sale up in Chenango County a bit in the town of Sherbourne.
Annnnd off to Google Sherbourne and same thing. So many buildings resemble these.
Convinced it was a home-grown NY piece, I got all excited to substitute the junk blade with some local steel!
But what? Big quandary! I could go on over to Geneva, Elmira, Utica, Olean, Up to Waterville. Gee, Allegany, Cattaraugus, Ellicottville. the list goes on forever. Someday, I am going to get up there!
I finally dissuaded myself from unpinning a nice Korn or Geneva and dove into the pile.
Lo and behold, a Terrier Cutlery box was found with a decent blade inside. (forgot I had it! ) Terrier was a premium brand of Robison up in Rochester from only 1910-1916. Lots of knives survive and are very collectible, but decent razors are hard to find, I think.

Anyway, some light toothbrush, thinned out Simple Green, to gently clean and 3 rubs of Renwax later, I unpinned the old blade and pinned the Terrier (which was lightly polished and left alone) up using the original collars to the scales and an extra spacer on one side to make it center. Did some brown in the stamps, meh...The dog stands out better! The old razor is a bit rough, but honed up sweet and shaves very nicely. One of a kind, I suppose? I dig it, anyway.
Hope you guys get a chuckle!

Very nice,unique scales indeed! Kudos

Very interesting razor Tom, certainly one of a kind. When i looked at the scrimshaw it does have quite a resemblance to traditional Dutch settlers around Albany, New York, also seen on many of Grandma Moses paintings of rural life. Very interesting thanks for sharing!

Great choices ! It came together like it was supposed to be that way.

Lovely Tom.... you have the best razors!

That is GREAT!

Looks great and I love the scales a wonderful yet very original piece of American folk Art, you could actually part those scales and mount them in nice frame I would like to see them on display preferably on a wall in my home.

Very cool razor, the scales are in great nick saying it's about 100 years old. Very nice find

Nice call all the way around Tom. That is a real treat.

And the winner for the most original restore is................Sharptonn!