Joseph Smith & Sons FBU

[karlej]

A 7/8+ Joseph Smith and Sons near wedge with dreadnaught point. Joseph Smith was granted his freedom in 1810 along with his trade mark '3415' the same year. He first appeared in the Sheffield directories in 1833 and & Son was added in 1852. He died in 1857 and his son John died in 1868. John's wife continued to run the business. The trade mark and name were sold to John Allen in 1878. The razor is restored to its original finish. Glazed blade faces and crocus finished spine and tang. For Barbers Use is etched on the show face arris spine The razor retains the original restored scales and lead wedge.

[petercp4e]

Beautiful restoration on a very cool razor.

Pete <:-}

[lightcs1776]

Wow! Just Wow.

[Voidmonster]

That whole ‘number as a mark’ thing was in response to how out of control the naming had become in the late 1700’s. For a while, all the marks granted were numbers.

(Joseph Hives was granted the mark 2642. SO MEMORABLE! So memorable, I’ve never seen a razor with his number on it.)

As near as I can tell, Joseph Smith & Sons were the only ones to proudly keep using it!

Also, that’s a lovely restore on a really neat and rarely seen style!

[Gasman]

Another top notch job Karl. I love the shape.

[MikeT]

Beautiful work!
That razor is awesome, really deserved the quality restore.