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I've had this one for awhile and finally decided to do something with it. No 'makers mark', just the Chinese symbols, but definitely a Sheffield blade. Hard to date this one but my guess would be latter half of the 19th century. Spectacular shaver...very smooth! Two-tone finish with Original scales...
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Great work!! I love the razor!
Would be great to find out what what the symbols meen.
The tail is interesting on that one, I don't recall seeing any like that? Whats the story?
Nice work, as always, btw.
Another very smart restore from Wolfpack34. Lovely, interesting razor.
It translates 'This belongs to JimmyHAD, please return if found' ...... the way I read it ...... :w
Here is a thread about Chinese characters on razors: http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...ese-razor.html
I think JimmyHAD replied exactly the same way in the older thread :)
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Originally Posted by Walterbowens
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Originally Posted by pixelfixed
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Originally Posted by jfk742
Thanks Guys! :chapeau ...Quote:
Originally Posted by wayne394
JFK742...Can't say much about the tail except that I really like it and this razor really fits nicely in the hand when shaving....and Pixel...I agree that it would be nice to know for sure what the letters represent. I did a little Chinese language research BUT no luck finding the right corresponding English words to the symbols. I did find out that the Chinese characters for "RAZOR" are any one of these as follows: 剃刀, 刮脸刀, 剃, 削.
Here's a close-up of the symbols. Maybe someone out there in razor-land can help... :rofl2: ... :shrug:
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And here are some before pics of the razor before I cleaned it up. No "Minimalist" restore on this one...
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+1 on the tail question...
I really like the 'washers,' the shape set flush in the scales!
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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD
:rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::roflmaoQuote:
Originally Posted by WW243
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Nice, 'non minimalist' restore, Mike! :tu If that is truly Chinese, someone will come along with a translation!
Old Chinese proverb ...... 'can't blame a guy for trying' .......... :pQuote:
Originally Posted by WW243
Nice restore on that one !
:rofl2: .... Thanks Tom! ;) ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by sharptonn
Nice restore.
If you search Chinese razor you will come up with a great explanation of the characters. I'm not literate enough to link it. Translates to something like 'Uniquely Suited'. I have 2 razors with those exact markings. Here is a picture of one. It has the same set of scales as yours with the diamond shaped escutcheons. The blade has the same style pointed tang but has a single shoulder where yours is a shoulderless grind. You have motived me to do something with this razor which has also been sitting in my restore box for some time. I can see what look like domed washers over the diamond escutcheons. Was there a reason for this? Am I in for any surprises when I unpin the razor?
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Hmmm:hmmm:
On a closer look the tang stamps are different but there sure are some commonalities between the two razors. Here is the other blade I have. A heavy wedge. A shoulderless grind like yours but with a thumb notch and upper and lower jimps.
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Spectacular restore Mike - breathtaking as usual!:)
The shape of the tang, the fact that it's a Sheffield blade, and the fact that Elliot also makes a Chinese razor (like many do), makes me think it might be an Elliot. Elliot has a "Damascus" razor with a very similar tang, with Hebrew on the blade face..i.e., another Sheffield razor with non-English character...maybe, but again, the tang makes me think Elliot.
edited at add: diamond shaped washers on that razor are stunning, don't think I've ever seen that before - smokin'!
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中国使用符号剃须刀
刀=Knife
须=Must
剃=shave
号=number
符=symbol
用=use
使=so
国=country
中in
中国=China
使用=make use of
符号= mark, sign, insignia ( trade mark?)
须刀=shaver (razor)
In China, make use of trademark razor??
~Richard
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Originally Posted by karlej
Hey Karl! Thanks for posting pics of your two 'Chinese' razors. Mine is a heck of a shaver so I definitely recommend at least honing up those two that you have. Interesting that both of your razors have different 'stamped characters' than mine yet also have no makers mark... :thinking: ...?Quote:
Originally Posted by karlej
The domed washers were just a choice based on the way they looked for me. I liked the contrast of the brass 'button look' on top of the silver escutcheon plates, and also the pin holes in the plates on the pivot were pretty much dented in and I wanted to cover that up. So...hopefully no surprises for you and you can go with a collarless pin if that's what you want.
Thanks Andrew! I love that Elliot of yours... and you're right the tail looks very similar. I would like to think that it could be an Elliot BUT like the two that Karl posted I'll never know for sure. It is a great vintage shaver though so it really doesn't matter I guess. I LOVE those shoulder-less blade profiles!Quote:
Originally Posted by Phrank
Thanks Richard!Quote:
Originally Posted by Geezer
Where is the 中国使用符号剃须刀 symbols from? The text on the blade is much shorter.
I pasted the text in translator and it came back "CHINA'S USE OF SYMBOLS SHAVER".
I may be able to get someone to really translate it for me later. If so, I'll post an update.
Most Chinese symbols are used as paired items defining themselves. Each symbol is telling a story from prehistorical original pictorial writing. And from the prsent many thousand characters, there was over 100K characters used by the previous scholarlies of the originalQuote:
Originally Posted by JP5
I used the same Google translator and translated the symbol pairs as you see. There are many possibilities generated. You see the ones which I chose as most pertinent to the razor. There could also be an another side bar which may have more character pairs available. Traditional and simplified Chinese are available also.
Have fun!
~Richard
PS. I am not Chinese but have spent time with Asians of Japanese and Chinese descent. Interesting people for sure!
PPS. I have been told that some of the symbolism on the razors was just window dressing. It would be nice to get a Chinese scholar to look and translate the lesser markings if possible.:thinking:
The text on the shank is JAPANESE, not Chinese. The first character means "East".
There's no difference other than pronunciation. Japanese kanji are Chinese characters.Quote:
Originally Posted by JP5
From what I was told that is that is not entirely true. Some of them do have different meanings.Quote:
Originally Posted by onimaru55
Also, they said part of the text was uniquely Japanese and that is why they knew it wasn't Chinese. So, it must not all be kanji.
Funny, so many razors from this era had 'Chinese' writing upon them. Have not seen a positive translation yet.
Lots of different dialects in China. Throw that in and the fact that almost every major maker in Sheffield threw them out there. Sort of like early (and late!) Chinese doing English!
They were selling! This one screams Heiffor. Lots of obscure makers did them as well. :confused:
The later Chinese have gotten pretty good at English. When people complain about the massive amounts of Chinese goods that we consume (including meat...arghh) I suggest that all imported goods have a label in the language where they were manufactured or more inclusively, where they came from. No more Sawmill Road flannel shirts made in China but 锯木厂路 Made in China. To be fair...this would, of course, apply to any US middleman of out of country products...Not isolationism, just a more global ;) approach.
I didn't mention this one before. When I asked what the shank of your razor said, they gave me the Chinese pronunciation (don't ask me) and said it was a company name. They also said the second character meant "Good".Quote:
Originally Posted by karlej
Wish I could give you more, but I'm not sure how well it translates all together. Perhaps to them the company name didn't have a good direct translation.
Funny that you mention it Tom...I have a few old Heiffor's and one of them is the exact same blade except for a more traditional tail.Quote:
Originally Posted by sharptonn
I have one very similar and it's a Joseph Elliot's. Can't catch it any better with my phone.
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Obviosly not the original scales. These are very ugly and will be changed someday.
I have that exact blade as well, most kindly gifted to me by awesome SRP member JBHoren...great straight razor!Quote:
Originally Posted by DNM
Very interesting razor for sure, and very nice work once again.
Thanks Martin...always nice to hear from you!Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin103
A little late on this thread but...
Very good work!
I've had one on my list but are hard to find.
The tail is beautiful, what is that tail style called?
Thanks Mike for the thumbs up! As far as the tail goes...I have no idea what this type of 'tail profile ' would be called???? I like it though! :DQuote:
Originally Posted by MikeT
It wasn't to do with razors specifically, but I remember reading or watching something once about 19th century british manufacturers and Chinese and Japanese characters.
Apparently there was a fascination with all things "eastern" back then, and manufacturers of all sorts of things would cash in on that by using symbols. I guess some took some effort, but others apparently simply copied characters off, for example, shipping containers.
So it is entirely possible that the chinese characters on your antique vase, razor, whatever, simply translate into "This Way Up"!!
lol!
James.
Lol! That just cracked me up! This whole time we thought that the Chinese characters were ancient secrets that if deciphered and understood could lead one to health, wealth, and enlightenment (in no specific order).Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimbo
How wrong we were! My interest in these blades is now gone. What a fool I was, tricked by marketing strategies over a century old! Damn.
:D
Perhaps it just says " Hone with tape".Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimbo
LOL! I'm sure that's it Martin! :pQuote:
Originally Posted by Martin103
I can believe it. I remember seeing one picture of a razor with "Chinese" writing that wasn't actually text. It didn't mean anything (according to the article I read) and looked like someone trying to make up symbols that looked Chinese.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimbo
EDIT:
I found a picture of it. It was on Strazors site.
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