Seldom seen Mottram & Sons

I only found one reference to this maker in the archives. Thomas Mottram (c. 1772 - 1846) This firm was merchant and manufacturers of cutlery, edged tools and steel. It was listed in Eyre Lane between 1839 and 1849. The originator of the business was Thomas Mottram who apparently operated from Eyre Lane in the 1820's. The 1822 directory listed Mottram & Greaves, merchants, Eyre Lane. Thomas had two sons, Matthew and Henry. Thomas Mottram died 5 Oct. 1846 at the age of 74. By 1846 other partners had joined Matthew and Henry. They included George Smith Jr., Henry Simpson, and William Taylor. Smith withdrew in 1847. By 1852 the firm had been renamed Mottram, Taylor & Co. The company existed in various forms until it went bankrupt in 1868 and appears to have ceased trading in 1871. The corporate mark was 'MOTTRAM 1841'.

This 13/16 near wedge blade with a crocus type finish seems to have the characteristics of an 1840's razor including heavy top and bottom tang jimps. Pitting, although not apparent in the before pictures, was quite deep. The scales are honey horn with brass pins and collars. A handsome resurrection that shaves wonderfully. Sorry for the poor natural light pictures I was loosing daylight and it's snowing today.
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Are those the same scales?

Poslano z mojega SM-G870F z uporabo Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by caus24

Are those the same scales?

Poslano z mojega SM-G870F z uporabo Tapatalk

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The original honey horn scales were broken and delaminated so I replaced them.

A beauty for sure. Great job on the restore. I hope to have the tools and ability to do such a fine job some day. :bow

That's a rare find indeed. Of all the razor hunting that I have done over the years I can honestly say that I've never seen a razor by that maker.
As usual, a beautiful restoration too!

Pete <:-}

Nice work. That front scale has some deep streaking in it. I bet it is a real looker in hand. Some day...

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Originally Posted by RezDog

Nice work. That front scale has some deep streaking in it. I bet it is a real looker in hand. Some day...

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There is some brown color in the back scale too but not as much. They are from the same blank. The scales look much better in hand than in the pictures.

I have a hard time getting the beauty of horn to show up in my pictures. Perhaps if they were lit from underneath, on some fancy LED light box. I have more important restoration skills to work out before I concern myself too much with developing my photography.

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Originally Posted by RezDog

I have a hard time getting the beauty of horn to show up in my pictures. Perhaps if they were lit from underneath, on some fancy LED light box. I have more important restoration skills to work out before I concern myself too much with developing my photography.

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Keep going with your carving and no one will notice your photography!

Very nice restoration, scales looks great, that said the blade is way to shiny for my taste and a lot of the original blade definition is gone, certainly not the way it looked coming out of the factory. JMHO.

Some like them shiny. Some, notsomuch.
One thing is for certain, you have done a wonderful, shiny job, Karl!
Beautiful razor, that! The history is a pleasant bonus, as-always! :tu

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Originally Posted by Martin103

Very nice restoration, scales looks great, that said the blade is way to shiny for my taste and a lot of the original blade definition is gone, certainly not the way it looked coming out of the factory. JMHO.

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The blade was reground. All the profiles are nice and crisp and have been maintained. If you look close you can see the sharp line at the tang undercut and sharp lines where the shoulder meets the blade faces. The hone wear visible at the spine is now gone and there is a crisp edge where the blade face meets the spine. Here's a closer picture of the area many folks wipe out on a buffer. Just my poor photography. Sorry you don't care for the crocus finish. We all have different tastes. Hard to say what the original finish was since the blade was in such poor condition. The crocus finish is a lot more work than a glazed finish. I have original blades finished as such and some with the more common but lesser quality glazed finish.
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Being new to all of this i was thrown by his comment. But after some studying i think i see. The spine is not as much seen any longer? More blade face now? Like have the edge of the spine is missing. Thinking with a lot of hone ware this is just a nicer look. Just guessing. I wouldnt have picked up on that before. Not that it matters to me. I love shinny things! Its a beauty!

Beautiful, and I think we have the same stain on our back decks....send the razor here and I'll take a pic for comparison.

Very nicely done, and love the horn, it's one of my favorite handle materials providing you can keep the dermestid beetle larvae from eating holes in it. Keep it waxed and keep moth balls in the house generally does the trick. One thing to remember, it's hard to take good pics of a mirror finish, and from what I can see it looks like you pretty well kept the sharp corners and edges. That said, when I was first learning to mirror polish I would wipe out any transitions from over buffing. A mirror finish is also more corrosion resistant than a hand rubbed or scotch bright finish. Of course, in a working knife it'll show up the least little scratch or wear mark from use, but I'd hope a SR doesn't get the abuse a hunter does. In any event, it's a beauty and I'd be proud to have it for a shaver.