7 Attachment(s)
N. Gervais Jules Gervais successeur Anvers 17/16 back in service
This blade came my way from the local Dutch bay this week.
A 17/16 Nicolas Gervais razor from Antwerp.
It's practically an identical razor to the one that was elaborately discussed by Tom and Neil here. (Only that one looks better).
Here is the blade as it arrived with box:
And close-ups of both tang stamps:
I decided to go easy on this one, as I too have been guilty of trying to over-restore a blade with sandpaper and lose the lines on the razor. I used MicroMesh cloths and promised myself I wouldn't go beyond the 2400 grit. That's where i ended up and worked my way up to the 12000 grit cloth. Scales received a fairly rapid Neatsfoot oil treatment and were polished to the same 12000 grit MM cloth. There are still a few spots and perhaps if I find the time at some point in the future, I'll sit down again, but for now I just wanted to shave with this beauty. So, heavy slurry Coticule a couple of times, followed by lighter slurry and X strokes, followed by slurry on my unknown Asagi stone a few times, finished with only water on the Asagi and about fifty odd laps on the Scrupleworks Swedish bridle strop.
Here's what came out of it:
I don't need a blade of this age to be shiny and perfect and am pretty glad with the way it turned out. As expected, the shave was excellent.
Re-reading that older thread, I'd go with the explanation that 41 is probably the model number and 3/4 the indicator for the grind.
Interestingly, the street mentioned on my box is not similar to the Marche au lait, that was mentioned in that thread. My box indicates that they are on "Courte Porte Vaches 15".
A quick check on-line showed me that there was a "Rue de Porte aux Vaches" in the 1800's in Antwerp. My good guess is that the "Courte" was the square or court where the cows (vaches) were gathered after having been shipped. My great-grandfather had a boat-transportation company and he would also ship cattle from farmers to the "big city" to be slaughtered. I can't find the street name in current Antwerp, so with the advent of motorised lorries and trucks, I guess the need for boat transported cattle ceased to exist and thus with the expansion of Antwerp, this street and square became obsolete and got renamed, or disappeared all together. Just my theory of course. :)
All in all a very nice blade that made a big impression on me.
