Thread: William Rodgers I Cut My Way

This is one of the four razors I got in the job lot of Sheffields with the F. Fenney and Ford & Medley I've recently posted about. Other than the F. Fenney, which is the razor I bought the bunch to get, they were all in a condition that I would normally avoid like the plague. But since I have them, I'm going to restore them all.

As you can see from the 'before' pictures, it came with heavy rust, pitting and horn scales broken in half (that someone had glued together). Now it's cleaned up, with new horn scales and a bone wedge. I'm not entirely happy with the scales (I cut and re-shaped the ends to fit the blade) so I might replace in the future. It took two goes to hone (the first time it shaved great, apart from the smiling tip, which made the under-nose area troublesome). Another go and it now shaves wonderfully along the entire blade. It may not be the prettiest razor, but it really is my new favourite shaver.

I removed as much of the pitting as possible, but was starting to lose the engraving on the blade, so there's still a fair bit (although it looks better in the flesh than in the pictures).

I believe it dates to around 1840/1850. Engraving on the blade reads:

Established 1830
I Cut My Way
William Rodgers,
Sheffield Cutlery

That’s a serious improvement.
Glad it shaves well.

I have never seen one of his razors, but I do have a couple of his pocket knives and they are great. Nice job on the restoration!