Thread: F. Herder 7 razor set

A little gift for myself after working on these and being good all year!

First, a bit of history...
F.Herder was founded in 1727 and established the Ace of Spades mark (oldest in Solingen) at that time.
The firm was passed along in the family for the duration until it's insolvency in 1993 whereupon the name became a GMBH and it's products were made in Malaysia.

The years during WWII found the company firmly under control of the Nazis, as was all of German industry. I am unsure if the factory escaped bombing, but the administration building did and still exists being used by the local historical entity. I have read where there was records left there up until 1942 with a circumference of 130 meters, some of which has been saved and documented.

Also remaining after the end was a great deal of pre-WWII finished/unfinished knife and razor blades and blanks and display materials.
These seemingly fell into the hands of Smoky Mountain Knife works in Tennessee who has sold off and displayed it in their store for decades.
This stuff seems to be coming to the fore as many are handling the knives for sale as well as the razors.

In the razors we now see lots of NOS #49,76, and 25 blades and razors with contemporary bone scales for sale.

Having bought some, I learned there was a few display boards from the factory in existence. I managed to acquire 11 of 14 razors from such a board and some of the bone scales being fitted to the NOS blades.
The display razors had hard rubber scales with exception of one in bone. Having been hung by strings for 90 or so years, a reaction on the tangs was taking place. Some tang corrosion had to be sanded out of all but the bone-scaled one. Of the 4 missing at top, I bought 3 and passed on the 2 13/16 ones.
Sadly, I could not afford the monster #28.




Anyhoo, I decided to make a 7 razor set of the 7 notched and Spanish-point blades in my purchase.
I used the identical dyed black bone scales and custom-tapered the spacers on each to put some bow into the scales and have them sit identically as closely as possible and installed brass spacers using the absolute last of Serje's solid nickel big's and little's (no longer will be made) to pin them extremely tight.
None have evidence of the wedge from the end and the big, thin #30 has no wedge at all, but tapered scales to keep it from poking out the bottom.....



So here we have #'s 16, 17, 19, 20, 24, 29, and 30.
All are 7/8 at least in overall width except the 29 and 30 which measure 1 1/16 in the same manner.


Some better pics...



To wrap this up, I needed a box. Perused all sorts of boxes on Fleabay.....Meh. I wanted something travel-worthy. Tough, fully suspending the razors inside.
Looked up and saw this 'Vaultz' cd box on my desk. Totally overdone....Searched that and looky here...Perfect size!

So some wrench organizers just at the big collars, some fabric-covered pipe insulation pads at the ends, top and bottom center to give a light squish.
I think everything could survive a tumble!

Some dessicant and a VCI emitter in the top netting and topped off with a bitchin' Ace of Spades belt buckle with the mess ground off the back firmly adhered to the top. All have been honed (super-easy!). Time to take it home!
My thanks to Rezdog for the consultation and VCI emitters!



Merry Christmas to ME!

Stellar looking set Tom. Those 1 1/16 blades must be super close to coming out the bottom. I think there is evidence of some serious time spent fiddling with those.

wow...just..wow...beautiful!

Holy crap that’s an amazing set of razors and a beauty box to keep them in.

Super cool, Tom.!

Gotta case like that...don't know what I did with it.

Wow oh Wow!

That's some of the best work I've ever seen. Fantastic, or whatever word is better than fantastic.

Originally Posted by RezDog

Stellar looking set Tom. Those 1 1/16 blades must be super close to coming out the bottom. I think there is evidence of some serious time spent fiddling with those.

Thanks Guys!

Rez, This is true. I clamped a big bastard file to the bench and took the scale-side which had the wedge adhered to it and worked it at an angle for a bit.
Test-fit, do it again. Lots of nutsy-boltsy and filing to get them sitting close in the scales.

The lower 5 numbers all seemed to be the same blanks and all were thinly-ground, but some were thinner than others.
Same with the two larger ones, pretty easy on the 29, but the 30 took all the wedge out and into the scale before it would stay in.
Remarkably, the 30 at top and the 16 at bottom seemed the thinnest.
It will be cool to see the differences in how they all shave!

Wow beautiful set! That's one of those sets that one can only hope to have at some point.
Love the case! I'm big on cool cases!

Originally Posted by MikeT

Wow beautiful set! That's one of those sets that one can only hope to have at some point.
Love the case! I'm big on cool cases!

Yes, Mike, as I stumbled upon the opportunity I just had to. Brand-new blades and never used. TBH, I have never even seen anything like them.
Won't happen again, I figured. Just had to do it.......