Thread: 10/8 Marsden

DAMN!!!...just...DAMN!!!

Such an impressive restoration. Karl restored my very similar Marsden a year or so ago. It is an awesome razor to shave with.

That's just a beautiful old chopper, Karl-I really like the angular/squarish aspect to it in contrast to the usual rounded/curvy Sheffields. And I'm just in awe of your glazed surfaces!

Originally Posted by karlej

An 10/8 Marsden near wedge. Huge impressive blade. Restored in a glazed finish. The Magnum Bonum etch on the top of the arris spine is still visible. The tang has a rounded profile which I have seen on other Marsden blades. Dates likely to 1810's - 1820's. The original broken horn scales were repaired and re-dyed black. It appears a wire wrap was once used to hold the broken piece in place. Note the lead wedge/spacer. This razor used an unusual pinning system. A copper sleeve .095 diameter which served as the rivet/pin to assemble the razor. A small silver pin then passed through the copper sleeve and pinned small silver collars in place. Because of the size of the holes in the scales they had to be filled and re-drilled to provide backing for the replacement nickel silver collars.
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Oh, wow. That pin system is weird and cool!

I’ve got 3 razors that use it, but I’d never taken any of them apart.

Triangulating all the makers, it looks like the venn diagram places them around 1820.





The one in fancy pressed scales uses smaller washers and has been disassembled and lightly reground before I got it, but the other two are original, and all of them use silver washers, plus the pins are smaller than 1/16th and also silver (though the one that’s been repinned is using Ni/Cu at the pivot, presumably because whoever worked on it didn’t have any silver to replace it with).

Originally Posted by jfk742

Nicely executed.

I know there’s been a thread or two in the past about the line scribed on the hollows of some of the early to mid 1800’s blades, has anyone found an explanation for it?

Just a style thing, near as I can tell! It goes back to at least 1800 and as late as 1850’s.