Thread: Joh Engstrom 1874 swayback Ran-tan-Ka-rus Red Devil in Red Narra

I picked this razor up on ebay some time ago. It was ugly, completely black. I almost passed but figured what the heck, I don’t have any Swedish steel so I got cheep. It has been sitting in my project box for months. I was rooting around working on a few of my own blades when I pulled this nasty blade out. I decided to see what I had to work with so I took it to the garage to buff off some of the black nasty crud. I put my chromium oxide wheel on the buffer and went to work. A few moments later I looked at the blade and thought to myself ‘I’ll be, that is cleaning up’. So I scraped down the wheel to remove the crud, pasted the wheel and went back at it. then I thought ‘hay, this is cleaning up real nice’. So I scraped down the wheel again to clean off the crud, pasted and went to town one last time on the CO. A half hour later I went to some white rogue and then mass on the big wheel. WOW! I think the black was lacquered oil put on the blade to protect it, under that crud was a perfect blade that has not seen a hone more than twice, if that. It quite literally looks new, no sanding required.

It is a Joh.Engstrom but the tang is stamped 1874, could this really be a 134 year old blade, or is that just a model number? That old I would expect a wedge, they were not making hollow ground blades back then so it could not be. Then I looked at the blade a little closer, it is not hollow ground but quarter or half hollow, so it could be. Anyone have any information on this blade?

At any rate, I decided to put it in some figured bees-wing red Narra, I am really liking this wood. The swayback almost matches the curvature of the scales. I was quite surprised and pleased with how this guy turned out. I still need to hone it and am looking forward to giving it a shave test. It will defiantly be a keeper and go in the display case.