Thread: Aussie Wostenholm

Originally Posted by baldy

Thanks guys, and thanks Mick, thats a LOT more than I knew about them.
Grant

There is more information there, but that's the more interesting stuff that I've found. Incidentally the original location of the Toowoomba store would not have been affected by the recent floods. It would have been a close thing though.


Mick

Reallllly nice save Grant & well done on the research Mick

Originally Posted by baldy

This is another razor I hand sanded while I was away from home last year.
An 11/16 Wosty with the blade etched "Made Expressly for John McKinney Toowoomba". Apparently the company is still in business, unfortunately Toowoomba has been devastated by floods this week (as has most of the state of Queensland Australia).
The blade had some active rust, but cleaned up pretty well eventually. still a little pitting, but I didnt want to loose the etch. The original Bakelite scales were given a light sand and buffed. It got a new Ivory acrylic wedge and Nickel Silver pins and s/steel washers.
I'm looking forward to getting this one honed and in the rotation, my first Wostenholm.

greAT job on the restoration baldy! i like how you left the minor pitting on the blade, it looks cool! what did you grade of sandpaper did you use on the scales? i think overall, your project turned out great!

I'm impressed with your work! Everything just fits the way it is supposed to from the blade finish to the pinning to the wedge. Fantastic!

Great job man, you nailed this one good.

Exquisite Grant. Another razor saved too

I had a chat to John McKinney today, the grandson of the John McKinney on the razor.

The original John McKinney arrived from the boat from Ireland and hopped on a train to look for work on the railways in Stanthorpe. Whilst on a stopover in Toowoomba John had a look around town and saw an empty shopfront and enquired about the lease and decided to set up shop as a barber.

The family are pretty certain that the first head of hair he ever cut was the first person who walked into the shop. Pretty soon he was successful and had 5 chairs working.

In those days Toowoomba was a gateway town providing services to isolated communities in the hinterland so John McKinney started stocking razors, pocketknives, shears and scissors and selling them to the countryfolk who'd only come in once every few months. What John did was a but cunning though, he got his name engraved on the stock he sold.

As time went by John McKinney started stocking fine cutlery and this slid into jewellery and other homewares.

The present John McKinney remembers his father was a cut throat shaver all his life. Not so much for shaving with the razor but the black leather strop that usually hung off the towel rack in the bathroom and only came off the towel rack if he played up too much.

McKinneys bought Hardy Brothers off Christopher Skase when Skasey was having his firesale. They saw the writing on the wall with young people not wanting to pay the price for good quality silverware so sold out and are now a very good jewellery store.

John said he has had a number of the old John McKinney razors, but I don't think any would be in any where near the condition of Baldy's.

Wow, thats cool. Thank you for finding all that out, and for sharing with us.
I just had my first shave with it 15 minutes ago. A SWEET shaver it is too.
Grant

Whoa!!! Great save. That's a lot of sanding by hand. It looks amazing.
~S