The Odd Rodgers - back in circulation!

I posted this razor a few weeks back due to a couple of anomolies in the grind and dating.

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http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...en-please.html

I have since finished work on it and am happy to report it's a great shave:D

First, in respect to dating, the "England" tang stamp wasn't visibile until I dissassembled the razor so that solves why the razor looked much newer than (I thought) the stamping originally suggested. Therefore I'm assuming the "His Majesty" stamp refers to Edward VII so puts this razor at 1902 - 1910 which makes sense in terms os the razor's style and original scale material (slick-black).

Since this was relatively modern and a bit of an oddity I decided to give it a jazzier set of scales and sourced some figured water buffalo horn. I made a template based on the original scales, as the blade is quite large I decided to exagerate the size further by slimming the scales down as far as I sensibly could. The scales were cut from pre-thicknesed blanks with a fret saw, rough shaped on a drum sander then finished with fine files.
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The blade itself was cleaned up with the usual progression of wet'n'dry, starting at 120 up thru' 2500 grit and finishing with on a buff. As is my wont some of the deeper marks were left to retain a feel of age.

Honing was a bit of a nightmare - the blade didn't appear to have been near a hone prior to coming into my possession. The uneveness of the grind and taper on the blade made getting an even bevel and shoulder grind difficult. In the end it doesn't look brilliant but the shave is great so I'm not going to worry too much about the aesthetics. The blade chipped several times during honing and I went back to the 1000 grit three times before acheiving a good edge (probably took nearly four hours of honing to get a good edge). Hopefully whatever issues were there have now been honed away never to return!
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The scales were then sanded through to 2500 grit, and a wedge roughed out from camel bone ready for assembly.
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The razor pivot hole is quite large allowing a 3/32" rivet to be used - I felt the oversize rivet would further exagerate the slimness of the scales.
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After assembly the wedge was shaped to the scales followed by a final touch up on the buff and I have to say I'm very pleased with the final look, while the scales look brown under light the have very subtle blue/grey/black tones in normal lighting. The Odd Rodgers has now been put in my Wednesday slot and is likely to stay there for some time!
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Beautiful job. I've always suspected that the particular "Made In England" stamp, on those Rodgers that have it, (the crescent) was done on blades made right after the treaty that requited country of origin went into effect. I don't know if that is correct but that is what I surmise. Later , of course, the stamping was under the rest of the text. I am thinking that they had the stamped blanks at the time of the treaty, 1889 IIRC, and they added the country of origin stamping as your blade has it. I could be mistaken though, just a suspicion.

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Beautiful job. I've always suspected that the particular "Made In England" stamp, on those Rodgers that have it, (the crescent) was done on blades made right after the treaty that requited country of origin went into effect. I don't know if that is correct but that is what I surmise. Later , of course, the stamping was under the rest of the text. I am thinking that they had the stamped blanks at the time of the treaty, 1889 IIRC, and they added the country of origin stamping as your blade has it. I could be mistaken though, just a suspicion.

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The "Made In England" crescent stamp has definitely been made by a different stamp from the rest of the text, so you may be onto something. I'd prevously read that this marking was added post 1891 but I'm not sure if this is accurate (could this be when this marking was integrated with the rest of the text???).
However I'm not sure how this tallies with the "His Majesty" which I assumed to be Edward VII (crowned 1902)but on reflection may well be George V (crowned1911):shrug:. The style of the razor precludes it (I think) for any other of the royal warrants granted to Rodgers.

Thats some fine work there. Great job bring a nice old razor back to glory:)

I subsequently remembered that I still have one with the crescent 'England' behind the regular stamping. Mine says "Cutlers To Their Majesties" whatever that adds to the equation. :thinking:

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I subsequently remembered that I still have one with the crescent 'England' behind the regular stamping. Mine says "Cutlers To Their Majesties" whatever that adds to the equation. :thinking:

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I have one with "Cutlers To Their Majesties" as well.

Not managed to get an edge on it :( but I love it none the less

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I subsequently remembered that I still have one with the crescent 'England' behind the regular stamping. Mine says "Cutlers To Their Majesties" whatever that adds to the equation. :thinking:

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I guess that potentially ties in - I believe "Cutlers To Their Majesties" can only refer to Victoria & Albert. Albert died in 1861 but I don't know if Rodgers subsequently changed the "Their" to "Her":shrug:Victoria reigned up to 1901.

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I have one with "Cutlers To Their Majesties" as well.

Not managed to get an edge on it :( but I love it none the less

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Get it sharpened - if it's anything like mine it should be an awesome shave, I rate it very highly:rock: