Thread: Gilchrist. Not the composer; his dad. Not the painter; his granddad.

This club has been a long time coming for me. William Gilchrist has been my favorite hobbyhorse for about 4 years now, and I've amassed... A few of his razors.

A detailed history will have to wait for another time. It's long, very interesting, and deep.

Suffice to say William Wallace Gilchrist was a British citizen living in America who imported fancy goods before the Civil War, and may have made some of this own before burning down the barn where he worked.

In the beginning, there was the Ramapo Razor Company out of Ramapo, NJ. Gilchrist had a workshop there, near the river, where he manufactured steel pen nibs. In February of 1853, his barn burned down. Later that year, he won an award for his razors.

Razors like this:







This is, hands down, my favorite razor design to shave with, and this razor shaves wonderfully. I've never seen a Sheffield razor with that exact blade design, and there are almost no Sheffield razors that I haven't seen more than one example of.

Note that it has a model number No. 56.

Now comes one of the great questions. Did the Ramapo Razor company really come first?