Thread: Bengall's Band of Brothers

I too am a Bengallophile though I tend to sell the later ones and hot cakes isn't in it. I recently let a cast steel one go but only because i had an even earlier Luke Cadman one from about 1810 - it's on the front page of mw website. When I sell 'em I even put my catchphrase for them 'After all - it's a Bengall!' Gee I should be in advertising.....

I like the 6/8 plain blade ones best with plain black handles. Businesslike. No messing about. Gets yer face shaved, no fuss. Brilliant.

One of my top shavers.....
A 6/8 Bengall...

Interesting. Bengall seems to have been a valued name. This blade was made by Wald as seen on back of tang. It has NOT been rescaled.

I wonder if it could be like a Gotta, "finest Sheffield steel forged and real hollow ground in Germany?" But it doesn't say that. It says "Wald made in Solingen."

Did someone sort this out not too long ago?

Well, I guess I pulled the plug on this thread. I can only infer the once proud Bengall razor company had become a shell of its former self and left razor manufacturing to the more skilled German craftsmen.

Originally Posted by JACK FATE

Well, I guess I pulled the plug on this thread. I can only infer the once proud Bengall razor company had become a shell of its former self and left razor manufacturing to the more skilled German craftsmen.

I doubt that T.R.Cadman's officially permitted the use of the "Bengall" trademark on this one - Sheffield has long suffered from German trademark forgery. It reached epidemic proportions in the nineteenth century and trademark protection became something of an obsession for the Sheffield cutlery industry, perhaps sometimes foolishly so as it allowed itself to lose sight of the real reason for German success - cheap goods made possible by mechanisation and mass production techniques. As for more skilled craftsmen, it was Sheffield's reliance upon skilled craftsmen instead of machines which eventually caused the cutlery industry there to wither. At their best, Sheffield's hand made products were unsurpassed. That is why Germany copied their marks, after all.

The Cadman family were a farming family from Derbyshire, eventually settling in Eckington, a village to the south of Sheffield. In the eighteenth century the family became involved in the cutlery business. Luke Cadman (1727-1788) moved to Sheffield in 1740, becoming apprenticed into the cutlery trade. He became a freeman of the Cutlers' Company of Hallamsire (the trade guild of the Sheffield cutlery industry) in 1748 and was granted the trademark "BENGALL". Another branch of the family were also razorsmiths and had the trademark "SENEGALL".
Luke Cadman was married in 1753, to Nancy Matthews. They had several children and two of their sons joined the family business - Luke Jr. (1754-1816) and Peter (1764-1817).
The business was located initially on Fargate, then Surrey Street and Carver Street.
Peter Cadman was married in 1793 to Hannah Staniland. Their family was the line which ran the business during the nineteenth century. Peter and Hannah Cadman's second son, Alfred (born 1802), ran the business in the 1830s and 1840s, located at Broomhall Street, then at Monmouth Street.
Thomas Radley Cadman (1833-1917) took over the business in the early 1870s, which by then was located in St. Mary's Road. By the outbreak of the Great War, T.R.Cadman's great grandson, Edwin Cadman, was in charge.
By 1933, the company had diversified from its traditional open razors into safety razors and pocket knives. In 1938 the business moved again, to Matilda Lane.
The company ceased trading in 1965.

Those are really great post Yorkshireman! Sometimes we get so busy with the eye candy that we forget that the information found in the clubs is just as important to someone researching one of our beloved brands. Who know maybe someday a really decent book on razors may come from these pages. God knows we could use one.

Just finished up this guy. Talk about a mirror. What a cool razor.

Wow! Nice job, very nice indeed!

James.

OK so I finished the guy and have a ton of pictures of him so I will post him up in the photobucket site cause there are 23 pictures.

http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a79/Ranat1/bengall/


I'll just put up a few favorites