Thread: Bengall's Band of Brothers

Here's one I just won off of eBay; don't have it in my hands yet.

Bengall cast steel carved horn

Listing claimed early 1700s, but to my eyes it looks more likely to be early 1800s. What do people say?

Two additional questions:

(1) It looks like there's a significant nick in the blade closer to the heel. What would be the best way to get that out? Make it smile a bit more? Or just pretend it's a mini khukuri?

(2) Description says carved horn, but would it be more likely to be pressed horn? Is there any special way to care for carved/pressed horn? The one side looks like it's losing the impression/carving a bit - is there a way to forestall this?

Haven't seen a Bengall without a tail before or pressed horn. Wonder if scales are original. You going to lose a bit of width toward the heel. Not a restore to rush in to, looks like it could be a very nice razor.

Originally Posted by Grazor

Haven't seen a Bengall without a tail before or pressed horn. Wonder if scales are original. You going to lose a bit of width toward the heel. Not a restore to rush in to, looks like it could be a very nice razor.

To me, the scales look like they should be about the same age as the razor. They're not the coffin-shaped scales of the 18th c. quite, but rather have a slight curve, but not as curved as the standard of the 19th.

I've got quite a few Bengalls sitting around either half restored or waiting to be. *mental kick to get moving!!*
One of the ones I'm the most excited about is this one which is about half done. no updated pis though sorry.

The scales have big bug eaten patches under the pins and also most of the area of the wedge end from the inside. Will most likely make up a new set out of some honey horn.

No pics but I did a NO NO! the other day.
Left my Bengal on a hand towel next to the sink as I showered. Got out of the shower and grabbed the hand towel to dry my eyes. Bengal goes flying across the room, hits floor, bounces up, opens up, slams down again followed by a few more very metallic sounding bounces off my tiled floor before coming to an ominously quiet rest. Good news it isnt chipped, bad news the edge rolled over in the middle.

It was the first straight I succesfully honed and I loved shaving with it. Now I'm going to have to learn how to fix an edge not just hone one.
Will be a while before I have time to straighten out my idiocy

Ive got this BIG 'ol 15/16 (just a hair under) Bengall square tip on the way! i think this one will be a Keeper for myself!

My Parents found it in an antik shop back home (NZ) for 10$! Thats about $7 US!!!!

Ill Post pics of course when restored.

Finally got this one finished:

Bengall cast steel - "no tail" with pressed horn scales (pastoral scenes)


Whole album here

(pre-restore album here)

Does anyone have ideas on the age? The seller said early 1700s - while I would love to have a early 1700s razor, I'm guessing actually early 1800s:

* Scales are not very curved, but not quite coffin-shaped - of course they could be later than the blade.
* There's not much of a shoulder, but it's not the basically continuous shape (shoulderless) that 1700s blades seem to have.
* There's a very tiny stub tail (though, I suppose it's possible it had a proper stub and this was broken or intentionally removed for some reason).

Shaved with it for the first time today. A bit tricky - I have a more typical stub tail, and that's not that much different from shaving with my later 1800s razors, but this one has a tail so small I can't securely put a finger on it. Which makes the shave a bit different. I ended up with a nice close shave, but with a bit more irritation than usual - which I suspect is in part due to my slightly awkward grip on it as I tried to figure out the best way of handling it.

Interesting, seemingly pastoral scenes pressed into the horn scales: each side has three images:

- on the side with the Bengall stamping, there's a house under a tree; a man (unfortunately seemingly a bit worn) I think wearing a hat and doing something with his hands in front of his chest or face - maybe smoking a pipe or playing a musical instrument; and a tree

- on the other side there's some sort of animal beneath a tree; a man with shepherd's crook and trumpet (I think) standing with a sheep; and a bull under a tree.

The stamp would have read "Bengall cast steel", but the "cast" and end of "steel" is worn away.

Unfortunately it underwent a regrind at some point, and looks roughly half hollow perhaps; the regrind wasn't the cleanest as it seems to have invaded the area of the spine on one side. I wish people hadn't indulged in regrinds. (I partially blame things like the early 20th c Shaving made easy which claim that "hollow-ground" or "concave" razors are "a great improvement over the old style of thick blade. The edge of the hollow-ground razor is thinner and therefore cuts better..." which is quite obviously not true.)

This was the inaugural razor for my new 1k Chosera - and was much easier to set than it would have been with my old system of lapping film bevel setting. I had to "grind" away a part of the heel as there was a sizeable bit missing (I ended up doing this on one of the short faces of the Chosera.)

Originally Posted by JakobD

Ive got this BIG 'ol 15/16 (just a hair under) Bengall square tip on the way! i think this one will be a Keeper for myself!

My Parents found it in an antik shop back home (NZ) for 10$! Thats about $7 US!!!!

Ill Post pics of course when restored.

Wha? Where? I live here and can't find a score like that...

Originally Posted by JakobD

Ive got this BIG 'ol 15/16 (just a hair under) Bengall square tip on the way! i think this one will be a Keeper for myself!

My Parents found it in an antik shop back home (NZ) for 10$! Thats about $7 US!!!!

Ill Post pics of course when restored.

Here it finally is, finished!
Exactly 23mm blade width,