Thread: The FrameBack Fanciers

Jon Engstrom with Carbon fibre scales made by ToXik. It has replaced my Boker Edelweiss as my favorite shaver. Looks aside, shaving with this doesn't really have a feeling. The hair comes of with the shave cream that's all.

Kind regards,

That is one sweet looking frameback...

I have a number of the Frederick Reynolds Framebacks. I have always liked the look of them. Of course they are one piece and considered not a real frameback. I for some reason never considered the two or 3 piece frambacks a ligitamate shaver. They just looked kind of hookey and I didn't think of them as being a good shaver.

Boy oh boy, was I wrong! I picked up a frameback on this auction:

Vintage R.D. Arbentz's Straight Razor - eBay (item 150251513291 end time Jun-01-08 14:44:55 PDT)

The frame is all one piece, not the spine being brass. It is all steel, and it's quite heavy. On the Tang it reads:
AD. ARBENZ'S
"MANDARIN"
JOUGNE FRANCE

The blade has a word in cursive that is in parentheises: (Arbenz)

I found this razor very easy to hone. I was able to establish a very nice bevel quickly with no problems. Once I had the bevel, I ran it through my set of Shaptons on glass, 4K, 8K, 16K, and then finished with my Nakayama stone.

Bottom line: and I am still shaking my head with this shaver. I has given me my absolute best shave of all time! and I have a plethura of great shavers. I have a Puma, 3 Dubl Ducks, an Eye Witness 1000, 2 or 3 W&B's of different sizes, I have perhaps 4 or 5 wedges. The list goes on & on...... All great shavers. Now you know there are real differences from one razor to another. Some are scarry sharp, and will not give you that "comforitable" shave. I have a few that are not real sharp, but if I can get through that 1st pass, it's downhill from there. Okay, each razor seems to have its own personality. Anyway....

This French Frameback is not only very sharp (on that 1st pass), but comfortable at the same time. I absolutely love this razor! I can't say enough about the shaves it has given me. In the past, I have stumbled across a brand of razor that gave me really good shaves - so, my thinking was I'll get another one, only to find out that the 2nd one I got was not as good, even though it was the same make and all. Yes, some brands are more consistant than some others (W&B is one).So - did I get lucky, or are most of these "rattlers" great shavers? I am asking youse guys because it's your club.

Another question? Did these razors come with extra blades. There is a screw at the front end of the spine (which I am not gonna mess with) - the razor is tight as can be and I want to keep it that way. And if you could change the blades, why? Were there different sizes, perhaps? I don't know. I know nothing about these razors.

The only thing I know is that this baby is most wonderful to shave with. I love the shape of the toe and the heel.

Thanks for listening to me rant about this shaver.

Steve

My understanding is and I’m no expert there others who know more than me, the FrameBack was developed at a time when steel was very expensive so they made the Frame and you could then buy the blades to make up different number bladed sets which made buying a 7 day set considerable cheaper, though you also get FrameBack’s with fitted blades that you can not remove which again would be cheaper using less steel and of course full hollow grinds which some class as a FrameBack which is made as a solid piece the same as any other straight razor not as 2 separate pieces (Frame and Blade) then joined together to form one or where the blade screwed or clipped in place to use, I have three in which the blade is fixed to the frame, I keep missing out on E-Bay for a screw fitting FrameBack keep getting outbid, FrameBack’s seem to becoming more popular to buy not a lot admit to having them but they seem to sell well unless one person is trying to take over the world supply and hold them for ransom.

Here is a beautiful LeCollier a Nogent Le Royal Razor No. 12.

It's a heavy 7/8" frameback in a Damascus Steel.

The scales are the dark [extinct] Pyrenean Ibex horn with white bone wedge. (I'm sorry, Mr. Ibex.) However, the scales could use a good treatment of the neatsfoot oil.

(Oh! And that's a cat hair on the scale, not a crack!)

Christopher

Originally Posted by Doc

come on gentlemen step right up, step right up. A troubling situation has arrived in the razor club and that is the use of thumbnail pictures. I know that some of you old timers still remember when the razor clubs were a thing of beauty! with large glossy pictures of razors and we viewed until our hearts content. but those days are through it would seem. I beseech all the members of the razor clubs to take the poll in the general section and vote to restore large pictures to our beloved razor clubs. It is up to us gent and together we can restore these clubs to there former glory!!!!!!
__________________

You can imbed large images if you upload to an image hosting site (I use photobucket). I find it to be quite easy, and IIRC it also requires less bandwidth from SRP that way.

Oh, and I'll reserve this space for future pictures; I got a Wosty frameback.

If you don`t mind I would like to join the club as I have a few frame backs and are quite partial to them ,I will put up some more pics when I dig the razors out , as they have to be restored .
However I have a W & B that is rather special due to its verifiable history, as you can see in the close ups the owners name and date has been scratched into the horn handle . When you look at the dates the first is 89 which I believe is 1889 because the second is dated 1900 and the third owner buy the name of Bud Lemon is 1940. I`m not sure if I should add my name ,but then I think 150 years down the track it would be nice that some one is staring at a straight razor and know exactly who has owned it during its lifetime and wondering what they were like as I have done
Opinions concerning this matter would be greatly appreciated
Kind regards Peter

Originally Posted by bg42

If you don`t mind I would like to join the club as I have a few frame backs and are quite partial to them ,I will put up some more pics when I dig the razors out , as they have to be restored .
However I have a W & B that is rather special due to its verifiable history, as you can see in the close ups the owners name and date has been scratched into the horn handle . When you look at the dates the first is 89 which I believe is 1889 because the second is dated 1900 and the third owner buy the name of Bud Lemon is 1940. I`m not sure if I should add my name ,but then I think 150 years down the track it would be nice that some one is staring at a straight razor and know exactly who has owned it during its lifetime and wondering what they were like as I have done
Opinions concerning this matter would be greatly appreciated
Kind regards Peter

Adding your name is a great idea!

Christopher

Welcome the more the merrier, nice that you can trace at least part of the razors history wonder who had it and where after Mr Lemon or are you the next in line

I could no longer edit my old post, so here's some framebacked porn. Thumbnails till I make some smaller images.

Click for biggens!