Thread: The Stub-Tailed Shavers

Here’s one I picked up at an antique flea market from a gal that had a bunch of frilly lady’s things, nick knacks and chince dishes.

I have seen a couple post of very similar mid 1800’s razors with the same markings from an unknown maker.

I call this the Bob razor… Just a reminder, they are still out in the wild, waiting to be found and saved, sometimes for a song…

Nothing wrong with "Bob". "Bob" has class. I have a no name that I call "John" as in John Doe. John gives great shaves and I'm sure "Bob" will too after he gets restored.

Originally Posted by Hillbillystixnstraights

Hey guys, can anyone tell me who these makers are Attachment 227037Attachment 227038Attachment 227039Attachment 227040Attachment 227041Attachment 227042? I'm at my witts end 😕Attachment 227035Attachment 227036

Can't help with id on those, but I was wondering who got that one. I got the Evatt from that seller. It arrived yesterday luckily in one piece. May have been the worst packaging ever on a razor. Very nice razors hope you find the info on them.

Originally Posted by Fikira

All of them definitely 18th century! (first one maybe end or around 18th century)

The pipe could be a "Birks" or a "Linley" ("Lindley"), seen in directories of 1774 (Sketchley's) and 1787 (Gales & Martin)

See:

https://acierfondu.wordpress.com/manufacturer-research/

Also see:

https://acierfondu.wordpress.com/mak.../early-razors/

He has a razor with the "6 - ? - 2" mark, still unknown...

The last razor, could that be some sort of travel razor?...

Regards

Of course. I completely forgot about this site. I need to put all my online references in order!

I don't know if this is the right thread or not but recently I had a razor taken from me. It was a Silver Steel Warranted and had wooden scales.
Thanks,
Bob

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Here’s one I picked up at an antique flea market from a gal that had a bunch of frilly lady’s things, nick knacks and chince dishes.

I have seen a couple post of very similar mid 1800’s razors with the same markings from an unknown maker.

I call this the Bob razor… Just a reminder, they are still out in the wild, waiting to be found and saved, sometimes for a song…

To me "Bob's" stamp looks like Crown W. R. = William Reign 1820-1837. But its not a stub tail?

Originally Posted by Fikira

All of them definitely 18th century! (first one maybe end or around 18th century)

The pipe could be a "Birks" or a "Linley" ("Lindley"), seen in directories of 1774 (Sketchley's) and 1787 (Gales & Martin)

See:

https://acierfondu.wordpress.com/manufacturer-research/

Also see:

https://acierfondu.wordpress.com/mak.../early-razors/

He has a razor with the "6 - ? - 2" mark, still unknown...

The last razor, could that be some sort of travel razor?...

Regards

IDK😕 definitely Sheffield, I was thinking Rev. to pre Rev. I'll figure it out somehow.

Originally Posted by Hillbillystixnstraights

Hey guys, can anyone tell me who these makers are

Of those, only the razor stamped "6 {peppercorn symbol} Z" is likely to be Sheffield-made. Probably 1760-1770.

Unfortunately, pipe marks were extremely common, varied, and international. My guess is that the pipe marked razor and the ivory scaled razor with the crown and PM were both made in Sweden around 1780, but the PM razor is so strange I have little confidence. Maybe it was German? Probably not French.

However, the 'VIA' razor probably is French, and I would guess late 1700's to early 1800's. OR, if the tail has a distinct 'trigger' shape, probably London made around the same time frame.

For English razors, we rely almost entirely on published directories for information. Of the 4 known directories published before 1800, only one is easily available (Gales & Martin, which you can find on Google Books here -- this is a scanned copy of the 1887 reprinted edition, which includes a preface that's full of useful information). That was published in 1787 and some of the marks it collects went back a ways and others were newer.

The one directory prior to that was Sketchley's, from 1774.

To the best of my knowledge, there are no easily available copies of it. I have photographs of the two pages dedicated to razors, but often manufacturers made multiple types of goods and were not always listed where you'd think to find them. Marks like "6{peppercorn}Z" were typical of file makers and scissorsmiths, but they were used on all sorts of steel goods.

And that brings us around to two separate but related problems with Sketchley's.

First, the marks it recorded were often wrong. Ann Rowland's mark is listed in Sketchley's as a"R {heart} AIN". Her mark was actually "R {heart} SPAIN". I've seen numerous others from Sketchley's that are similarly misprinted or just wrong.

Second, there's no way to search for symbols other than just reading through the whole work, and when those symbols are often misrepresented, matters get especially difficult.

Supposedly there is a 1737 Sheffield directory, but no one in Sheffield had seen it at the time of the reprinting of Gales & Martin and to the best of my knowledge it has never come to light.

There are, of course, also the Cutler's Company's records of apprentices and masters, but those don't include marks. And while Volume II of the History does include a scant few very early cutlers marks, it doesn't have a comprehensive listing. Volume I (which isn't available in scanned form), is mostly a narrative of the Company's history, and I haven't had a chance to get my physical copy restored in order to safely read it.

Without knowing the city of origin, I'm afraid old razors like these will remain a mystery.

Indeed Zak, I also thought that was a French one

Very nice reply!

About the pipe, yes, there were many (Birks, Lin(d)ley, Johnson, Wostenholm,...), I only referred to the 18th century ones that I know,
but of course, who knowns it is a Sheffy...

Do you have more information of the international possibilities?

Regards

Originally Posted by Fikira

Do you have more information of the international possibilities?

It was definitely used in France in Thiers by Etienne Chatelet in early 1800's and earlier as his mark was on the original Thiers cutlers plate 1775 to 1810 + -.


It is also interesting that it is describe as "Pipe Allemande" = German pipe.