Thread: Greaves, Pauldrons, and Gauntlets

I wonder if there is a dating difference between the razors marked W. Greaves & sons & Wm. Greaves & Sons ??

Originally Posted by Slawman

I wonder if there is a dating difference between the razors marked W. Greaves & sons & Wm. Greaves & Sons ??

As far as the examples I have seen, the Wm. Greaves & Sons marked razors were later examples (i.e. post-1830s or so), while W. Greaves & Sons are mostly on earlier examples. Actually I don't recall ever seeing a Wm. Greaves & Sons from the pre-Sheaf Works era.

Gotta love Matt at Griffiths Shaving, purchased a beautiful Greaves I'd been looking at for awhile, and he just messaged me that since he was running a sale, he'd apply the discount.

Think this is my third from Matt at Griffiths Shaving, every time I go to that site now, I end up falling in love with at least a page of razors...this one however, could not be passed up.

Wm. Greaves & Sons, 9/8, Real Dutchman Razor, as usual, Matt does a smokin' job, can't wait to take this historic beauty for a spin (pics are from Griffiths Shaving):

That's a pretty slick looking razor, Phrank. I wonder what qualifies as a Dutchman razor.

Originally Posted by Leatherstockiings

That's a pretty slick looking razor, Phrank. I wonder what qualifies as a Dutchman razor.

It's a really nice razor. I wonder if the use of the word "Dutchman" might mean "German" here? Two reasons to think so: English razor makers faced a great deal of competition from German razors starting in the late 1800's, and as a result Sheffield razor makers responded with German branding like "Hamburg Ring" etchings (although the "Hamburg Ring" branding was used for hollow ground razors). Second, the word "Dutch" was once used to mean "German," as in "Pennsylvania Dutch." This because "German" in German is "Deutsch." So, it seems possible to me that "Dutchman" here is intended to connote German razor craftsmanship.

(One argument against this theory though is that the word "Dutch" for "German" was apparently mostly an Americanism after the Netherlands split from Germany, and sources I can find claim that the English used the word "Dutch" to mean "from Holland" after that.)