Thread: That 1700's Show

Originally Posted by Hillbillystixnstraights

[emoji53]How do you do that? Test the steel that is. As a welding instructor I'm only familiar with a couple of ways to do that (which are somewhat destructive) and would LOVE to be able to test mine without harming them.PLEASE share [emoji20]

It's difficult but I found a guy that works at a museum that can determine the carbon and iron content with a radioactive scanner. He then goes to archives and looks at items from similar time periods.

Originally Posted by ItalianJoe

It's difficult but I found a guy that works at a museum that can determine the carbon and iron content with a radioactive scanner. He then goes to archives and looks at items from similar time periods.

Kool! I've gotta huge job for this guy!

Originally Posted by ItalianJoe

It's difficult but I found a guy that works at a museum that can determine the carbon and iron content with a radioactive scanner. He then goes to archives and looks at items from similar time periods.

I've been sitting on a web link to a place that does this work for over a year while other projects get in the way.

My understanding is that it starts getting inaccurate in the late 1700's as the industrial revolution party gets started and becomes pretty useless by the time the globe got saturated with strontium in the 1950's... But that's perfect for our uses! I've got a couple of razors that I suspect date to 1559-1650, and I'd love to get them tested.

Please keep us posted on the test results for your razor!

And yeah, I know I lot of folks that can do the basic test, but none of them have access to the database where all the magic lives! Best of luck!

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

I've been sitting on a web link to a place that does this work for over a year while other projects get in the way.

My understanding is that it starts getting inaccurate in the late 1700's as the industrial revolution party gets started and becomes pretty useless by the time the globe got saturated with strontium in the 1950's... But that's perfect for our uses! I've got a couple of razors that I suspect date to 1559-1650, and I'd love to get them tested.

Please keep us posted on the test results for your razor!

And yeah, I know I lot of folks that can do the basic test, but none of them have access to the database where all the magic lives! Best of luck!

I've never seen razors from the 1600s. Could you post pics?

Originally Posted by ItalianJoe

I've never seen razors from the 1600s. Could you post pics?

The thing is, I'm not sure I have either! Hence, the tests.

Here's both of them with a 7/8 Joseph Rodgers to get a sense of scale.



You can probably tell which of the two I've cleaned up -- I also started honing it, but this was all done one lazy Sunday morning while hanging out with 10Pups and Wolfpack34, so I didn't have a chance to finish the honing while I was there. It DOES appear it will take a usable edge.

Both of them have been on a contact grinder before I got them. I would guess it happened in the first couple decades of the 1900's, based on other razors I've had that were reground around then. The scales are made of painted wood and are definitely not original.

Both of them have strange, spikey tails.

The marks aren't useful because they're so old. So far, the closest I've been able to get to identifying them is very old illustrations, and they look most like razors that were made in Germany between 1400 and 1650 or so.

When I got them I suspected they were Victorian stage replicas, but I'm a lot less sure of that now.

Interesting!

I've been wondering if this one is also maybe older then 1700...

It has the shape, and also that typical little notch on the spine, at the tang...

Unmarked though... (and scales probably changed in the course of...)

Such awesome examples. Man I love this thread !! You guys have some really nice razors.

Originally Posted by Fikira

Interesting!

I've been wondering if this one is also maybe older then 1700...

It has the shape, and also that typical little notch on the spine, at the tang...

Unmarked though... (and scales probably changed in the course of...)

Sure looks like it! Has that same weird spike tail.

On the ones I've got, that tail is paper-thin. What's it like on yours?

The tang looks like it was designed to be held with the scales straight out. Pinching that area near the blade with thumb and finger. Sorry just thinking out loud and wondering what the smith was thinking :<0)

Originally Posted by Fikira

Interesting!

I've been wondering if this one is also maybe older then 1700...

It has the shape, and also that typical little notch on the spine, at the tang...

Unmarked though... (and scales probably changed in the course of...)

This blade shape is utterly bizarre...I approve .