Thread: Pair John Weiss & Sons - Info needed please

Hello All,
I am new on here and know absolutely nothing about straight razors!! With that in mind I was wondering if anybody would be able to shed any light on a pair of straight razors that I found knocking around in my Mother in Laws garage?



The box that they are in says "John Weiss & sons, 62 Strand, London"

The razors themselves are quite rusty /grimy around where the writing is so hard to make anything out. On one of the blades in large letters is written "The MasterRazor" in ornate letters.

On the other blade I can make out "Harrison" before the rust covers the rest and "Cutter" on the line below.

Are these blades worth restoring? Are they collectable? And I suppose the crux of it - are they worth anything?

Many Thanks in advance for taking the time to look.

Gaz

Welcome to the forum. If you are asking about a monetary valuation that is not done on this forum as a matter of policy. Others more knowledgeable will be able to give you some background info on the razors,

Hard to tell from the photos what their present state is. Just a rough guess and if the rust is not too bad they can be restored with the one blade with a chip losing some size when honed out. There is a good possibility the scales are ivory. I think they are/were quality razors. Again not an expert, but if they were mine I would fix them up and use them.

Bob

John Weiss came to London from Rostock in 1780. His father had been a cutler and served as Master Cutler to the Rostock Guild of Smiths; Weiss took to the manufacture of surgical instruments and in 1787 opened for business at 42 Strand London under the name of White, before moving to 33 The Strand in 1805 and trading as ‘John Weiss’.

His surgical instruments were well regarded and sold around the world, and the company which he founded still trades as ‘John Weiss and Son’

An aggressive businessman, Weiss engaged in protracted disputes with competitors to promote and protect his products. One such – with manufacturer John Read who claimed to have invented the stomach pump – went on for many years. Read accused Weiss of waging a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign to benefit his rival device, which included bribing wholesalers to send out damaged ‘Read’ pumps. None of this was proven against Weiss, who regarded these accusations as jealousy for the superiority of his product. Writing in the Lancet that the Read pump would be best used for “watering cabbages and washing cherry trees” Weiss concluded by wishing Read “all manner of good and especially a little better temper.”

In 1826 Weiss was granted permanent resident status by King George IV, and under William IV he was appointed ‘Razor Maker to the King’

Mr Weiss had spent his life making surgical devices. For his death he made a special item.

Having a dread fear of being buried alive, Weiss fashioned an instrument designed to pierce his heart as his coffin was closed. Instruction and direction for its use were contained within his will.

John Weiss died on December 26th 1843. He was buried at St Nicholas Ground with his surgeon Mr Benjamin Vallance in attendance. Vallance carried out his wishes in full, to ensure his certain death.

John Weiss 1830-1883

John Weiss & son 1883- present

Weiss & son 287 Ford st 1883- London.

And a few pictures from their catalog.

Hi Bob, thanks for the info. Didn't realise about valuation policy!!

I'm going to look through this site and figure out the best way of restoring them, never done it before so I'm a little bit wary as I don't want to do any damage to them!

Again, Thanks for the reply.

Gaz

Thanks Martin, that's a lot of info, so John Weiss was at the Strand in 1863, that could make these razors 150 years old, WoW!!

Gaz

There is a lot of info on this site about restoring razors and a huge amount can be done with hand work only. I would stay clear of power tools for polishing. If those scales are ivory they are very thin and great caution should be used when working on the razor so as not to crack or break them. There is info on that too on here. If you have no experience honing a razor, I would leave that part to a reputable expert to do especially considering one has a chip. Just go slow and have patience. There are a lot of people on here that will help you if you have any questions when you do restore them yourself. Good luck.

Bob

Cheers Bob, gonna have a look this weekend and maybe start work on them next week.

Judging by outward appearances these razors probably do not constitute a set. They may be two mismatched razors stored in a mismatched case. Can you match any of the information on the box with that stamped on the razors? If the stampings are hard to read you can scrape across them with a single edged or utility razor blade.

Regards - Walt

Hi Walt, thanks for the info, will try and scrape some of the rusk/gunk off and see what's underneath,

Cheers - Gaz

Ok, so I scraped off some of the rust and neither blade is John Weiss. The writing is as follows...

Blade 1
"Joseph Rodgers & Sons, Cutlers to their majesty, No6 Norfolk ????, Shefield"

Blade 2
"Harrison Bros & Howson, Cutlers to Her Majesty"