Thread: Gotta Razors

You see many example of Kropp razors (English even though the name could be German) where the tang states ground in Sheffield on some and ground in Germany on otherwise identical razors.

Maybe it's as simple as just 'outsourcing' when demand required it.

Yeah, that's how I'd parse it, especially with it being on the blade where the decoration goes instead of on the shank where all the legally required stuff is, and with "German" in quotations.

But, that old article of 1903 says they were sending razors to be ground in Germany, and it seems that several people have seen the stamp jimmy says, so there may be something to it.

I personally find it very interesting because it goes to what does origin of 'manufacture' actually means.

Here's one stamped on the reverse of the shank:

made in england
ground in hamburg

http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...ml#post1281668

Originally Posted by gugi

But, that old article of 1903 says they were sending razors to be ground in Germany, and it seems that several people have seen the stamp jimmy says, so there may be something to it.

........ ...........

"Grah & Plümacher
Inh. Gebr. Plümacher.
Solingen-Weyer: Brüderstrasse 25 in 1939 and 1983.
Brand names: 'Feinklang' (1921), 'Silver Ring', 'The Gael', 'The Gotta' (1922).
Open-blade razor maker"

Found here

It is made and ground in Germany (Solingen) by Grah & Plümacher, a solid Solingen manufacturer. It probably says "Silver Steel Germany" since for manufacturing the Gotta (and possibly others) they used Sheffield steel besides German steel (or whatever other steel they used), so they either wanted to avoid confusion or add some cool sounding piece of info on the razor. In the end it's a German razor made in Germany by a German manufacturer with Sheffield steel.

I was going to post this earlier, but didn't get home from work until now.

Gotta 120:

Originally Posted by Zephyr

I was going to post this earlier, but didn't get home from work until now.

Gotta 120:

My Gotta 120 says Finest Silver Steel Real Hollow Ground in Solingen Germany.

Here are a couple more examples of the hype that must have surrounded Sheffield steel at the time ........ not that it was necessarily hype, it is some fine steel .....
A minty Carbo Magnetic with Kayser Ellison Steel on the reverse tang and Made In Germany on the mark side.

A Puma also marked as Kayser Ellison steel

A Mulcato with the 'Englischer Stahl' Solingen stamping ........ very cool.

One more, a TI with the 'Sheffield' mark on the blade and Made in France on the tang .......

Found another example originally posted here by Hoglahoo ...... here are the photos from that post ;

Sheffield used iron ore to make steel that originated not only in the UK, but from places as far away as Russia, Spain and Sweden at various times. I remember reading one account of an iron and steel man whose father run ships in from Russia laden with iron ore when he was a child, but changing to Sweden as he got older. It seems that once most suitable local iron ores were used up and became dearer, and others fell out of use due to the economic climate and waging wars, that Swedish ore was retained above all others. Indeed, it was the high purity of Swedish iron ore that led to it being so popular, and why Henry Bessemer's process for creating cheap steel failed at first - he used Swedish ore which was too pure for the process to work. Robert Mushet, son of iron master David Mushet, sorted this out for him, though he received scant mention and no reward until near the end of his life.

Sheffield steel became highly desirable and was exported as ingots to be used by razor makers in France and Germany. One often sees 'Made from Finest Sheffield Silver Steel' on the tang of french and german razors. One particular Swedish steel converting and specialist steel alloy company - Kayser, Ellison & Co - often had their whole name on the tangs of german made razors.

One english company - Osborne, Garrett & Co, makers of the famous Kropp and not so well known Ogee, Osgar, Carrera and Elmo, had their razors made in Sheffield but hollow ground in Germany, sometimes with 'Made in England, Ground in Germany', 'Hollow Ground in Germany' and 'Made in England, Ground in Hamburg' on the tang. At other times the same company had 'Made & Ground in Sheffield, England' on the tang, so market forces, lack of goodwill towards germany after the war, etc, must have come into play at various times. Eventually a razor maker with his own company - Charlie Myers - took over the making and grinding of the Kropp Manufacturing Co as well as supplying razors under his own company name of C Myers & Son, all run from his factory in Atholl Road. Kropp razors never had and German or Hamburg markings on them after that (from the 1950s onwards).







Of course, 'Forged & Hollow Ground in Germany' on the tang would mean a german razor made for the english speaking market and often sold under a local dealers name rather than the actual makers.

Regards,
Neil