Thread: How many hands...

...have our razors passed through?

I recently began thinking about this question while I was trying to find some info on a razor that I acquired earlier this year, this Essercheroup 230:

Now here's what got me thinking: that's my razor...but the picture is from a liveauctioneers.com auction that began September 30, 2007! And every other photo I've found of this particular model has been of this same razor...I'm certain of this because the scales' markings are distinctive, as is the pitting on the back of the blade (I lied...i did see one other Essercheroup 230, but it has a carved spine).

So it seems likely that I'm perhaps the third person to give this particular razor a home since 2007. Kinda makes me wonder how many hands my old razors have passed through...

This is something I think about quite frequently...where have these blades been and whose hands have they been in....simply blows my mind to shave with something made 150 years ago....

yes i have also thought of this many times. My grandfather left me a razor which i know for a fact he used when he was traveling the world during WWII.

I believe he was actually a barber at the time because i came across the rest of his kit as well.

So it boggles the mind to think about not only how many people have used the razor, but also how many beards it has shaved as well...

very interesting thought indeed!

I have a couple of 200 plus year old stumpys,
1 has been reground to a hollow god knows how long ago,
so has definitely been used by a few hands over the years
I look it sometimes & think if only you could tell me your story I think it would be amazing

I'm a razor whisperer and I can tell you that you really don't want to get into long conversations with old razors. They have quite a narrow focus, so you get a lot of descriptions of the interiors of cabinets and how leather can be ticklish.

W&Bs are particularly bad. All they want to talk about is "cleaving whiskers in twain" and how much they hate mutton chops. And when they are not babbling on about that, they sit around singing "Rule Britannia" and ending all their sentences in "wot?".

James.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

I'm a razor whisperer and I can tell you that you really don't want to get into long conversations with old razors. They have quite a narrow focus, so you get a lot of descriptions of the interiors of cabinets and how leather can be ticklish.

W&Bs are particularly bad. All they want to talk about is "cleaving whiskers in twain" and how much they hate mutton chops. And when they are not babbling on about that, they sit around singing "Rule Britannia" and ending all their sentences in "wot?".

James.

Wow - how did you know? When I shaved earlier, using a W&B, I was hearing this during the shave....WOT...John Cleese didn't drop by though!

Narrow foucus, eh? That's a good one.

I had been thinking on this topic of how many hands when I cleaned my antique store Gillette last week and saw the hair that came out of the handle.