Thread: Anyone Know What This Stamp Is? James Johnson Content

Hey Gents!

Picked this up on ebay, recently... fantastic blade. A little stropping, and it'll be shave ready! Anyway, I digress...

There is a stamp on the tang that I cant make out, because it's larger then the tang itself. Next to the James Johnson Cast Steel is this oddity:



Anyone know what the heck this says? I want to say it says "Dulce" for a sweet shave, but that would just be a wild guess.

Thanks!
Aldwyn

I'm going with DULCE.

Let's see the rest of it!!

JOHNSON, JAMES
Fitzwilliam Street, Sheffield
1818-1853 ("Old Sheffield Razors" by Lummus. Antiques, December 1922 p.261-267)

Indeed my old friend Wullie was right on the money with Dulce!


James Johnson was born in 1803, son of a cutler. Apparently James did not stay at one address listed at Fitzwilliam street in 1833,Broomhall Street 30's and 40's, Allen Street 1852, Eyre street 1856,Howard Street 1860.He passed away in 1869, James widow Martha, had 6 children and all of them died before 21.

Thanks, gents! DULCE is it! I suppose it was a way of saying "sweet shave" or "sweet blade" in Latin.

Wullie,

I dont have any pictures I have taken, but here are some from the ebay ad:








I am trying to decide what to do about scales at this point... I am thinking mammoth ivory, to get close to what may have been on this old sucker the day it came out of Johnson's workshop.

Note that its a shorty... not sure if it came out of the workshop that way, or got that way due to a chip in the toe. <shrug> Either way, I dig shorties (and pretty much shave with nothing but shorties these days), so figured I would give it a go! Its currently the oldest blade in my meager (16 blades) collection.

Horn would be appropriate and so would white bone. Hone it and love it! They are some of the sweetest shavers out there!
That is a great catch.
~Richard
There is a G Johnson with a hammer and stars as a logo somewhere around that period of time and location also is an excellent a shaver.