Thread: Evidence of Filarmonica Manufactured in Solingen?????

Originally Posted by Magpie

I seriously think you all need to step away from the keyboards. Its a disgrace to see such bickering.

At least I think it is.

Do I believe any age can be determined by the scant visibility of a few pieces of a cardboard box? Of course I don't. And neither does anybody else. Even if it WERE possible to say "that box is old" it means absolutely NOTHING to the age of the items inside the box. I have all sorts of new things stored in old boxes.

Do I believe those scales are old? Nope. I don't. I think they are quite new. I also think that many of the "vintage" blades that are showing up all over the net are new made versions of the old classics by people who own the trademarks.
Can I prove my theory? Nope. and you know what? IT DOESNT MATTER!! New manufacture, or old, people (as far as I know) have had no complaints about the quality of the craftsmanship on the "alleged" NOS razors they have been buying.
Can anybody prove the box is old? DOES IT MATTER?
Can anybody prove the scales are old? DOES IT MATTER?
Whats wrong with you guys? Stop already. If there is more to this than is being let on, then say it already. Out loud, and no coyness, slyness, mysterious "I know something you don't" stuff. I keep seeing stuff like this on the site and it makes me angry, and worse, it makes me sad. This is supposed to be a place for gentlemen. And this.... This makes me not want to hang around here.

I agree that the bickering needs to stop. Unfortunately, it seems to be part of the forum thing... This one, believe it or not, has less of it that just about any I've ever seen. Even college fan sites have more bickering amongst fans OF THE SAME TEAM than here... But, yeah

As to the pictures. I hope you don't mean me with the coyness. I'm passing on what I found. The people who I know with connections to Solingen say Filarmonicas came from Herkenrath blanks, as did many, many other types of blades. This from first hand accounts from old men who lived through the boom. Without being able to provide pictures of invoices, a lot of people don't believe it. Fine. But, the pictures I got were purported to be genuine article by a person that doesn't hang out on these forums. So, we can either choose to believe it or not. I believe it because I know the guy, and I know his background. Believe it or not. I can't offer proof, but I offered pictures that at the very least show the story retold by the old guys as being plausible... That's the point of the thread

Yep. Insults, namecalling, references to wives and their opinions really have no place.
Easy to see truths, facts, and fallacies . Discuss, disagree, but a rotton thread seems to spoil the forum.
Let's not.

Related, I just did a Yahoo search for pics and factory info on Filarmonica in Spain. Came up empty with exception of written words. In the razor world, many were, and are, credited for making what they bought and sold. Carl Monkhouse comes to mind. DublDuck, etc.
Some pics of Filarmonicas being produced, verifiably, in Spain would be handy. The factory was shuttered not so far back, as razors go. Certainly there would be evidence/witnesses around us!
Not saying it does not exist. Dumb old me just could not find it easily!

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Related, I just did a Yahoo search for pics and factory info on Filarmonica in Spain. Came up empty with exception of written words. In the razor world, many were credited for making what they bought and sold. Carl Monkhouse comes to mind.
Some pics of Filarmonicas being produced, verifiably, in Spain would be handy. The factory was shuttered not so far back, as razors go. Certainly there would be evidence/witnesses around us!

True, but it wouldn't necessarily answer the question about the blank origins, though would it? It's not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but it's fascinating... You know as navel gazing goes

I have a question, I'm not a lawyer, but we all know that after the 1890 act that required the country of origin mark, for instance, Wade and Butcher razors being marked with or without the England stamp being used to determine the date range.

Many of the Filarmonica's have, "Made in Spain" stamped on them. If in fact they were made in Germany, which I'm completely open to, wouldn't they be marked, "Made in Germany", or perhaps the Solingen mark would indicate country of manufacture?

Now, I just went and looked at a few of my Filarmonica's, I looked at two DT's, one has, "Made in Spain" stamped on one side of the tang with the JMP Doble Temple on the other side, and the other has the JMP Doble Temple, but on the other side, where the, "Made in Spain" mark is on the other one, it is blank - no mark - nothing?

Interesting?

Then you've got one original & someboby else slipped you a Gold Dollar,,,,

IIRC the stipulation to mark country of origin on cutlery stemmed from a treaty, and was not an international law ....... AFAIK. Still most of them did adhere to it ....... AFAIK. Now Solingen themselves had stipulations that were laws, as to what cutlery could be marked 'made in Solingen' based on the region where the item was manufactured, and I'm betting they were stringent in enforcing that.

We're all gentlemen here, I presume, so let's behave as such. Many companies made 'good' razors, how important is it where the blanks were sourced from ? It is a matter only for the cognoscenti to be interested in.

For most of us the razor either delivers the goods, or it doesn't regardless of the name stamped, or etched, on the tang. So please keep it civil. No aspersions cast as to one another's mental health or possible nefarious motives. It's a razor/shaving forum so let's keep on topic please ..... and the thread won't be closed.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

We're all gentlemen here, I presume, so let's behave as such. Many companies made 'good' razors, how important is it where the blanks were sourced from ? It is a matter only for the cognoscenti to be interested in.

For most of us the razor either delivers the goods, or it doesn't regardless of the name stamped, or etched, on the tang. So please keep it civil. No aspersions cast as to one another's mental health or possible nefarious motives. It's a razor/shaving forum so let's keep on topic please ..... and the thread won't be closed.

While the nature of your concerns in the thread are 100% on point, I do think it is interesting for one very important reason. It seems that I got caught up in brands early on and attributed qualities to the razor's steel based on the brand. However, if the blanks came from the same forge, with the same people doing all the QC throughout the process, it seems that all of those differences were likely in my head. It sort of demystifies things a bit. The more money I spent, the more I started to realize that apart from aesthetics, there *really* wasn't that much difference after all in all of these things.

I'm a huge nerd though, and I don't mind focusing in on a subject and discussing it ad nauseum. When it gets tedious, I'm happy to take the discussion offline or just ponder it myself. No big deal

Guys, personal attacks and insults have no place here, and neither do replies that are intentionally designed to be provocative. Calling people's mental health into question in a public forum is just as bad. No matter how expensive the words that are used, I think we can all agree that that line of discussion is not going to be productive or in good spirit. And you know that in advance so just don't.