Thread: Bengall Straight Razor

Originally Posted by dmgc7d

So the scales were in fact plastic... I guess aftermarket, not bad tho...

As I said in an earlier post, the early Bengalls were not housed in plastic scales - at least not until after the 1920s, give or take a decade or so, and even then I think that the 'plastic' used was some sort of plastic with an unknown filler added, a bit brittle and stiff, not like the modern day 'floppy' plastics that seem to have little strength/integrity but a lot of flex.

However the main reason I am returning to this post is that I have recently acquired a very late production, near mint Bengall and guess what - it does have plastic scales! It even has the original 2" by 1" 'rust preventative paper' in its red and see-thru plastic sleeve. The scales are white plastic with a curious wedge - it looks white (-ish) but it is also kind of semi (or less) translucent. The blade does not have the decorative punched collar that most Bengalls have. It has 'Bengall, Sheffield, England' on the front of the tang, applied by some sort of mechanical etching apparatus like a pantograph and the back is blank, which is unusual. The plastic sleeve also has 'Bengall - Sheffield, England, in gold-foil printing on it.

So, I expect we have to determine the age of the razor as best we can. Thomas Radley Cadman died in 1917, leaving his grandchild Edwin Cadman in charge of the company. Edwin died in 1921. Here, the decline set in - the inter-war period was lean, leading to the making of safety razors and pocket knives around 1933. At the end of WW2 they tried adding scissors and dissecting blade, but things were getting worse. The firm finally ceased trading in 1965 (not 1953, as others have erroneously posted in the past).

That leads me to believe that plastic was used some time after 1930 and gained ground in the 1950s.

My razor appears to come fro the 1950s or later.

So we get a rough lineage of scale materials:

1. Horn (into the 1920s, surprisingly, with quite a light hollow grind usually).
2. An amalgam which is either hard rubber (not soft like rubber, but stiff and slightly brittle and prone to chips, with a filler that makes it smell like burnt horn if worked so probably powdered horn) or some other hard form of plastic with horn filler. These were the scales to be found on most of the better Bengalls, probably from the 1900s to the 1940s, give or take a decade or so. They had 'Bengall' moulded into the top scale, which was then gilded.
3. Plastic - late production pieces, probably from then mid 1950s give or take a little.

I have seen them with three-pinned scales, bone scales (v. early - quarter hollow blade with 'cast steel' on the tang) - I think I have had ivory scaled ones too.

One thing I will say is that the ones made from acrylic/plastic/powdered horn filler are surprisingly like plastic, and it takes a bit o getting used to them to know - really dense, no striations or markings or grain, very high, glossy shine.

Regards,
Neil