Thread: Co-worker's grandfather's razor.

Hey guys,

I have a co-worker that informed me about his razor he inherited from his grandfather; he was curious if it could get back to shaveable condition. Yesterday he brought in the razor for me to look at so I could advise him on what I would do.




After seeing the razor I told him I would just touch it up and see if it shaves, it's already in great condition and was shaving arm hairs . He (not knowing anything about straight razors) told me I could take it home and see what I could do. I know nearly nothing about honing, I've been touching up my razors on a three line swaty and that's it. That being said, a couple passed on the swaty, crox, and strop and now I shaved my chin for the first time in 4 months.

I'll be directing him to this site and hopefully he'll be on a new shave journey. If not, he has a family heirloom that is lovely in and of itself.

It seems your friend is destined to become a wet shaver.

A nice piece. He is very lucky to have a great heirloom.

It looks like it was taken care of. It is a nice heirloom piece but it will probally shave great once touched up.

Yes, a very nice piece indeed - and in extremely good condition form what I can see in the photos (I am a bit visually challenged at the moment, though!). Probably just a light clean-up with metal polish (avoiding the gold plated bits - that wears off super quick) and a hone job are basically what it needs to see if it performs well.

Here is another one - not in such great shape as yours though -



The maker was F. Koeller & Co. from Ohligs (they put 'Ohligs' on the tang, but this is the same as Solingen-Ohligs, only earlier in time).

The company was established in 1855 by Franz Koeller and registered in 1906. They are recorded as knife and dagger makers for the Nazis in WW2, so were active until at least 1945(unless they were bombed-out during the war - happened to a lot of companies as industrial areas were assumed to be good sites to bomb).

They had a great number of brand names, almost as many as Ern, and in the Archiving Industry register 'Kismet' was first used in 1910 and again in 1921. They appear in the Solingen Register of 1932.

Regards,
Neil

As per usual Neil, your wealth of knowledge and research astounds me. Thank you so much for the information and I will pass along to the owner.

Beautiful, quality Solingen razor. As Neil said everything else that needed to be said, here's a candy bar:

Originally Posted by Pithor

Beautiful, quality Solingen razor. As Neil said everything else that needed to be said, here's a candy bar:

Never saw that candy bar before. Love the name.

Originally Posted by Leatherstockiings

It seems your friend is destined to become a wet shaver.

Great! Since "Kismet" means "destiny" or "fate"