Thread: Asian writing on Sheffield razor

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Not sure if that 'kanji' is just bogus, or if it actually means anything. Here is one of mine that is a bogus marketing ploys ;

Not a very complimentary saying in english on that razor.

I have a new employee that speaks Mandarin. He stated that it seems to be a fancy style and believes it is a name. It could be Japanese. He thinks it is the person that made it. I do not think that type of razor was ever made in e East.

I did shave with it this morning. It was comfortable but not as sharp as my other razors. I like wedges but sharpening a smiling blade is new to me.

Lucky find, there! Since yes indeed Hawcroft & Pearsons was out of the business well before the gold rush. So no, it was categorically not anything to do with American Chinese immigrants.

Most likely, if the characters match up to any existing Hanzi, they aren't very close to meaningful. This blog collects lots of modern uses as tattoos, but the phenomenon is quite old.

Throughout much of the 19th century Chinese imports were prestige items. The upshot being that making fake Chinese goods or Chinese-inspired goods was a successful marketing tactic.

Mine has the sharp nose also.

I mentioned this in another thread somewhere I think. I read something once that said that English manufacturers of things, especially in the 19th C, would often see asian characters on crates and whatnot off ships importing goods into the UK.

They'd then copy, as best they could from hastily scribbled notes or sending the often illiterate junior "boy" back to the wharf, the characters onto their goods to give them an asian flavour, as Asia (particularly China and Japan) was a bit of a fashion back then and it helped with sales.

So it is entirely possible those characters are someone's name. Maybe the importer, found on the invoice for something. Other characters may be "This Side Up" or "Handle With Care" or "Fragile, Do not Drop" or "Heavy. Lift with Knees" off the side of a packing crate.

James.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Not a very complimentary saying in english on that razor.

In 1870 American author Brete Harte, better known for The Outcasts of Poker Flat, and The Luck Of Roaring Camp, wrote and published the poem, The Heathen Chinee. The razor was undoubtedly capitalizing on Harte's popularity at that time.

http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/roughi.../chiharte.html