Thread: Rare razors

I know one of the late Neil Millers favourite razors was a Korff & Honsberg razor I would put these into the thin on the ground category, also western style Iwasaki straights are also fairly rare simply because they were not produced in big numbers.

Dubl Duck Stainless - I have only seen two on the bay and the one that I have. From what I understand that are fairly rare for a razor made in the 20th century.

Rhodium and Iridium, I'd love to know what they looked like new. I imagine very shiny.

Originally Posted by andrewmurray86

Rhodium and Iridium, I'd love to know what they looked like new. I imagine very shiny.

About the same as any Crocus-polished Sheffield razor. The quantity of rhodium and iridium was very small. A few percent.

Can you elaborate on the crocus polish?

Still, Rhodium is the white in white gold and iridium is (one of) the rarest metal on the planet. I can only imagine the great difficulty in making it into an alloy with steel and rhodium.

Originally Posted by andrewmurray86

Can you elaborate on the crocus polish?

Still, Rhodium is the white in white gold and iridium is (one of) the rarest metal on the planet. I can only imagine the great difficulty in making it into an alloy with steel and rhodium.

First of all, it was rhodium and iridium because they didn't have the technology then to separate the two metals from the raw ore (which was a sideline of platinum refining), but Wollaston was able to figure out that they were different metals. He just couldn't separate them. He did successfully pull osmium out of the platinum group, however, and it was one of the metals alloyed by Stodart and Faraday.

The Sheffield crocus polish was accomplished by using specially prepared iron oxide -- called crocus because it looks like the pollen that clusters on the stamen of a crocus -- and mix it with beeswax. That got coated onto a leather-wrapped wheel. That wheel was used for the final polish. Essentially, a very lustrous, mirror finish.

Stodart and Faraday said that alloying steel with metals from the platinum group was very easy, actually. It was alloying with silver that was tricky, because if it wasn't a minute amount it was present as discreet seams through the steel.

I've got to assume that refining from the platinum group, in the 1820's, was a bit harder though.

To the best of my knowledge, with the same surface treatment, you'd be hard pressed to see any difference between steel and rhodium/iridium.

Cheers man, that's very informative! I have the understanding (from a jeweler's perspective) that platinum and other metals like rhodium, iridium are extremely difficult to work with due to there brittle structure and high melting points; cooling very quickly as well. I wouldn't imagine these properties would change too much combining with steel?? Would love to know more of the metallurgy!

Rarest around here is one I set a decent bevel on...

Originally Posted by andrewmurray86

Cheers man, that's very informative! I have the understanding (from a jeweler's perspective) that platinum and other metals like rhodium, iridium are extremely difficult to work with due to there brittle structure and high melting points; cooling very quickly as well. I wouldn't imagine these properties would change too much combining with steel?? Would love to know more of the metallurgy!

Chemistry is all about the combinations and ratios, and you usually don't get what you might expect - it is almost never a linear combination of properties (plus the iridium and rhodium and silver steels were in very very low weight % of the precious metals). Plus, the material properties can be hugely influenced by other factors - think of work hardening or tempering.

This is just a bit of speculation on my part, but a lot of the razors that came from hardware stores were just stamped with that name by the actual manufacturer therefore having a razor with the name of a retailer or reseller on it (even if it is the only one known to man) would not actually be that rare as it would be identical to all the other razors from that manufacturer just with a different name stamped into it.
If I am wrong I will happily have this post removed.