I recently spent a week in Virginia and went razor-hunting in the local antique stores. I turned up two nice ones, one at the antique mall in Williamsburg and the other in Charlottesville, where my aunt and uncle live. The first's a Joseph Smith & Sons 5/8 swayback with barber's notch and...well, I'm not entirely certain how you'd classify the point. It came with what was claimed to be the original box. The second one's a Cox & Sons 6/8 round point with some nice etching on the blade. Cox & Sons were apparently from Southampton, but the back of the tang is stamped "Ground in Hamburg". Odd...
Both razors have horn scales. The J. Smith's scales are a much lighter color than I've seen before in horn. They're in great condition, so cracks around the pins, no nicks or gouges, no worms. The blades were also in very nice condition.
My uncle restores vintage fountain pens (specializing in Sheaffers) and he let me use his micro mesh sheets and simichrome to touch them up a bit. Now the gunk's off the scales and the blades are mirror-shiny. There was some minor pitting left after polishing, but nothing too serious.
Right now I'm home with my family in Israel, but when I get back to the US I'll try my luck at honing these babies.
Is anyone familiar with Cox & Sons? Or for that matter, Hamburg as a source of razor manufacture?
