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Received several new razors in the mail recently, haven't cleaned this one up yet, but curious if anyone has seen one like this previously. Previous owner guessed that it might have been a souvenir from the 1892 worlds fair in Chicago; seems plausible really have no idea. I'd be interested in other thoughts and comments. Thanks for being an awesome community! Attachment 288561Attachment 288562Attachment 288563Attachment 288564
It’s a keeper. I have not seen that one before and the scales seem to be intriguing. A little mother polish, a little 0000steel wool and some elbow grease and you should have it looking spectacular. I have quite a few Henckels and am a little envious.
Thanks RezDog. When I was looking up Henckels info in general after receiving this this one (and two others also, images below from previous owner), I read several of your responses to other/new Henckels owners. I greatly appreciate your input.
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Very cool! See if it has a number or day of the week on top of the spine?
It could have been part of a set/pair..
Rezdog! The elusive #1!
Thanks Sharptonn! Nothing on the spine except some stubbon black marks. I've only used polish so far, but everything looks muuuchhhh better. I'm about to see if I can put a proper edge on it. More to follow and I'll grad a few Post-polish images too.
Looking forward to seeing it.
Somewhere around here, I have a Columbus Henckels box.....I think?
Now that is something that I wasn't expecting anyone to say. Would be pretty amazing to see a box that matched up w this razor. Here are the pics! I haven't done anything but polish, not sure if I want to do much more to this. I'll be posting magnified pictures of the edge in the Llyn Idwal hone post in the hone forum.
It seems that this razor was previously stored so that only one side was exposed to a light source. The front scale is faded considerably compared to back one. Also, hard to see in the pictures as it looks a bit like a shadow, but the material on the tang is also two-tone where it was sitting in the closed position.
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Old Hard-rubber/bakelite. Turns brown after a while
Always polishes up to near pitch black after a bit. Looks good!
So I shaved with it Monday morning and wasn't pleased. Totally due to my honing trials I'm sure. Had to finish across the grain with a properly sharp razor. I've since read more and will be giving this stone another shot at being a finisher this weekend.
You can put some colour back with a liquid for footwear. The stuff I have is called boot dressing.
As far as the edge goes, a bad shave is a poor bevel set. All the magic is on the 1K and 4K. If your apex is perfect you are half way there. If you have not yet tried it, perfect the 1K shave.
I thought the brown was a before pic...
Polishing takes the brown to black. A buffer is faster, but can be hazardous without experience.
Super fine steel-wool followed by polishing with Maas or semichrome.
It will go back to black after a while.
Rezdog is correct about the bevel-set.
Nothing to worry about as it does not work out. I have same at times.
Go back to the 1k and begin anew. Chances are you were almost there!
Thanks for all the advice and encouragement. I'll give another go this weekend when I can sit down nice and refreshed without interruption.
I believe the scales are Celluloid (owner specifically collected straight razors with Celluloid scales), I did put them lightly under my buffer, the plain side took a pretty good shine, but not so much on the decorative side. It certainly is interesting. I probably won't mess with them much more, I'm happy with then in their current state.
They are Bakelite. Famous for turning brown and super-stable.
Were they cell, they would not have turned brown. As long as you are happy with them!
Great scales!
Sure enough, bakelite. Slight formaldehyde smell when heated up. So that effectively mark the earliest possible production date, right. Just looked it up, bakelite invented 1907. So much for 1892!
I would say 1900 to 1930, Not a souvenir. I think?
Lots of razors heavily marked as souvenirs.
Seems that brown is a form of oxidation. Particularly brought about by sunlight?
Used to be common to see the one scale brown and the other black.
Uncommon to see much at all these days.
Rub the brown with polish and see the brown on the polishing rag.
Eventually, the scale will be closer to black. Nice Piece!
