Thread: Wm Greaves & Sons straight razor type?

Found this at a flea market for $3. Haven’t been able to find any images of this shape with the groove in the shoulder. Has anyone seen this before?

That is a very nicely razor. Double thumb notch and a well known Sheffield maker.

I have two or three Greaves with double notches.. I've also got a pair that have three notches. Plus I have a whole bowl of nachos.

And me without an lol button.
:-)

Do you have any idea of the date range of this style?

Does it say 'Sheaf Works'?
I think 1840's or earlier.
If you are interested in restoring/shaving, it seems a long way off.
Even as a decoration, it's pretty cool for the price?

Yes it does. There is some deep pitting from Rusty, some of which has marred the edge. It's just a really cool shape, I think it is hand forged?

I think most everything was hand-forged back then?

Yeah safe bet, although I don't know if they had drop forged processes back then.

Yeah. All of Greaves razors were hand forged, and that one likely dates to the mid-to-late 1830’s.

I don’t really know how long it was done this way — I’d assume since the early 1700’s — Sheffield razors were hand forged and ground, but the workmen had what they called ‘stiddy-sticks’ which were custom tools for each style of razor. It helped them be consistent, because they were CRANKING THEM OUT. Each worker would’ve made upwards of a hundred a day, especially at a major outfit like Greaves which actually controlled their full work pipeline.

The role of Sheffield manufacturers could vary from anything between buying pre-made blank blades and scales which were stamped, ground and hafted (put in scales), to Greaves at the extreme end who imported and smelted their own steel, forged the strings (bits of steel that were cut for the forger to shape), ground, pressed the scales, hafted, made the boxes and shipped finished goods.

Most were somewhere much closer to the ‘buying blanks’ side of the equation. But Greaves — they were innovators in supply control.