A Bare-Bones History of the Graef Cutlery Company

[Hanlon]

I thought I'd share some of my recent research with you.

The Graef Cutlery Company
dates of operation: 1878-1908

Located in New York City, the Graef Cutlery Co (not to be confused with larger firms such as Graef and Schmidt) was owned and operated by Albrecht Graef for 30 years. The company was located at 104 Duane from 1878-1883, at 98 Duane from 1884-1898, and finally at 320 Broadway from 1899-1908. (Source: Trow's New York City Directory, Vols. XCII-CXXII)

I wasn't able to dig up any personal info on Albrecht Graef himself, but the city directories also printed his home addresses. In 1892 Graef moved to 28 W. 75th, which is how I know that the Albrecht Graef mentioned in the following snippet from the New-York Tribune is the same Albrecht Graef of the Graef Cutlery Co.


(New-York Tribune. May 11, 1908. pg 5.)

Without any further details to go on, I'd say that sounds like either destitution or death without heirs. Either way, it certainly underscores that the company came to a close in 1908.

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The Graef Cutlery Company is listed as "A. Graef" in Goins. Though Goins has the correct Broadway address, he missed 26 years of the company's existence, noting Graef as being in business from only 1905-1908. However, Goins does offer some detailed information (which I haven't been able to verify) that seems worth mentioning. According to him, razors made up the bulk of the Graef Cutlery Company's sales, and the razors were manufactured by Wester & Butz in Solingen, Germany. (Goins, pg 112)

I would guess that over 30 years, Graef dealt with multiple German manufacturers. But if Goins is right, Wester & Butz was probably Graef's go-to firm in the final years of his business.

[sharptonn]

Fruits of the link you so generously provided?
Do you have a Graef razor?
Very cool!

[Hanlon]

Indeed, it was thanks to Graef that I discovered all those directories. I'd tried to track this all down a few years back, but the directories weren't online then, so I was out of luck.

I've only got one Graef razor, but she's a beauty from the late 1890s with a fancy cast aluminum handle. I don't have a pic ready to post. I'll have to snap one tomorrow if I have time.

[sharptonn]

Looking forward to it!

[Hanlon]

Here's my Graef Cutlery Co razor. Not the best picture in the world, but I guess it shows the razor well enough. The "Defender" blade etch matches the embossed design on the pile side scale.

[sharptonn]

Nice! I often wonder who made the scales.
Here is an old thread about them; https://straightrazorpalace.com/razo...um-scales.html
I just finished a Simmons Keenkutter recently which has the logo spelled out on the back



It has a similar lady in front of the mirror as this T.Hessenbruch has on the back side.
This one has the Hessenbruch bear and staff logo on the front

[Hanlon]

Nice razors!

That first one in your post has a fairly rare set of scales. There were two varieties of that handle pattern made for Keen Kutter's 1026 model. The earliest (and much harder to find) variety, like the one on your razor, has large sunflowers in the design front and back.

When they revamped the pattern, they got rid of the flowers, made the woman's head smaller, changed her hair cut, and they added a reflection to the mirror. That's the design you see most often on the mark side of Keen Kutter 1026 razors, and also the design that appears on the pile side of the Gibson girl and Hessenbruch aluminum patterns.

Sorry to prattle on. For the last seven years I've been focusing the majority of my collecting energies on the cast aluminum handled razors of this era. The Graef Cutlery Co razor was the first I ever purchased. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

[sharptonn]

Awesome! Nice to find a connoisseur! I will get more pics. It seems the Keenkutter lady is different somehow than the Hessenbruch? I have to look. I want to say one faces right and the other left?

Neither of these have the original blades. They were toast.
I have seen several Defender razors for sale, yet where is the blade? Yours looks doable for restoration. Full-blade!
These are like old silver razors....Letter-openers!
Blades are often toast, it seems.

You cannot go wrong on the old aluminum scales, IMO.

[Hanlon]

Agree - those old aluminum scales are primo. I guess maybe that's why it can be so hard to find them with original blades. If the original blade broke, you sure wouldn't throw the scales away, so they got swapped around a lot.

For whatever reason, they did a mirror flip of the Keen Kutter lady when they moved her to the back of the Hessenbruch pattern. On the front scales she faces right, on the rear scales she faces left. To me she always somehow looks just a little off balance facing left.

[sharptonn]

Thanks! I definitely don't have them in front of me, but I wondered if I was crazy!
Sadly, the keenKutter seller must have used etching mag wheel cleaner on them.
Was hard to gently sand the tops using a hard foam and micromesh progression to get them old-looking again. The reflection shadow is almost gone.
Pretty crisp on the Hessenbruch, however. One other one I had went to Tarkus in the thread I linked-to. He lives in Philadelphia.
Nice blade, a hdwe above Philadelphia. Worked-spine!
Do you have more to share?