My kind of Christmas presents!

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it and wishes of the season even to those who don't. My lovely bride gave me these 2 gems for Christmas. Westby & Son is one I can't find any information on. I assume that is buffalo horn but I'm not sure. I guess it could be ebony. Only really seen ebony on guitar fretboards so I don't know. The Najeeb Maluk sounds Paki but I've read he was an impirter from Turkey. Nice engraving and scales. These are celluloid I'm pretty sure.

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As always any information or opinions are welcome but mainly sharing. Merry Christmas!!

Although I did find this which was the only thing I could find on any Cutler named Westby at all associated with Leicester. It's from the Midland Counties' Railway Companion, September 1 1840

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Nice gifts from a nice gal. Congrats!

Being ever curious I did some more digging. Re-wording my search I found this advertisement also.

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This is from Spencer's Illustrated Leicester Almanack, Diary, Peerage, Baronetage, Directory, and General Advertiser from 1898. It appears that this could be, perhaps, not only the Westby & Son that I am searching for but also, perhaps, the "son" is the grandson of the aforementioned Thomas Westby in the advertisement 54 years earlier in 1840.
Any thoughts????

Very nice gift indeed. You are very lucky.

You know how things suddenly occur to you that didn't for a long time? On the Westby it suddenly dawned on me that the box says Westby and Son but the razor does not. It says Westby Leicester. I guess the power of suggestion had me of the mind that they matched. It's possible that the razor may be much older than I thought and possibly made by the aforementioned Thomas Westby and not by J. Westby and Son. Ashamed to say that one slithered right by me.

Update on the Westby and a warning:
So, as previously described I cracked a piece off of one of the scales on the westby which is how I discovered it was buffalo horn. I glued it back on with some epoxy and sanded it smooth but you can still see the crack plus one side is a little thinner... yada yada yada...so I decided to put some new buffalo horn scales on it...delete needless details, delete needless details... So in the process I took apart the scales and discovered that the wedge is made of lead.
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Yep. Lead. No question about it, not even the slightest uncertainty, lead.
Now, this is maybe not a grave danger but it's best to limit exposure to lead as much as possible especially when it's contacting your face with something that could cut it. It never even occurred to me that manufacturers may have used lead for scales but It's not a surprise given history. Just thought I should put that out there for community awareness.

So it's got a lead wedge so do many that I own and use. Guys actually have strops that have had a bar of lead rubbed into them to smooth edges.

It's fine, reuse it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cudarunner

So it's got a lead wedge so do many that I own and use. Guys actually have strops that have had a bar of lead rubbed into them to smooth edges.

It's fine, reuse it.

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This might bring TC out of his cave.:nono:

Oh, and those are some beautiful Christmas presents!

Okay so I had a little chicken little moment there. I admit that was a little knee jerkish and as I stop and think for a second the danger level with it is really low. I get that. I have never been an alarmist and I work with my hands with all sorts of industrial solvents and handle metals literally all day everyday. I never worried about "a well-ventilated area" or eye and respiratory protection or chemical resistant gloves... And then I got cancer and had to have a kidney removed. Renal cell carcinoma is caused by, among other things, solvents. Now who's to say that's what caused it but I'm just trying to explain my reaction I guess. I suppose the biggest reason is that I was surprised. Now that I think about it I don't know why I never expected that they would use lead. It's very malleable, easy to work with, soft and forgiving so why wouldn't you use lead. I come in contact with lead not that infrequently but I know it then and I wash my hands afterwards before I touch my face. Maybe this still seems a little paranoid but somewhere between chicken little and Hatchet Jack is a good place to be in terms of precautions. I mean, for God's sake, we scrape hair off our faces with sharp hunks of metal so how girly can we really logically be about it. Still I must confess ignorance was my better and figured it's good for everyone to know that. Maybe I'm the only one who didn't. Oh well. Knowledge is power.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

This might bring TC out of his cave.:nono:

Oh, and those are some beautiful Christmas presents!

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Let Sleeping Gorillas lie---

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I still make wedges from lead. Use fishing sinkers to shape them because they are so malleable. Period correct too, depending on the restore being done.
:tu
Sorry you developed cancer. A scary condition I’m sure.
Good luck, with your shaves, and your treatments.

Don't trash the wedge unless you want something that looks different. Most horn scales have lead wedges. You can clean it up and polish the edges so it sines again.

Also, wood scales were not really common back then. Usually it is dried out horn scales. Even after leaning this I got a razor I thought might be wood. Turned out it was horn scales that were faded.
I guess since horn scales could be stamped out they were a lot more cost effective than using wood.

EDIT:

Sorry to hear about your fight with cancer. I wouldn't call it a Chicken Little moment though. Lots of people think of lead as being hazardous.
I will say this though. I highly doubt any of the old forges and razor makers were up to OSHA standards!

That's why there ARE OSHA standards, because of things like the mad hatter affect. My dad knew a guy years ago that was a painter. He had an employee that wouldn't wear the respirator when he was stripping old paint and got lead poisoning from it. The guy went off the deep end like Sid Barrett. After probably some treatment and a good amount of time he finally came back to normal but it made him basically schizophrenic. I've heard that in ancient Rome In the time and place of the Caesars they used lead water pipes and they think that's why some of the craziness went on with the likes of Nero and Caligula

Update:
So I've been dragging my feet on this one but I finally finished the restoration on this Westby. This is the one for which I cracked the scale (buffalo horn) and glued it but it wasn't to my satisfaction.
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I reworked the blade (sanded and buffed) and replaced the scales with new buffalo horn. The scales I bought came with a small block of buffalo horn which I used for the wedge. I didn't go back with the lead that was in it originally because It was too small for the new ones and I decided not to reshape them (although, who knows, I may change my mind about that). I kind of like the shape and size of the scales with this blade. The only problem is it doesn't really fit into the box anymore although, as discussed earlier I do not believe that's the original box like I had previously thought.
I haven't honed it back up yet but I had it shave ready and shaved with it a time or two when it was in the old cracked scales. All in all I'm pretty pleased with it. It centers well, is tight in the scales, is well balanced in the hand and works well ergonomically on the strop.
As always opinions and suggestions welcome.

Glad you are still here to post!

Lead wedges have 4 thin edges exposed. just don't eat any😊

Still searching the history of this FANTASTIC shaver Westby Leicester. I think this one currently fits the "if you had to keep just one razor which would it be?" question. This is the only one I have that will do a BBS shave without going against the grain.
Anyway I found yet another member of the family or at least another cutler with the same name in Leicester. One Francis Westby who applied for patent for a razor sharpening device.
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I'm still reading up on what it is but from a historical perspective, this was in 1829 so this pushes the date back at least another 11 years from the aforementioned Thomas Westby's advertisement in 1840 and likely longer since he almost certainly had to have already been a cutler for some time to be applying for patent on a device related to it (speculating here).
I'm still trying to figure out if this is the same Westby family as Westby and Son mentioned in the 1870s also in Leicester.