Thread: 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.



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

Nice gifts from a nice gal. Congrats!

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



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.

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.

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.

This might bring TC out of his cave.

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.