Thread: These scales cannot be original... right?

Originally Posted by Steve56

It was intentional, I’ve seen too many framebacks fitted up that way.

I don’t recall ever seeing a non-frameback fitted like that, most razors of this age aren’t hollowground thinly enough to have an issue, most were near wedge, 1/4 hollow, etc and the blades sat higher in the scales as a result.

I suspect that your razor has been swapped into a set of scales that were original to a frameback/rattler, so that, not shrinkage, would explain why they’re short for the blade. Scale swaps in the old days were fairly common. Horn doesn’t shrink much, but it can warp and cause issues.

Cheers, Steve

After identifying these scales as horn, had a look at a few other razors where I was unsure about the scale material, and it turned out another was also horn. It is a German-made French-branded razor. Interesting thing is, although the blade does not rest against the wedge, it also has an asymmetric wedge. This razor came in the same lot as the one that was the original subject of this thread, which was a box of stuff from a long-gone barber shop. There were only two French razors in the lot, and both have an asymmetric wedge.







So perhaps it isn't that uncommon even on razors which aren't framebacks.