Vintage Vitry Freres

Hello buds,

I've got myself a nice french Vitry Freres razor few days ago. Seems to be in very good condition, I added it to be restored queue. The company seems to be very old and the razor looks to be made in 1900-1920s to me. Maybe tat earlier. Could anybody give me some insight about the company and an estimated date? Never used a Vitry straight before, are they good shavers? Also the scales looks like aluminum to my experience, but they feel a little bit heavy to be aluminum. I don't think I'm lucky to have silver scales here but can they be steel scales? Thank you

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Maybe the scales are steel..Never heard of Vitry until now but i like tha shape, that could end up looking lovely :)

A Google search showed Vitry Freres as being founded in 1961 according to a company profile on bloomberg.com however there is a company named Vitry in Paris that claims to be in operation since 1795 they are both cosmetic and personal care companies. Most likely that razor was a contract razor. No clue who it was made by if this is correct.
I would think if the scales are.steel they would show rust since.the.blade shows a little. They could possibly be pewter.

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Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

A Google search showed Vitry Freres as being founded in 1961 according to a company profile on bloomberg.com however there is a company named Vitry in Paris that claims to be in operation since 1795 they are both cosmetic and personal care companies. Most likely that razor was a contract razor. No clue who it was made by if this is correct.
I would think if the scales are.steel they would show rust since.the.blade shows a little. They could possibly be pewter.

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Yes Vitry company tells a bit of their story. They were making surgical tools, cutlery and personal care products. So I think they were made in house for the company itself. It bears the founders name. Anyways you
are right about the rust, its less likely them to be steel. They have that matt greyish dull look of aluminum but somehow feel tough and heavy. I worked on some razors with pewter wedges but not scales before. Were pewter really used as scale material?

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Originally Posted by JOB15

Maybe the scales are steel..Never heard of Vitry until now but i like tha shape, that could end up looking lovely :)

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Yes I saw that potential. Just hoping to find some good quality steel there. French straights are a gamble to restore. Sometimes they may have legendary steels sometimes just meh. We'll see.

There were later production razors for the medical industry that had stainless scales. Is it a symmetrical grind? An asymmetric grind would indicate a microtome razor for lab work.

This is a very good brand. They also did luxury models with ivory handles.

This one looks like a small one for me.

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Originally Posted by RezDog

There were later production razors for the medical industry that had stainless scales. Is it a symmetrical grind? An asymmetric grind would indicate a microtome razor for lab work.

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Yep, it has a near wedge quarter hollow symmetrical grind. Would be special if it was a microtome but I'm not that lucky. :)

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Originally Posted by Thaeris

This is a very good brand. They also did luxury models with ivory handles.

This one looks like a small one for me.

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Can you estimate a date? It's a 5/8.

Yes Vitry Freres was a well known cutlery from Nogent.
They existed min. since middle 1800’s. At the Exposition Universelle de Paris in 1867 they were listed as: „ Coutellerie en gros, instruments de chirugie, ……..“. In later exhibitons they are named as Fernand Schwob, maison Vitry Freres.
In Camille Pages book -La Coutellerie depuis l’origine jusqu’a nos jours- you can take a look in their polishing and sharpening workshop (for knifes) in the late 19’th century:

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Source: BNF


As for dating your razor, I would say somehow in the early 1900’s.

Regards Peter

Thank you Peter!

By the way I compared it with my other aluminum scaled razors yesterday and now I'm sure they are absolutely not aluminum. Compared to aluminum they are more grayish, smooth and noticeably heavier. I think they are medical grade stainless steel. Doesn't matter that much tho, I'm thinking of replacing them either with black horn or some burlwood scales. Or maybe snakewood, snakewood's appearance ofter goes well with french straights' elegance.

What do you think?

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Originally Posted by hatzicho

Yes Vitry Freres was a well known cutlery from Nogent.
They existed min. since middle 1800’s. At the Exposition Universelle de Paris in 1867 they were listed as: „ Coutellerie en gros, instruments de chirugie, ……..“. In later exhibitons they are named as Fernand Schwob, maison Vitry Freres.
In Camille Pages book -La Coutellerie depuis l’origine jusqu’a nos jours- you can take a look in their polishing and sharpening workshop (for knifes) in the late 19’th century:


Source: BNF


As for dating your razor, I would say somehow in the early 1900’s.

Regards Peter

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Can't say any better :-)

For the scales, I'd rather go with black horn or bone (similarly to what could be done at the time), reproduicing the original shape. :-)

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Originally Posted by Ozgun

By the way I compared it with my other aluminum scaled razors yesterday and now I'm sure they are absolutely not aluminum. Compared to aluminum they are more grayish, smooth and noticeably heavier. I think they are medical grade stainless steel. Doesn't matter that much tho, I'm thinking of replacing them either with black horn or some burlwood scales. Or maybe snakewood, snakewood's appearance ofter goes well with french straights' elegance.

What do you think?

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Well (stainless) steel would fit since it was used for medical instruments as scales. Also the typical chirugical razors i.e. from Aesculap have been mounted in stainless steel scales because of the antibacterial effect. Stainless steel was used for razors and scales somewhat after 1910. So that would also fit to the timeframe of your razor imho.

As for the scales I would also tend to horn since this matches somehow the history of these old razors better than maybe a snakewood.

Regards Peter

If those are the original scales, in good condition -- and they seem to be, on both counts -- I'd leave 'em (and leave new scales for "naked" blades). Just MHO... YMMV.

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Originally Posted by JBHoren

If those are the original scales, in good condition -- and they seem to be, on both counts -- I'd leave 'em (and leave new scales for "naked" blades). Just MHO... YMMV.

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Yeah, I kind of agree. Original is always a good choice. Still, horn would look really nice..and period correct. For me it would be
Option A) leave original...
Option B) horn scales. If option B is unacceptable, see option A

Well It's gonna be either black horn or bone then. I rarely keep the original scales as I feel myself a renovator rather than a true restorer unless it's a very particular razor. Also since I'm a luthier I love working with exotic woods for scales. Never worked with bone before tho. I have some thoughs on my mind, I'll share the finished photos here when it's ready.

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Originally Posted by Ozgun

Well It's gonna be either black horn or bone then. I rarely keep the original scales as I feel myself a renovator rather than a true restorer unless it's a very particular razor. Also since I'm a luthier I love working with exotic woods for scales. Never worked with bone before tho. I have some thoughs on my mind, I'll share the finished photos here when it's ready.

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If you decide to work with bone, I for one would really appreciate some in-progress photos showing your process.

Of course!