Thread: 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

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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:


Source: BNF


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

Regards Peter