Thread: I'll show you mine.... Show me yours

Gosh, I've never seen a Touron that I would not immediately desire.
They are among the finest razors ever made.

Anyway, way to poke a bear...
150 y/o razors are still very, very abundant on flea markets, antique sellers and diverse auction sites. To the point that, mainly, I don't look at them anymore.
One in 50 is about 200 years old, that's the point where I may be ticking

That being said, if you know your thing, you can find old and crappy razors.
There's a whole category that I call the "French uggos". They are 200 years old razors which are weird, gimmicky, and crap. I love them
Butterfly razors are, for the most, a sub-class of this category.

Here is a family picture of some of my uggos


The leftmost butterfly I still have to restore to satisfaction. It has in common with the second one this groove in the scales.
Now I am pretty sure that they used red wax (there were residudes) to glue some cheap decoration and create the appareance of "high end" razors.
But the blades are pretty thin, their geometry completely wrong.



You will not that often time, they did not know how to make a spacer. Here what you have are scales made by sawing the bone in the middle. Sometimes there's no spacer, only a rivet


Looks nice though. But oh boy, it's crap lol.

The butterfly on the right I gave to a curious friend. Told him that even if he could hone it to satisfaction, he would shave once perfectly, and then it would become quite blunt. And that's exactly what happened. Most of these butterfly cannot retain their edge for long.

The third razor... Well, it's something else.
It came from a previous collection, whose owner was a H. VILLARD as engraved on the scales, and was blade V of a rotation. I got it with two other blades from the same owner, and still regret to this day that I did not get all of them (I knew too little at the time).

As a contrast, the three blades (the ones above) are from the 1820s and are all pretty good (one of them is a Dumas Ainé, a very well established brand)

The Wawick is a beast, the heaviest blade of my collection, reaching 15/16 at the bottom of the smile

200 yr.old razors are much more rare. I think i have 2.

Bonjour Aggelos, I follow you on Le 3C, but my French is not that good yet!

Touron indeed made some fine razors and I used the second razor in the 5/8 set today. The razors belonged to an Etsy seller’s husband’s family. She originally believed that her father-in-law brought them back in WW2 since they found them in a box of his belongings. Until we began talking about them, she did not realize how old they were and maybe they belonged to her father-in-law’s father, who was a successful lumber mill operator in Massachusetts in the late 1800s. I think the grandfather bought them as these were expensive razors. It isn’t often that we can find the history of razors this old.

The other pair in the dressing case came from Barrington, Rhode Island, so I am beginning to suspect that there was an importer in New England, probably in New York City.

Originally Posted by Aggelos

Gosh, I've never seen a Touron that I would not immediately desire.
They are among the finest razors ever made.

Anyway, way to poke a bear...
150 y/o razors are still very, very abundant on flea markets, antique sellers and diverse auction sites. To the point that, mainly, I don't look at them anymore.
One in 50 is about 200 years old, that's the point where I may be ticking

That being said, if you know your thing, you can find old and crappy razors.
There's a whole category that I call the "French uggos". They are 200 years old razors which are weird, gimmicky, and crap. I love them
Butterfly razors are, for the most, a sub-class of this category.

Here is a family picture of some of my uggos


The leftmost butterfly I still have to restore to satisfaction. It has in common with the second one this groove in the scales.
Now I am pretty sure that they used red wax (there were residudes) to glue some cheap decoration and create the appareance of "high end" razors.
But the blades are pretty thin, their geometry completely wrong.



You will not that often time, they did not know how to make a spacer. Here what you have are scales made by sawing the bone in the middle. Sometimes there's no spacer, only a rivet


Looks nice though. But oh boy, it's crap lol.

The butterfly on the right I gave to a curious friend. Told him that even if he could hone it to satisfaction, he would shave once perfectly, and then it would become quite blunt. And that's exactly what happened. Most of these butterfly cannot retain their edge for long.

The third razor... Well, it's something else.
It came from a previous collection, whose owner was a H. VILLARD as engraved on the scales, and was blade V of a rotation. I got it with two other blades from the same owner, and still regret to this day that I did not get all of them (I knew too little at the time).

As a contrast, the three blades (the ones above) are from the 1820s and are all pretty good (one of them is a Dumas Ainé, a very well established brand)

The Wawick is a beast, the heaviest blade of my collection, reaching 15/16 at the bottom of the smile

I have several from that period, and older. More than I'd care to post. But I figured you'd like this one.

Chassig

Originally Posted by outback

I have several from that period, and older. More than I'd care to post. But I figured you'd like this one.

Chassig

What is that? I really like the shape of it.

A French make. The stamp says..Chassig.

That's all I know about it. An ol' member gifted it to me, for repairs I made on others he owns.

My bad...

It says, Chassaign. With what looks to be a top hat.

A few for your viewing pleasure. We'll start in the late 1700s and wander through the ages, and grind styles.

And no...none are for sale.

@steve56 : I'm being followed now ? lol

Indeed, it's not that often that one can get even a tidbit of history behind a razor. Besides, there are a lot of "false attributions".

Thanks for sharing !

Originally Posted by outback

My bad...

It says, Chassaign. With what looks to be a top hat.

So, by the look it's a circa 1870 model made in Thiers.
I have at least one (Chabrol), maybe two similar ones gathering dust for now in my back inventory, waiting to be properly restored. (*)

It follows that the brand might well be "Chassaigne" but there are a few of them in Thiers during the 19th century (and the 20th). Might be the same Chassaigne as Chassaigne l'Eglise, but I can't find a brand with the matching stamp.
But be my guest and try for yourself using this wonderful website

(*) yes, if anyone is interested, I'm willing to part with these. Well, truth be told, if anyone want to try old French razors, I have far more that what I can deal with, so feel free to ask.