Thread: DORKO - please help.

Hello
Recently I got this Dorko. The interesting thing it has milled cutout on the both sides of spine. I don't know the real purpose - any thoughts?. Also is there any chance to identify approx the range of production years?







Thanks for your help!

I cant help but I do like it. Nice one.

The company has been around since 1920 and still operates today.

Dorko Stahlwarenhandel Solingen, Dorten GmbH & CO

They have a contact page. If you contact them and include your photos, they may be able to answer your questions.

Bob

Looks as it would be a fairly stiff grind. With the stabilizer on the lower part of the blade, the top above the groove seems to be stiffness and weight.
Pretty unusual...

Seems to me, it was a short lived, fad. I've seen several examples, that were similar in grind. Such as this Wosty.



Half hollow ground, half rattler. Maybe something to do with guys playing around, in the beginning of hollow grinding. Seems to fall in that time frame.

Dorko is a fine german brand, and since it was established in 1920 there's not much more to go to date it more than that.
There is no model name (which sometimes help, sometimes don't), the 12 is not a model reference, probably more a blank reference (which would indicate that Dorko merely "finished" on a blank). But yeah, you can try asking Dorko.

As for the mill cutout I surmise it's merely a kind of spine decoration among many others.
There are several ways such a decoration can me made. It can be milled, but it can also be "stamped" in the red hot iron with pincers or with a file AFAIK.

The cutout often is lower on the blade, I just surmise that it's that high because they worked from a standard blank.

While it's not that common, it's not that rare a decoration either.

Here are two samples

This one is quite similar to your Dorko in termes of time of creation and provenance


Attachment 320985
this one is much older (~ 1880/90) and French made.

Thank you all.
Yes, I send question to Dorko, though I doubt they will answer. As far as I learnt they do not produce razors any more and concentrated on other things. But anyway, still hope they will reply.

Originally Posted by Aggelos

Dorko is a fine german brand, and since it was established in 1920 there's not much more to go to date it more than that.
There is no model name (which sometimes help, sometimes don't), the 12 is not a model reference, probably more a blank reference (which would indicate that Dorko merely "finished" on a blank). But yeah, you can try asking Dorko.

As for the mill cutout I surmise it's merely a kind of spine decoration among many others.
There are several ways such a decoration can me made. It can be milled, but it can also be "stamped" in the red hot iron with pincers or with a file AFAIK.

The cutout often is lower on the blade, I just surmise that it's that high because they worked from a standard blank.

While it's not that common, it's not that rare a decoration either.

Here are two samples

This one is quite similar to your Dorko in termes of time of creation and provenance


Attachment 320985
this one is much older (~ 1880/90) and French made.

I think that it was done to reduce the weight of heavy blades, but I have no evidence.

I think the grove on the spine of the OP's razor was for weight reduction and ornamentation. In blades that appear to have 2 different grinds, I think it was done for 2 reasons. They would be to allow stiffness when the blade had more hollow bottom grind and make it easier to do a hollow grind. The ultimate example would be a modern bellied hollow.

Bob

I think it might have been an attempt to put a fuller in the blade. Fullers are used to lighten the weight of knives and swords without loss of strength. See https://www.reliks.com/functional-sw...swords/fuller/