Thread: No Club for John Barbers?

Here's my newest ebay find.






It looks to be in pretty good shape for its age: ~174-198 years old.

A very nice example of a JB. That doesn't even look reground.

There is a club called "The Village Barbers," but it seems to be for any blade that has the word barber on it anywhere. I would love to see a club for older blades with the straight scale and stub tail design, but I wouldn't take it upon myself to create ond and I can't think of a clever name. Maybe "The good olde boys."

I've seen several around here that look pretty interesting. While the old ones don't have fancy scales, curves, grinds, and etching, they're age and robust appearance make them cool...at least to me, anyways. I can't wait to get this one home.

Here's my not-very-educated guess at its age. The razor hasn't arrived yet, so I'll have to go by the ebay pics:

The obvious: John Barber, 1810-1834


The profile shot shows a slight shoulder and slightly curved scales, which I would say place this guy around 1810-1820.

I would really be interested in what some of the experts on the old razors have to say about this one.

you guy are fee to start a club if you like call it the" barber Shop" or "ole John Barber had a razor"

The John Barber came in the mail today, and the ebay pics don't do it justice. It's in great condition, with tight, intact scales, no play in the pivot area, and a little hone wear, but not much.

For now, I'm just going to wrap it up and put it away. I'm not sure how to clean it without damaging anything. There is some surface rust around the pivot area, and the scales could use a good high-grit sanding. The pins are nice and tight, and actually look nice; I don't want to take the razor apart.

Should I just try and clean it up while it's still assembled? I'll try and get some pics tomorrow.

OK, I'm impatient sometimes. I scrubbed the JB with warm, soapy water and a soft toothbrush, then rubbed both the blade and the horn scales with OOOO steel wool, and NeverDull. The blade doesn't look much different, but the scales polished up like glass, and the brass pins look great. I'm amazed. I will definitely take some new pics tomorrow.

The inside of the scales is flaking, or peeling off in very thin layers, sort of like pine bark. I'm not sure what to do about that. If I could smooth the inside of the scales, the horn would be beautifully translucent.

Here are a few pics of the JB after I spent about an hour cleaning it up.







Before/After

Very nice work. You're right, the scales are like glass. Now it's time to get her into top shaving form!

What did you use to clean the scales?