Thoughts on this one? Joseph Rodgers & Sons Razor..

[Undream]

I just snagged a lot of razors off e-bay and included was this razor:



It is a Joseph Rodgers, Sheffield razor. I thought the tang was very unusual, so, i decided I'll give it a shot to restore the blade.

now, I did some google searching, and i found this image:

Pair of Joseph Rodgers razors in ivory

What do you guys think? think this razor has ivory handle & tang?

The one thing that leads me to believe it might be celluloid is the ridges that are carved into the tang. I don't think thats very commonly done to ivory.

Either way, I didn't pay a whole lot for the lot, and included in it was another Sheffield wedge.

Any comments welcome!!!

[Jason01]

It looks like ivory but its hard to be sure from a photo. Ivory has a very distinctive grain thats quite easy to see in thin pieces, if its synthetic the grain will be very regular or non existent, if its bone it will have pores, I think theres a quide somewhere on the site that might help?

Theres no reason why they couldnt use jimping on ivory, it will take very fine detail, nice razor by the way.

[ben.mid]

Hot pin test it. If you take a hot pin to an inconspicuious area you should find out. If it melts the scale, it's not ivory. Not sure how you draw the distinction between ivory & bone though, apart from searching for the grain, as bone has tiny channels through it where tissue or blood used to be.

[Undream]

I will post my findings once I get this razor in-hand. Thanks for the info on the pin test.

[holli4pirating]

That's really cool; I've never seen a Rodgers with a covered tang, and I've never seen a stub tail with a covered tang either.

I bet she'll be a beauty once she's cleaned up.

[Undream]

Hey all -- I wanted to post an update to this thread.

I have since received the razor, and initially I was nearly positive that it was plastic. It felt so flimsy, and flexible, and smooth and I could see no grain whatsoever. I went ahead and started cleaning up the blade and stuff.

I tried the hot pin test, and the first few times I thought I was doing it wrong, or the pin wasn't hot enough, etc. So, the second night I grabbed another crappy razor that i knew was plastic, and i tried the pin test on that one and sure enough the pin almost went clear through the scale

So, I am now the owner of a beautiful Joseph Rodgers with Ivory scales and FULLY covered Ivory tang. I am not done cleaning it up, but, here are a few pictures. The grind is very interesting on it -- I've been told by the guys in chat that it is ground like a wapi?

Anyway, I'm not as good of a blade restorer as some guys in here *cough*Aaron

I've gotta pick up some higher grit sandpaper to finish'er off...since I don't have a tumbler

here are the pics: