Thread: Thornhill 7 day Ivory set

It certainly looks like a relief to me.

There's two ways to make raised letters on something like that. One is to apply the letters as part of the forging process. This is cheap, and is usually only seen on mas produced items. It also looks like crap.

A relief means that the whole thing was smooth, and rather than carving out the letters, all the metal around the letters was carefully carved away. This is a very time consuming process, even on modern CnC machines, and is a real mark of quality.

Given that these were almost certainly made before CnC machines, this had to have been done either by hand, or on a very complex jig. Either way, it would have been a labor of love for the craftsman who produced these.

Originally Posted by VeeDubb65

It certainly looks like a relief to me.

Given that these were almost certainly made before CnC machines, this had to have been done either by hand, or on a very complex jig. Either way, it would have been a labor of love for the craftsman who produced these.

now i see what you mean, and yes, I have to agree it was done by hand, at first all the scrolls look the same, but if you look closely (compare tues. & wed.) you will see the differences, so they were definately done by hand, and the lighter gray appears to be a "shading" as you can see it it almost worn off on "friday"

Then you should be even more proud to own these. Even to do this before the steel is tempered would have required and enormous amount of time and skill to do such intricate letters and scroll work. Even when ivory was a relatively common material, these would have been items of great quality and workmanship, even above the usual for the brand.

The "raised lettering" was probably done with an acid wash before the steel was hardened and annealed. The lettering was applied with wax and the bare steel was treated with acid to eat away the steel. Your best bet for ivory isn't ivory, but micarta. Real elephant or whale ivory is illegal to import to the US. All that's available is what was in the country before the import ban, and therefore very pricey. Enough to rescale a couple of the set would likely run over $300.

Beautiful set. I'm jealous!

I'm sure that you're right about the etching, but the fact remains that it was most likely done by hand, and to have acid etching that deep and that crisp, done by hand, requires a great deal of care from someone who really knows what they are doing.

Also, I disagree about the ivory. I really think that unless you could find the exact same type and age of ivory, which may be illegal and is probably impossible anyway, I wouldn't touch those scales.

Originally Posted by VeeDubb65

I'm sure that you're right about the etching, but the fact remains that it was most likely done by hand, and to have acid etching that deep and that crisp, done by hand, requires a great deal of care from someone who really knows what they are doing.

Also, I disagree about the ivory. I really think that unless you could find the exact same type and age of ivory, which may be illegal and is probably impossible anyway, I wouldn't touch those scales.

I'm not taking anything away from the craftsman who did this. Whoever it was probably started as an apprentice at age 14 and came up through the system to journeyman then maybe master.

I've seen mircarta or another man-made ivory that couldn't be discerned from ivory, but done by someone skilled in it's use. I agree, I wouldn't touch the scales either.

According to this Edwin Hill of 23 Old Bond street was the "Hill" in Truefitt & Hill.

Nice set, its great to see them cleaned up

Shaving is already more of a pleasure since "going straight".Shaving with such beautiful razors would be magic.