Thornhill 7 day Ivory set

I just acquired a 7 day set of Thornhill razors, the only info i have on them is that Thornhill of 144 New Bond st. is listed as a "cutler to her Majesty" and dates between 1869-1890, so if you have any additional info I would appreciate it.

the blades are great with no pitting at all:D just a dingy patina, they are quite "wedgey" I already tried some Maas on one blade, and the result were outstanding, they have double jimps, and i really like the engraving on the top of the blades. three of the scales have cracks, but where I would get Ivory I have no idea, also i found it interesting that the spacers appear to be lead. The case is labled "Edwin Hill" so I am not sure if this is original or not, anyway, bad photography aside, here they are

http://www.concido.com/razor/assets/..._100_19421.jpg
http://www.concido.com/razor/assets/..._100_19431.jpg
http://www.concido.com/razor/assets/..._100_19441.jpg
http://www.concido.com/razor/assets/..._100_19501.jpg
http://www.concido.com/razor/assets/..._100_19471.jpg

Very nice!! 7-day sets are cool... one day :)

- Scott

Great looking set....Congrats and ENJOY!!!!!!!

Ooh I saw that one for sale.
Nice :rock:

Those look so nice.

Thanks guys !

they cleaned up really nice with some Maas and I just honed one up yesterday, and they shave was smooth as silk ! I will get some new (and better) pics posted

now I just need to find some ivory to replace the broken scales

it also seems that the the top of the blade where the days of week & scrolls are seems to be inlaid, I have never seen this before, but looking closely you can see a slight seam, I will try to get some close up pics posted to show this

"Broken" scales?

If they are only cracked a tiny bit near the pins on a couple of the razors, I'd leave them alone. I don't know anything about working with ivory, but I'd just see if there's a way to reinforce the original material somehow. I bet they'd have to replace the entire scale with new ivory to do any mending. I mean, originally these were two pieces of ivovry put together with the lead spacers, so they'd have to stay that way to be true to the original design. And I don't know who could do that or for how much.

I have an ivory razor with what looks like a lead spacer at the bottom pin also. Probably from around the same era, but it's Swedish. It has what looks like a little crack near the pin, but it doesn't affect it negatively, so... I just chalk it up to it being over a hundred years old. I love ivory.

What a GREAT score!
I am eagerly awaiting MORE PICS
:)
:)
Tom

well the wife took the camera with her to some retreat so the cleaned up pics will have to wait until monday, sorry for the delay, until then i bumped up the resolution on the original ones I posted

as to the scales, one of them is broken at the tip (you can seen one of the broken ones in the pics above) the other is broken at the wedge,the broken tip one is still functional, the other has been repaired but it is very fragile, so it is kind of a dilema. normally I would probably rescale them all, but after the great shave I got, I just cant bring myself destroy the original look.

I was thinking that if I could find some ivory, I could entice on of our scalemasters to make me some new ones that matched the old ones, the old scales are quite thin, but seem to be very strong, and it makes the razor very nimble.

I will keep you posted guys

Oh WOW!

I've been keeping and eye on this thread and trying not to drool, but I just noticed something with those higher-res pictures.

Am I right that the engraving on the back of the spine is actually not and engraving, but a base relief?

Lovely! What a great set. Congrats on that.

What a beautiful set! Nice find. Thanks for sharing the pictures with us.

Well done my friend ,they are a great find. Try rubbing baby oil into the scales as this will bring some life back into them & norish the ivory ,It my even help close up the cracks.
Iv'e used this with great results on my own stag & ivory handled knives iv'e owned in the past.Paul

3rd one down in the last picture (blade close-up) is my ideal shape of razor. Very nice indeed.

Adorable! :bow

Beautiful!

The only place I know of that sells Ivory is Jantz Supply Co. You can do a Google search. From their Catalog though, I don't know if they sell pieces big enough to make scales, but you can give them a shot. Seems like I remember one of the resto guys posted an ivory set recently.

beautiful shoulderless razors nice engraving work on the spines also cant wait to see them all polished up

Quote:

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Originally Posted by currentman

well the wife took the camera with her to some retreat so the cleaned up pics will have to wait until monday, sorry for the delay, until then i bumped up the resolution on the original ones I posted

as to the scales, one of them is broken at the tip (you can seen one of the broken ones in the pics above) the other is broken at the wedge,the broken tip one is still functional, the other has been repaired but it is very fragile, so it is kind of a dilema. normally I would probably rescale them all, but after the great shave I got, I just cant bring myself destroy the original look.

I was thinking that if I could find some ivory, I could entice on of our scalemasters to make me some new ones that matched the old ones, the old scales are quite thin, but seem to be very strong, and it makes the razor very nimble.

I will keep you posted guys

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You know, I've been thinking about this one, and I really hope you don't replace any of the scales. The fact of the matter is that even if you get ivory, unless it's the same type of ivory, and similar age, it will never match. Anybody who is paying attention will always be able to take one look in the box and spot the ones with the replaces scales.

Just my $0.02

my god!!! those are so beautiful I would never change anything on those!

Thanks guys !! "veedub65" I am not sure about "base relief" but they are NOT engraved, the wording and scrolls are raised, i tried to capture it in the new pics, but unfortunately my photography skills still suck.... I still have more work to do as far as polishing, but here is some more victorian era razor porn for your enjoyment

http://www.concido.com/razor/assets/..._100_19521.jpg
http://www.concido.com/razor/assets/..._100_19721.jpg
http://www.concido.com/razor/assets/..._100_19631.jpg
http://www.concido.com/razor/assets/..._100_19841.jpg
http://www.concido.com/razor/assets/..._100_19771.jpg
http://www.concido.com/razor/assets/..._100_19761.jpg
http://www.concido.com/razor/assets/..._100_19641.jpg

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.

Quote:

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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.

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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.

Quote:

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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.

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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:cool:

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