Thread: Bergfeld & Sohn Globusmen?

I had posted this in another thread, but wanted to see if I could get more responses.


I have the opportunity to pickup a Bergfeld & Sohn Globusmen that looks like it has never been honed, much less used. It was missing the top to the box. It had a lot of gold wash but had some surface rust on the tang. I think it would have to lose the gold wash in this area, but otherwise it was dead mint. Any ideas what would be a good price for this one? Thay have it marked at $125 but I think I could get it for $90-$100.

Also if anyone has any info on these razors, I would greatly appreciate the input. To me the cool thing about any straight is not only the great shave, but also the history associated with the razor.

Thanks,
Tod

There is a thread about them in the Russian SR-forum Britva.ru. Now I don't know about your Russian - mine's not that good. But our co-member Manah is on that forum and in prementioned thread too; he seems to manage in Russian very well and he knows a lot about the history of all kinds of razor makers. You could try passing him a PM.

- edit -

And then there is this archived thread on our own forum.

And at the German forum Nassrasur.de there's even more info, including something written by the great-grandson of the company's founder. I'll try and see if I can do a quick translation.

Originally Posted by Oldengaerde

There is a thread about them in the Russian SR-forum Britva.ru. Now I don't know about your Russian - mine's not that good. But our co-member Manah is on that forum and in prementioned thread too; he seems to manage in Russian very well and he knows a lot about the history of all kinds of razor makers. You could try passing him a PM.

Thanks for the info! I will send him a PM. I was able to pull a pic off the forum of the exact same razor that I've been looking at, for information. The one I'm looking at looks as good as this one. Mine just has some surface rust on the tang. I think it will have to lose the gold wash here.

Tod

So here it is (originals at Nassrasur.de):

Originally Posted by Lars Werner, translated from German

"I'm the great grandson of Edmund Bergfeld and the grandson of Rudolf Bergfeld, who founded the Globusmann firm of Solingen. It has 52 registered trademarks, a.o. Sahara, Camel, Globi and Globusmann incl. spelling variations. The company was established in 1912 in Solingen and located in the Baustrasse in Solingen-Ohligs until the death of my grandfather (1984). It exported goods all over the world! The market share of Glubusmann in the 1930's must have been huge. According to my family even bigger than Wilkinson and Gilette today (I think this kind of comparison is quite faulty).[...]

Originally Posted by FotografDo, translated from German

[...] Sahara was the trade-mark owned by KARL Bergfeld. Karl then went bust with his Sahara razor blade factory and his brother RUDOLF subsequently bought both factory and trade-mark. That must have been somewhere in the 1950's.

Edmund, Karl's and Rudolf's father, was the true founder and entrepreneur. He was the motor behind the company and brought it to the foreground. The company was first located in Solingen at, I think, Dahler Feld.

It wasn't until the beginning of the 30's that the Baustraße 6 was built, and nr 8 was bought a little later. Edmund lived on the first floor after he retired from the business. His maid was granted a life-long right to live there too, which enraged his son Rudolf. There a floodload of court deeds from the 60's trying to settle things like the maid's heating requirements.

Back to the company.
The third reich era was the company's heyday. Rudolf Bergfeld tells the company safe (app. 1,8x1,2x1,2m) couldn't even be closed because of the amounts of black money. 'Ol' Edmund would stand atop a stool adressing his workers how much he'd really like to pay them more, but wasn't allowed to (in Hitler's time there were wage and fixed prices acts). He and his sons must have had a hard time falling asleep at night for laughter.

During third reich times, Globusmann Specialfabrik feiner Rasierklingen Edmund Bergfeld & Sohn (as was the full company name)[G special factory of fine razor blades E B & Son] was the fourth largest producer of razor blades.

These were made of carbon steel. Not at all like the present day ones. Present day shaves with them would result in bloody trails on your face. The price per blade was 10 pfennig [10x 1/100 of a reichsmark]. In the 60's I calculated the production cost of these blades and it amounted to 8 DM [German mark] a thousand. That's 0.8 pfennig a piece. Keep in mind that this was app. 30 years later, and you get the idea.

Back to razor blade production. After WWII, Wilkinson and Gillette came to Germany. Gillette threatened every Solingen razor blade maker with hefty reparation sums for patent infringement. Rudolf Bergfeld subsequently withdrew from this market without resistance, and tried to make business elsewhere.

The next step was building up scissor and straight razor production. This was done with home workers, as this was the least capital intensive method. Every home worker just did a minimum number of suboperations.

Accordingly, straight razor blanks were hammered at Herkenrath's, then went to the hardening shop and then ground/honed. The grounders/honers were located almost exlusively in Haan near Solingen. That was the reason why Haan was incorporated in the Solingen area in the Law to defend the name Solingen [Gesetz zum Schutze des Namens Solingen]. Otherwise, NO razor would have been allowed to be called Solingen.

In the last step the scales were attached. They were bought ready-made. Materials like ivory were replaced by horn (I think Bakelite too) and other plastics from early on. The trademark was inlaid in German silver [neusilber; nickel silver, 'white copper'] in the scales. The scaler was the last one to handle the razor before is was packed.

The packaging usually consisted of a high quality cardboard box. To protect it from rust, the razor was wrapped in oil paper. The blade itself would be rubbed with vaseline. In this way, the straight razors were protected against corrosion for years.

During the 70's there remained in Haan about 10-15 razor grounders/honers. I recall orders from Albania, where six thousand pieces per order were bought. Delivery time would on average be around eight months.

The home market for straight razors in Germany was at this time negligible. Apart from Eastern Europe, main markets were in the near and middle East; the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon etc.

Well, so much for a brief glimpse into this business.

Great information.

All I know is that they are really good shavers.

Lynn

Great information, not only for Bergfeld & Sohn, but for the entire Solingen manufacturing business in the 1940's and on. I never dreamed when I asked this question that I would get the perspective from the grandson of the Bergfeld empire!

Many Thanks Oldengaerde!

Tod

They also made a razor under the "Blue Diamond"
name,mine is from 1938

This is an old thread, but I thought I would ask here. I am a big fan of the Globusmen Gold razors, I have two of them and they are one of the finest shavers I have.

A google search brought me here
GLOBUSMANN - Ein Unternehmen der Herriger-Gruppe

The site is only in German, but apparently this company which traces it roots back to 1918 currently produces decorative balls made of exotic wood. Their logo appears to be identical to the one associated with the razors.

Something tells me Martin103 might be able to shed some light on this.

I wish to apologize in advance for opening the floodgates of ball jokes.