Thread: Any info on this straight razor?

This razor was in a lot I just purchsaed. Sorry about the picture quality, my home PC has ben down for a while and this pic was cropped from the one posted by CarrieM here: http://straightrazorpalace.com/show-...-part-1-a.html

The tang is stamped 'A.C. Pengault" and it is a wedge. I call it the French razor but I am not sure that is correct. I was wondering if anyone knew what country it originated from, other info would be interesting. I'll try to get a better picture up in the near future but no promises.

Well, this took some research! After my usual sources came up dry, I found this very interesting and entertaining report on the Paris Exhibition of 1867, which reviewed, among thousands of exhibits, cutlery and razors from England and France. I colored the reference to Pingault razors in green. This document contains good information on Sheffield razors, so here is the link: Full text of "Reports of artisans selected by a committee appointed by the council of the Society of Arts to visit the Paris Universal exhibition, 1867"

Full text of "Reports of artisans selected by a committee appointed by the council of the Society of Arts to visit the Paris Universal exhibition, 1867"

Excerpt:

There are four centres of the cutlery manufacture in France. First,
i'uy de Dome," represented by the town of Thiers. This is the
niportant for the amount of business ; the annual production, it is
said, amounts to 48,000,000 pieces ; these are exclusively cheap articles,
cond centre is " Haute Marne," represented by the town of Nogent
! Roi. It is here where the table-knife blades are made to supply the
Parisian cutlers. Third, Paris. The manufacturers here are more famed
for quality than quantity. Paris, in one respect, resembles London ;
work is put together there which is partly made in the provinces. The
Parisian cutlers, though not numerous, display good taste, and, con-
Mdering their facilities, they turn out splendid workmanship ; this is the
-pecially in surgical instruments and sportsmen's knives. The
other centre is Chatelhrault, in the department Vienne. The produc-
tions are ordinary razors and table knives. The annual value of French
cutlery amounts to about 20,000,000 frs., and by far the largest part of
their productions is for home consumption. Thiers and its environs
produce about 1'J, 000,000 frs. ; the department of the Haute Marue
ab.mt ") frs. ; Paris, 2,000,000 frs. ; and Chateluerault about

1 ,000,000 frs
ARTISANS REPORTS ON THE

commune of Oenon, Vienne, show good razors and table knives. Pingault
and Co., Chatelhe'rault, show table cutlery and ra/ors, besides a piece of
outre work, viz., a steel wheel, with two razors, two table and
two other blades branching from the circumference. The whole shows
how much labour may be spent without any useful result. They like-
wise exhibit table blades and razors in various stages of manufacture.
These show, what I long suspected, that much work done in ShelVn Id
on tha stone is done in France by the file. A common class of cutlery
is exhibited from Thiers. These have the merit of cheapness,
though the workmanship is rude. Sabatier Brothers, Bellevue, Thiers,
along with finished cutlery, exhibit a number of "beds" and "punches' 1
for " flying ;" scales, blades, spring fleams, &c. ; but whether they " fly"
by hand, or water, or steam-power, I could not ascertain. In this case
there was much to interest the practical workman. Deplanquais, Paris,
exhibits good and varied pruning shears ; and Happe, Paris, shows
good pocket and sporting knives, and gardening shears, <fec. Piault, of
Paris, shows good table cutlery and superior razors.

Originally Posted by Croaker

[COLOR=royalblue]Well, this took some research!

Wow!! Thank you very much!! How did you find this? I thought I was able to perform good searches but you top me for sure!

I've been beating my PC into submission after the crash and am almost back to normal, but haven't had the time to get my picture software back on yet. Here are some better pictures but they aren't as good as JrJoeD does and I don't have time to play with the light box. These are better than the first pic but can still stand some improvement.

Why aren't this razor and the manufacturer in the SRDB?

Nice razor, no matter what the Brit reviewer said! Looks like 1860's-1870's vintage to me, and in fine condition. I have to do research at work, so this was a fun job for me. Did you catch the poor review of the Thiers razor exhibits?!

And here I was searching for Pengault!

Nice finds!

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

And here I was searching for Pengault!

Nice finds!

Me too, until Google suggested an alternative spelling, which I then used with a France and Cutlery search string, which in turn brought me to that 1867 Paris World Exposition, by great good luck, I must admit!