Marshes and Ponds

Jeez I can't go anywhere without looking for a razor now! But I find some great ones when I look.
This is a Marshes and Shepherd wedge from Pond Works with a W(Crown)R Hallmark. It also has a barber notch which I've always found super cool. It looks like some previous owner decided it would be a great idea to sharpen this with his grinding wheel. Some deep gouges. Here come the hours of hand sanding with low grit sandpaper. Anyhoo...After about 1hr of sanding we're looking pretty good. I MAAS'd the stamp so I could drool on it while I was sanding the rest!
Here's the before and a tease!

What a beauty! Thanks for sharing! Don't you have a pic showing the full blade?

I was really surprised when the scales polished up well. There's some patina left on the razor and it's not a mirror finish. But it's very very old and I'm OK with it not shining like it was new.
Clavichord I'm impressed with your collection of Sheffield blades. Thanks for the post on Sovereign Duty marks as well. Looking for the W crown R in the silver marks pages is not easy.

Here's more pics

very nice, Turned out great. Hone it yet?

Very nice! Thumb notch, barber's notch, and most all of the imprinting still nice and deep. Good score!!!

That got me to thinking about some strange places I've at least thought about going into to find SRs. Naturally there's antique stores (every one I see) as well as flea markets and the occasional knife shop (got a nice NOS Bismarck at one).

Some other places I've hit have been a barber school, VFW gathering, and put the word out to all my friends and family to keep a look out for me. I've also listened patiently as someone was telling me about a friend of theirs who's father passed away and had a huge amount of "stuff" that had to be sorted and sold at an estate sale - and slipped in a request for any and all straight razors found. Found out yesterday there's a few dozen headed my way from that request! I've also thought about hitting gatherings where people in their 70s and older might gather but can't quite figure out how I might bring up the subject of excess razors the guys may want to let go for a nice price - and it seems somewhat crass unless I manage to strike up a serious friendship with some of the guys.

My searches seem fairly mundane but I'm sure some of you have some very imaginative places that you've tried to score a razor? I'll be there's some very creative sources you've hunted - maybe someone has some places they look that the rest of us haven't considered?

I had a Marshes, it was smoooooooooooooth!

Beautiful razor. Nice horn scales. Thanks for showing.

I like to sand scratches like that out of the scales and then polish them. It's funny how many razor owners from yore would scratch their names or initials into the scales using a pin or something. Their name obviously meant something to them, but it means nothing to me.


Chris L

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Originally Posted by ChrisL

Beautiful razor. Nice horn scales. Thanks for showing.

I like to sand scratches like that out of the scales and then polish them. It's funny how many razor owners from yore would scratch their names or initials into the scales using a pin or something. Their name obviously meant something to them, but it means nothing to me.


Chris L

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This is the second Sheffield I've bought with names scratched into it. I guess when you only had one razor, and it was a goodun, you wanted to mark it so no one else could claim it.

Hi Paul, Awesome find!! That is a good looker. Love the Knotches!
Nice clean up too.
Mike

I'm always a bit impressed by Marshes' blades: at the beginning of the 1830's those guys were making razors with such modern shapes! thin tails for the taste of the time, something you can find only some years later between other manufacturers.

Very well done! I agree with you about the patina.

An uncommon and vey nice razor! love the thumb notch. The horn survived all those years in fabulous condition, too. Great find and I hope it turns out to be a superior shaver for you.

Awesome! Just so you know -- the British hallmark on your razor actually says W R, not WG.

W R = 1830-1837

I also am amazed at Marshes & Shepherd's blade styles...for being in the 1830s it is truly bizarre that they were coming up with this stuff. Here is a blade in awesome original condition that I have that looks like Seraphim got ahold of it:

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/marsh.JPG

They were definitely a forward thinking bunch.

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Originally Posted by Undream

Awesome! Just so you know -- the British hallmark on your razor actually says W R, not WG.

W R = 1830-1837

I also am amazed at Marshes & Shepherd's blade styles...for being in the 1830s it is truly bizarre that they were coming up with this stuff. Here is a blade in awesome original condition that I have that looks like Seraphim got ahold of it:

http://www.adrian.edu/%7Ebmaggard/marsh.JPG

They were definitely a forward thinking bunch.

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Great looking blade!
Thanks for the correction.
I'm not sure why I wrote WG... I even searched WR Hallmarks for about 2 hrs before posting:banghead:

Here are two more for those into razor porn:

One thing I noticed was that the crown is sideways in these. I noticed also that the spines are tent shaped (mine is). One thing mine doesn't have... a frigging name stamp... grrr...

I love this razor though, feels like my 65 chevy one ton truck, doesn't get there fast, but it's smooth ride when loaded :D

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Originally Posted by DwarvenChef

I love this razor though, feels like my 65 chevy one ton truck, doesn't get there fast, but it's smooth ride when loaded :D

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I agree, these razors have a good amount of weight and make you feel like you're working out while shaving!

Dwarvenchef and Joed those are some nice razors!:tu

That top pic from Joed is nice,what type of scale is that?