Thread: What is the barber's notch for?

I will box mine up right away and send them to you. Thanks for letting me know. I wouldn't want to get into any trouble..LOL

Originally Posted by mackie

I will box mine up right away and send them to you. Thanks for letting me know. I wouldn't want to get into any trouble..LOL

Grinding mine down to square, spanish or french points when I get home

Damn. Now I have to get a barbers license.

I think it's a Shibboleth.
Unintentionally, of course.

(Not trying to be funny, I just read that page recently and it seemed relevant.)

You guys have it all wrong. Wade & Butcher were Jewish, and they called it a "Barber's Notch" because anti-semitism in London was so high in the 19th century they couldn't well name it the "Moyl's Apprentice", the trendy name Henry Sears would no doubt have marketed the tool under in a freer, more egalitarian time.

I will say holli4pirating has the best answer on this.

The question is how or why this was started remains. I will answer...

While it was adapted into a type of "license", if you will, it was started by accident, more so out of argument. There are a couple of variations of the story. To elaborate on the story started by holli, the barber began arguing with the salesman saying he was the best barber and wanted a special razor which everyone could identify him by. A request for a custom blade so to speak. The salesman, needing to make the sale, said he would do something that had not been done to any razor and would surely be sought after.

The brilliant salesman jogged to the nearest blacksmith, grabbed his file and created a notch. The notch was brought back to the barber and quickly agreed upon as a likeable item. They coined the "barber's notch". As this quickly became a conversation piece, the barber's business really began to take off. All the people wanted to see this notched razor which was legended to be the sharpest of them all. Other uses and such for the notch began circulating after that.

The other story is the barber actually dropped the razor on its end and damaged it, he then took a file and created a "notch" in an e'ffort to make the chip that was created look more "natural". People would always ask about it when they were shaved. It just caught on and was adapted into what we see today.



Now, if you believe any of the above text....I would like for you to PM me. I have some real estate I need to sell.

Did we mention the barber's name was John Barber...

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

Did we mention the barber's name was John Barber...

John Moishe Barber?

Back in the day barbers were in the dual profession of barber-surgeon. The barbers notch is convenient for heating and removing leaches.

I resurrected Alton Browns great great great great grandpappy and he was a barber. He said something about this, yelled "NO UNITASKERS!" then tried to eat my brain, so I had to shoot him.

Originally Posted by FatboySlim

It seems there's no definitive answer to this nagging question, although several good possibilities are listed at this link in the Wiki FAQ.

My own theory? They created Barber's Notches because they somehow knew that 100 years later...I'd really like them.

+1 on that - a marketing exercise when the word 'cool' meant 'a bit warmer than cold'.