Thread: My Great Granfather's Hardware

Upon learning about my new hobby, my father gave me all of my great grandfather's str8s for Christmas. None are shave ready and all need restoration. So the plan is to read, learn and restore. Then ship to Lynn for honing as I have no hones yet and I want to make sure the job is done right for these. I bought an old FRN Crown and Sword today for $18.00 at an antique shop to restore first before digging into my family's history. It is the last picture shown.

Here they are:
1. FWE Special - Solingen
2. Black Smith - SR Droescher, New York, Made in Germany
3. Lemaire - Solingen
4. KABAR - Union Cutlery, Olean New York
5. El Barbero - A Paris
6. Davide Collini, Milano
7. FRN Crown & Sword for my first restore

Some nice iron you've got there. Having a shave with great grandfather's razor would be a wonderful thing few are lucky enough to experience. When I was up in New Jersey in the '80s FWE was one of the brands that the old barbers favored. I have a few and they are all great razors and the Droescher as well. I have no hands on experience with the others but they all look real good.

A great lineup of blades. They look like they will all come back to life very nicely. What a great gift.

Your grandfather had some nice razors! I have shaved with FWE and Droeschers, and can highly recommend them. I will make you a bet that the Droescher ends up being the best shaver of the lot. Wish I had family heirloom razors-I would restore them, or have it done, and enjoy carrying on a lost family tradition by shaving with them.

Agreed, nice razors. That Droescher is very nice. I bet if you look closer at the marking for the razor you purchased you'll see an E for ERN rather than FRN.

Chris L

Great Grandpa had good taste in razors! Get them cleaned up and honed (see classified section on this site) then put them pack in service!

I keep wishing there were some family heirlooms for me...but I'm quite sure a DE is the best I'll ever run across.

I might suggest restoring more than one before working on Great Grandpa's stash. They aren't going anywhere, and I'm still learning TONS with every restore (and I'm into # 4 or 5).

Now, the REAL reason I dropped in this thread is to let you know:

"My Great Grandfather's Hardware" is an extremely funny thread title to run across late at night. Well done!

You lucky, lucky dog.

I don't know anything about the others, but I have a restored FWE (with the fancy scales, same as yours) and it shaves like a hot knife through butter. Congrats on the great find, and I hope the restoration goes well!

Originally Posted by JeffE

I don't know anything about the others, but I have a restored FWE (with the fancy scales, same as yours) and it shaves like a hot knife through butter. Congrats on the great find, and I hope the restoration goes well!

Thanks for the input - that is one of my favorite razors.