Thread: Interesting find....

Yesterday I went to a local antique shop and found an interesting straight. The blade says that it is made by Eagle Brand Cutlery, then the shank says Parker Cut. Co. Surgical Steel and the back side of the shank says Japan. It's a bit smaller than a normal straight, maybe about an inch shorter in total length with the blade being about half an inch shorter than a normal straight. The real neat part though is the scales...

The razor seems to have a thin bronze set of scales with mother of pearl laid over them and two stripes made of abalone on either side and the spacer inside the scales appears to be made of coral. It's a wedge or near wedge and the point is kind of a shallow backwards S shape. I'll post pics later, but I just thought this was a really interesting straight. Anybody know anything about this brand or anything?

James Parker was president of the National Knife Collectors Association. Bought W.R. Case & Sons and ran it for a couple of years and sold it. He left the NKCA and started his own magazine The American Blade along with another knife collectors club and with it Parker Cutlery. Jobbed out a lot of pocket knives and I suppose some razors. I have never owned any of he stuff he had manufactured so I can't say more than that. He passed away some years ago and his son is a big time pocket knife seller on ebay.

Thanks for the info. Jimmy!

Unfortunately I bought one of those Parker razors and I loudly proclaim it to be a piece of garbage. It was in a three razor lot and the other two were good, so I made the deal. I never could get the blade to take a shaving edge. It is very poorly made, undersized and ranks among the Pakistanis, Zeepks, and others of that ilk. Oh, yeah, and did I mention that I didn't like it? Regards - Walt

Originally Posted by Walt

Unfortunately I bought one of those Parker razors and I loudly proclaim it to be a piece of garbage. It was in a three razor lot and the other two were good, so I made the deal. I never could get the blade to take a shaving edge. It is very poorly made, undersized and ranks among the Pakistanis, Zeepks, and others of that ilk. Oh, yeah, and did I mention that I didn't like it? Regards - Walt

We're waiting -- how did you really feel about it?

Originally Posted by Walt

Unfortunately I bought one of those Parker razors and I loudly proclaim it to be a piece of garbage. It was in a three razor lot and the other two were good, so I made the deal. I never could get the blade to take a shaving edge. It is very poorly made, undersized and ranks among the Pakistanis, Zeepks, and others of that ilk. Oh, yeah, and did I mention that I didn't like it? Regards - Walt

Was it just a parker or did it say eagle cutlery on it? Not really sure how much of a difference it makes, but mine has an eagle insignia that says eagle cutlery company on the blade. It also says it's surgical steel so I could imagine it would be much harder to put an edge on it than a carbon steel blade...was the one you had surgical as well? I guess if it doesn't work out I at least have a nice set of scales if I can find a blade to fit them, though I was really hoping to try out a wedge so hopefully it does work out.

By the way here are the pics...








And one more for comparison with my Dovo 5/8 Best Quality

Originally Posted by wolfmanXIII

Was it just a parker or did it say eagle cutlery on it? Not really sure how much of a difference it makes, but mine has an eagle insignia that says eagle cutlery company on the blade. It also says it's surgical steel so I could imagine it would be much harder to put an edge on it than a carbon steel blade...was the one you had surgical as well? I guess if it doesn't work out I at least have a nice set of scales if I can find a blade to fit them, though I was really hoping to try out a wedge so hopefully it does work out.

Yes, it is the same razor, same scales, just a different etching on the blade. I took the scales off and was going to make another set, but when it wouldn't hone up, I just tossed it in a box as a lost cause. Unless you can find another razor with a stumpy little blade, I don't think you will be able to use those scales because they are so much shorter than a standard razor. But, good luck in whatever you attempt to do.

Regards - Walt

Originally Posted by Walt

Yes, it is the same razor, same scales, just a different etching on the blade. I took the scales off and was going to make another set, but when it wouldn't hone up, I just tossed it in a box as a lost cause. Unless you can find another razor with a stumpy little blade, I don't think you will be able to use those scales because they are so much shorter than a standard razor. But, good luck in whatever you attempt to do.

Regards - Walt

Thanks for the warning Walt!

I may have to look into finding a blade...the entire reason behind getting this razor was that the blade fits perfectly between my sideburns and goatee whereas I have to hold my normal straight razors at a slant to go down my face without cutting the stuff I want to keep. Maybe I'll see if one of our custom makers has a blade that will fit or something. It really saddens me to think that someone would make a razor with such a beautiful set of scales, but put a garbage blade in it...it's almost heart breaking. Though I must admit that with the size of the scales/blade they had to keep the shank so short I could imagine it being a pain to strop properly.

Originally Posted by wolfmanXIII

It also says it's surgical steel so I could imagine it would be much harder to put an edge on it than a carbon steel blade...was the one you had surgical as well?

Just so you guys know. Blades of any sort marked "surgical steel" are 99.9 percent sure to be junk. There's no such thing as "surgical steel". Or more accurately, it's whatever steel the manufacturer wants it to be. And that's not a good thing because if it was a really high quality steel, the manufacturer would be boasting about it specifically if they're going to mark the type of steel on the blade. Chances are it's 440B, which is very inexpensive, easily stamped out steel favored by manufacturers for cheap cutlery lines. It's on the low end of quality for cutlery and certainly not up to snuff for razor quality cutlery. Manufacturers frequently try to disguise this with "440 series", "440 stainless" or "surgical steel". See, 440C is quite good and has a good reputation and by leaving the letter off, they'll hope potential customers assume it's 440C instead of the much more likely 440B.

Parker blades that I've seen and used were almost certainly 440B based on their limited edge taking and poor edge holding capabilities. I can't verify it, but that was my guess after fiddling with some parker knives.