Thread: Original Razor Mishap

I recently got a few Wilkinson & Son straight razors dating to the 1890s, amongst which was one with a curious dot on each side of the ivory scales near the wedge pinning. At first I thought it was to fix a split in the ivory scales, but then I noticed that you could see the dots on the inside, so it wasn't a pin going right through the scales. The holes are well above the top of the wedge, too.

When magnified I could see that two little ivory plugs had been let into the scales (they have a grain which you can't readily see in the photos), so the reason they were put there could have been a hole going through the ivory, which seems unlikely, or that the hole for the wedge pinning was drilled in the wrong place - the most likely explanation.

Here are a couple of photos of both sides of the scales:



I haven't come across this type of fix before - clearly done at the time of setting-in the original blade, and thought it might be of some interest. You can also see from the flat linear marks on the washerless pinning that a cross-pein rather than a round-pein hammer was used.

Regards,
Neil