Thread: what was he thinking, this mysterious man ?

Originally Posted by Ryan82

The truth is most likely more mundane; perhaps a coal miner who worked 15 hour days, 7 days a week to support his 8 children who all ran around him while he shaved because his dwelling was a single room.

Yes, perhaps some things are better left to the imagination....

Funny thing is that's what I tend to think and it makes them even more special to me as it's closer to my current circumstances than any far fetched fantasy! An average razor for a fairly average guy but lovingly looked after for years and years. I don't always agree with giving an old razor a mirrored finish, sometimes I much prefer a bit of pitting and patina and going easy on the old boys. They've led a long life and deserve a bit of rest sometimes...

I also hate to admit I've had some fairly sinister thoughts about who old razors could have belonged to. I've thought it's easy to think it could have belonged to an unspoken war hero or pillar in the community glass half full but could also have belonged to someone less than savoury in the eyes of society glass half empty. It's one of those things I don't put much thought into but it has crossed my mind before! Sad I know.

It's interesting y'all think about the previous owners. I think about some guy named John Barber, or William Greaves, or Joseph Rodgers pounding away on a red hot piece of metal, forming what will be my straight razor. I know that most of mine were made in a razor mill by the thousand, handmade by hundreds of child laborers in England, but I try to think of them as something special...

Originally Posted by laurent

Shaving is an intimate moment

Sometimes those thoughts go through my mind when I drink a glass of water. What is more intimate than letting the same H2O course through your veins that has coursed through the veins of so many others in not only the recent past but for millenniums? Was the very same water I am drinking now refreshing for them when they drank it? Or did they accidentally swallow it as they were drowning, dreading every last fluid ounce of it? Was it part of their first suckle as an infant or was it part of their last gasping effort to quench the unquenchable thirst of a passing soul? Was it someone experiencing the freedom of a parched throat or the captivity of being waterboarded?

Sometimes it is better to just drink it and go on with your life, other times there is cause for pause - and now, for me, that time has passed. Nobody knows when it will strike again

Originally Posted by coachschaller

Excellent! Our imaginations do tend to exaggerate

I was just about to say the same thing!

This is why I buy vintage blades instead of the new ones. Having grown up on a farm I always think of previous blade owners being everyday blue chip men. Farmers, miners, rail workers.

Being half german I wonder too how many of my very small collection have shaved other german faces as well.

Or the very razor you now loving polish and hone and strop might be the very razor some deranged syphilis infected fiend used the cut the throat of his infecting lover or some poor wretch in an alleyway in some forgotten town and haphazardly thrown into the nearest garbage pail only to be discovered by some grubby garbage man who upon finding it thought he in fact found a treasure because he could never afford such a nice a razor as he now held in his hand and now you hold in yours. Perhaps a cursed razor forever bound to cut the throat of its next owner, patiently waiting ......

Originally Posted by Tsunami

Or the very razor you now loving polish and hone and strop might be the very razor some deranged syphilis infected fiend used the cut the throat of his infecting lover or some poor wretch in an alleyway in some forgotten town and haphazardly thrown into the nearest garbage pail only to be discovered by some grubby garbage man who upon finding it thought he in fact found a treasure because he could never afford such a nice a razor as he now held in his hand and now you hold in yours. Perhaps a cursed razor forever bound to cut the throat of its next owner, patiently waiting ......

You may have just described a vintage Bismark I have. I swear the thing is cursed. It demands blood sacrifice every time I use it. Always wanted to use this smiley.

I mean I think objects could be inherently cursed. like my wedding ring. The pain didnt stop until I took it off and got divorced! Lol

Originally Posted by Ryan82

perhaps a coal miner who worked 15 hour days, 7 days a week to support his 8 children who all ran around him while he shaved because his dwelling was a single room.

A man that faced the hardship and danger of going down the pit day after day to feed his children is as least as much hero as the soldier, who in the heat of battle charges the enemy and wins a medal.
Many of our heroes won their acclaim by chance , not so the miner.

Originally Posted by welshwizard

A man that faced the hardship and danger of going down the pit day after day to feed his children is as least as much hero as the soldier, who in the heat of battle charges the enemy and wins a medal.
Many of our heroes won their acclaim by chance, not so the miner.

No doubt, and I wasn't trying to say that the coal miner wasn't as valiant. I was simply saying this scenario is more mundane (and likely more realistic) than the fantasy that your Sheffield razor belonged to the Duke of Wellington and your Solingen was used by Otto von Bismarck....

Anyone who braved Dickensian conditions to support their family is definitely a hero in my book....