Thread: Calling on the historical experts, I'm stumped! An unassuming mystery razor.

I've dug up a picture of another Stodart razor...



That one was is made of platinum-steel alloy and was given by Michael Faraday to his in-law in the Sandemanian church. I can't track down anything resembling a reliable date for it however.

What a beauty!

I think all you can do with regard to dating it is to establish that it could not have been made before 1820 or after the end of 1835.

Malleable platinum was only made just before 1800 - a decade or maybe two decades depending on which source you go by. Although there was some success with plating articles by a suspension of platinum in a strong acid (aqua regia), James Stodart developed another process involving mixing platinum with a small amount of copper and putting the resulting suspension into an ether solution - when the ether evaporated the finely divided platinum covered the object (usually copper) and was hammered to make it fuse and adhere. This was in 1805.

Stodart teamed-up with Michael Faraday and they produced several alloys including a chrome steel, silver steel, rhodium steel and platinum steel around 1818-19. Bars of each alloy were prepared by Farady in 1820 and sent of to various manufacturers. Unfortunately Stodart died in 1823, which dampened Faraday's interest. Stodart's company, under David Stodart, was declared insolvent at the end of 1835 and there was no further production.

That gives you a 15 year window.

I would really like to see a close-up of the tang: that might nail the company as James Stodart's successor - David & Samuel Stodart.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Stodart teamed-up with Michael Faraday and they produced several alloys including a chrome steel, silver steel, rhodium steel and platinum steel around 1818-19. Bars of each alloy were prepared by Farady in 1820 and sent of to various manufacturers. Unfortunately Stodart died in 1823, which dampened Faraday's interest. Stodart's company, under David Stodart, was declared insolvent at the end of 1835 and there was no further production.

That gives you a 15 year window.

I would really like to see a close-up of the tang: that might nail the company as James Stodart's successor - David & Samuel Stodart.

Ah, yes. I kind of tripped up my brain there -- I didn't mean so much that I was trying to figure out when that particular razor was made as much as I was gobsmacked by how bad the records for it were in the place I found it. I assumed that one was made during the time Stodart and Faraday were working together. I got the image from here.

Still, it's a very different stamp from the razor I have.



I (perhaps wrongly) assume that's the stamp Stodart was using during his years with Faraday, meaning the razor I have is either earlier than 1818 (which is my suspicion) or later, and his sons lacked his elan (which certainly seems possible). Though I'm also really suspicious that what I got may be a surgical implement that just happens to strongly resemble a razor.

Also, it looks like it'll take a magnificent edge with a tiny bevel.

This is a great thread, perfectly timed for me as I got two almost twins and was wondering about the maker.

I'm in the process of cleaning up one.
I'm still not sure I'm doing the right thing, maybe I'll keep the other one as it is.



Any idea about the different letters above the logo?

Originally Posted by CSquare

This is a great thread, perfectly timed for me as I got two almost twins and was wondering about the maker.

I'm in the process of cleaning up one.
I'm still not sure I'm doing the right thing, maybe I'll keep the other one as it is.



Any idea about the different letters above the logo?

I think there's a very good chance those letters stand for 'Iridium & Osmium' and 'Rhodium' which were elements that Stodart and Faraday alloyed with steel.

In their paper to the Royal Society, Stodart and Faraday wrote:

The metals that form the most valuable alloys with steel are silver, platina {platinum}, rhodium, iridium and osmium, and palladium; all of these have now been made in the large way, except indeed the last named. Palladium has, for very obvious reasons, been used but sparingly; four pounds of steel with 1 to 100 part of palladium, has, however been fused at once, and the compound is truly valuable, more especially for making instruments that require perfect smoothness of edge.

The fact that they specifically mention the use of iridium and osmium together strongly suggests that's exactly what you have.

If that's the case, what you have there are two razors made as part of the metallurgical tests that Stodart and Faraday conducted.

I would recommend that you definitely not disassemble the second one, and if possible, put the first back in its original scales.

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

I think there's a very good chance those letters stand for 'Iridium & Osmium' and 'Rhodium' which were elements that Stodart and Faraday alloyed with steel.

In their paper to the Royal Society, Stodart and Faraday wrote:



The fact that they specifically mention the use of iridium and osmium together strongly suggests that's exactly what you have.

If that's the case, what you have there are two razors made as part of the metallurgical tests that Stodart and Faraday conducted.

I would recommend that you definitely not disassemble the second one, and if possible, put the first back in its original scales.

Thanks Voidmonster, very interesting indeed.

I'm making new scales as close as possible to the original ones for the one I'm cleaning.
The other one will stay as it is.

Your razors may be the only razors on earth with their particular alloys. I think those razors might be better for displaying than shaving, due to the historical significance(I'm normally all for using razors as they were intended).

For anyone interested, here's the paper that Stodart and Faraday wrote.

It's so odd that Michael Faraday was just the assistant of chemistry in the experiments, but he was still a wee thing at the time. Not even 30 years old yet.

It's also sobering to note that Stodart died a year after that paper was published -- sobering especially when you read the paper and all the chemical reactions Stodart is describing and you realize just how much toxic material the man was breathing in order run experiments on the composition of the alloys they commissioned.

Also, I have a plausible guess for how those two razors ended up on eBay.

They would, most likely, have been made as a control to see how long the steel would remain untarnished, and probably kept in Stodart's workshop. Since James Stodart died not long after they were made, and the company went into his son's hands, the importance of the razors would pretty easily have been lost. Then later, when the company had gone into receivership, the razors were sold off along with everything else and not necessarily with any knowledge of what they were.

Hey guys,

I have been doing some photo analysis and don't you think that gap is a little wide for a D, and that the letter that would precede said "D" looks more like an "E". The gap would be perfect for a "W" and when I dropped the saturation of the picture, made it a negative, then followed this with some fanciness the letter that is missing looked a lot more like a W ... I will try to get some screen shots with it optimized. What do you think?

Carl.

Originally Posted by straightrazorheaven

Hey guys,

I have been doing some photo analysis and don't you think that gap is a little wide for a D, and that the letter that would precede said "D" looks more like an "E". The gap would be perfect for a "W" and when I dropped the saturation of the picture, made it a negative, then followed this with some fanciness the letter that is missing looked a lot more like a W ... I will try to get some screen shots with it optimized. What do you think?

For me personally, the gold lancet case with the crown and star stamp as well as STOD/ART made it fairly incontrovertible. However, in the interest of absolute certainty, here's an image of my razor with a typeface matched STODART overlay.



It's not a perfect match for the type die used but it's morphologically the same type family, and the stamp has some kerning peculiarities, but all the letters match up to my satisfaction.