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

Yes! This was a great thread to read. History is linked to all things and all people and discovering it and learning about it is great. Those razors are beautiful just the way they are.

I got another tiny piece of data for my Stodart razor today -- a late 1700's Bengall Cast Steel.



There are a goodly number of similarities. They have similar 'trigger' type tails, though the Stodart is longer. The tangs and blades are, but for the rounded toe, very similar in design.

Now I'm only guessing, but I am guessing that the Bengall dates to the 1780-1800 range, and I would guess the Stodart is not much newer, which puts it squarely in James' time. I'd love to know when he started stamping the blades with the Sanskrit WOOTZ, but there are lots of things I'd like to know and don't.



Having them both in-hand makes me strongly suspect that the Stodart is late 1700's. You don't get it from the pictures, but they feel like contemporaries, despite the considerably greater wear on the Bengall.



I'm pretty certain the scales on the Bengall are original despite the fact that it's been repaired at the pivot. Certainly the scales are of a similar age to the blade. Believe it or not, they're black horn -- just with 200 years of heavy use.



Unusually, it's a single piece of horn that's been bisected, not two pieces bonded with the pin.



I do wish it still had the decorative washer at the pivot, but I'm happier still to actually have the razor. The pins, by the way, are iron. Even the replacement, which suggests to me that it was fixed a very, very long time ago.

And yes, really. It's horn.

I read in the discussion that these famous razors with the punch in Sanskrit were just the result of experiments of Faraday and Stodart. I think if they did make a punch, it is the purpose of selling them. If I am right, it's good because it has a chance to find other copies

Originally Posted by lohar

I read in the discussion that these famous razors with the punch in Sanskrit were just the result of experiments of Faraday and Stodart. I think if they did make a punch, it is the purpose of selling them. If I am right, it's good because it has a chance to find other copies

James Stodard was using the Sanskrit wootz in his advertising cards well before he'd even met Faraday. I'm guessing he used the symbol on goods before they had done the experiments together.

His paper with Faraday does mention that he felt the Rhodium and Iridium-Osmium alloys were well suited to commercialization and he intended to do so. However, his health was failing at that point and it's very unclear how far he went past what he'd written about.

hope he has made ​​some other

Here's a brief summation of what I know about the special alloy razors.

The two razors in this thread with the wootz stamp were almost certainly part of the experimental alloys tests. At least two others were made and kept in a greenhouse, but if they weren't removed after Stodart's death, they are very likely destroyed.

Faraday had kept at least one other of the special alloy razors, possibly from the small batch of palladium-wootz alloy. That one he gave to his father-in-law and it is now in a museum. The NMSI online collection describes it as platinum alloy, but Stodart and Faraday made enough of those that it would likely have a marker to identify the alloy and it does not, only wootz (there's a picture of it earlier in the thread).

Charles Pickslay attempted to replicate the Stodard and Faraday experiments and produced two razors which he sent to Faraday. Later, Faraday gave them to John Wilson Croker, an Irish statesman and poet.

Near the end of Faraday's life a Doctor Percy wrote asking after the razors. Faraday couldn't remember what had happened to them, but thought they'd gone to James Stodart.

And that's the total of what I know.

There's the slim possibility that more exist. It's my dream to find one, but it's a dream I doubt will ever be realized.

Thank you for all these details.

you are right about it being no relation to the Stewart of Caring Cross famous for the 'Plantagenet' Guard Razor - I have since found that that particular Stewart's Sheffield agents were John and William Ragg and I suspect that they made the razor for him as 'Plantagenet' was one of the marks they used


Here's an example of Ragg's patent plantagenet guard razor, is it possible that Ragg took over the patent of Stewart?
Could you tell me where I could find more information about the connection Stewart-Ragg?

Greetings

Originally Posted by Fikira

you are right about it being no relation to the Stewart of Caring Cross famous for the 'Plantagenet' Guard Razor - I have since found that that particular Stewart's Sheffield agents were John and William Ragg and I suspect that they made the razor for him as 'Plantagenet' was one of the marks they used


Here's an example of Ragg's patent plantagenet guard razor, is it possible that Ragg took over the patent of Stewart?
Could you tell me where I could find more information about the connection Stewart-Ragg?

Greetings

Hi Fikira,

I would like to see a full picture of this razor, particularly the blade. Below is an 1871 trade advertisement for John & William Ragg:



Regards,
Neil

Some history of John & William Ragg.