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

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.