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

I found another interesting bit.

In Sheffield Steel and America: A century of commercial and technological interdependence by Geoffrey Tweedale it is reported that Faraday and Stodart worked with the Sandersons (?) and Charles Pickslay for the practical parts of their experiments.

I then found some pictures of Pickslay razors, including this one with some very familiar wooden scales



So, I strongly suspect that the two Stodart/Faraday razors were made by Pickslay, which also means that they were almost certainly not made later by Stodart for commercial purposes, but are definitely artifacts of their experiments.

The picture of the Pickslay you found does have something in common with the Stodard "twins".

I do have a Pickslay in Peruvian steel, but that looks very different.

Originally Posted by CSquare

The picture of the Pickslay you found does have something in common with the Stodard "twins".

I do have a Pickslay in Peruvian steel, but that looks very different.

Ah, yes! I'm pretty sure those were a good deal later. In my searching, I came across a picture of a very similar blade in near-pristine condition.



All the Pickslay pictures I've posted here come from this page.

I now may well be the only one who cares about any of this. I think I've now tracked down more genealogy on James Stodart than anyone else has put together.

In searching, I kept coming across another famous Stodart family. Out of Edinburgh, Robert and William Stodart were makers of fine pianos. These Stodarts had a shop about half a kilometer from James' shop on the Strand. The biographies I can find are really unsure what the relationship between Robert and William was. Nephew. Brother. Son. No one is quite certain. But Robert definitely made pianos, famously being the first to use the term 'Grand Piano' in a patent.

And according to Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 14 James Stodart died September 11th, 1823 in the house of his uncle, Robert Stodart. The same Robert. There is a plaque for James in the Old Calton Cemetary. His son David is listed on the plaque, but with no dates, so David is possibly not buried there.

Robert Stodart had a son named George who seems to have married James' daughter, Janet. From there the records become too tangled and contradictory. In any event, Faraday continued to correspond with George Stodart (who is listed as James' son-in-law in the 5 volume Correspondence of Michael Faraday.

In short, the Stodarts have six million individuals all with the same given names. This is difficult to sort out, but I've got some of it nailed down now.

So. James did indeed have a daughter named Janet and that's who George married. The source for this, Anthony Stoddard of Boston, Mass (a genealogy published in 1878), claims Janet was James' only child. I have to assume this means David and Samuel come from a different marriage. There's no doubt this is the correct James Stodart, since he lives at Russel Square and is James Stodart, ESQ, F.R.S.L. No confusing that.

What's interesting is that George Stodart appears to have been a distiller. Confusingly, his brother was also named James.

Originally Posted by Charles MacLean: Whiskey, page 147

Old Smuggler was first developed by James and George Stodart in 1835, when they launched their whisky business, taking a name that acknowledged the superior quality of illicitly distilled whisky prior to the 1823 Excise Act. The Stodart name is also recorded in whisky history as being, reputedly, the first to marry their whisky in sherry butts.

Now I just need to find a vintage bottle of Old Smuggler to go with my Stodart razor...

Thanks for the step back in time Gents. Really fun to read and just amazing the amount of research here. I stumbled on this thread when looking for info on Charles Pickslay razors. I found one in of my wife's Grandfather's Toolbox. I hope to have it restored some day. Pics below:

Originally Posted by Pwort

Thanks for the step back in time Gents. Really fun to read and just amazing the amount of research here. I stumbled on this thread when looking for info on Charles Pickslay razors. I found one in of my wife's Grandfather's Toolbox. I hope to have it restored some day. Pics below:

Any chance you could get a closeup picture of the tang?

Charles Pickslay made some lovely, lovely razors, and I don't really think he's been given his due!

What's much less well known is that he and his family moved to the US in the mid-1800's. His son manufactured table knives in NYC, using the 'Peruvian Steel' trademark, and his descendents are still here.

Sorry for the poor quality of the pic. I'm including the case it was in which says Pickslay's Peruvian. The shape of the blade compared to others seen in your post lead me to think it is, in fact, a Pickslay. Unfortunately the writing on the blade is almost rubbed off. What do you think ?

J'envie l'heureux propriétaire de cette paire de rasoirs vendus 22Lsur la baie

Originally Posted by CSquare

The picture of the Pickslay you found does have something in common with the Stodard "twins".

I do have a Pickslay in Peruvian steel, but that looks very different.

A bit more info concerning Peruvian Steel - Green, Pickslay & Co started as ironmongers in the High Street. Green left the company in 1823 and a partnership was formed with Adam Padley in 1828. 1829 Pickslay, Appleby & Bertram of the High Street were the sole manufacturers of Peruvian Steel Cutlery. Adam Padley was a shoe, butcher knife and fender maker from Rockingham Place whose company was absorbed by Charles Pickslay. In 1834 he registered the PERUVIAN mark and proclaimed himself as the only maker of Peruvian Steel, made by a process "only known to Himself" until he died of apoplexy in 1844. In 1824 Green Pickslay & Co., having experimented with the alloys recommended by Faraday, sent him a steel specimen alloyed with silver, iridium and rhodium . . . “furnished by Mr.Johnson, No 79 Hatton Garden”.

Johnson's in Hatton Garden was began by Percival Johnson in 1817 (NB: some sources quote 1822 as the move to Hatton Garden), an "Assayer and Practical Mineralogist" valuing gold bars by assaying the exact quantities of the metal in a bar, guaranteeing quality by offering to buy back them back. Johnson had his own smelting yard in London and it was he who alloyed the rhodium-iridium-silver steel for Pickslay's - out of this specimen two razors were made and presented to Faraday.

Regards,
Neil