Thread: Curious about approximate age of my J Rodgers and Sons

Honed it last night. Two pieces of tape and it turned out very nice. Shaved smooth. Got a funky looking set of bevels on it now though. May have been a 6/8 at one time, closer to 11/16ths now. Appears to have made many a trip across a hone.


Would like to know what the experten think of its age. Tail is rather short compared to most razors but a bit longer and nicer than that of the "stub tailed" genre.


Cutlers to Their Majesties etc..


Thanks in advance,
Willie

Well we know the absence of England is pre 1890, and hollow ground after 1870 i believed, maybe somebody can get a closer dating aproach!!

Check out this Rodgers thread here. The OP has some dating info in his text that may help you out. Other than that you'll have to wait for manah.

So I was going to say that I'm a total sucker for Irish point blades, so I went googling to make sure I was using correct terminology.

I'm going to continue to say I'm a sucker for Irish point blades but also dip my reading eyes in a bucket of icewater after wading through the flamewars.

Anyway! It's pretty hard to figure out a narrow range for when that would've been made.

It's definitely Victorian. ("Their Majesties"). It's probably made before 1891.

Does that odd band on the toe wrap all the way around? Think it's original?

My wild-ass guess is 1850-1880. The ivory definitely has a nicely aged look, so I'd bias my guess toward the earlier end of the range.

I wouldn't be shocked if it were 1840's, but it doesn't seem likely to me.

Seems to that the country of origin was stamped on razors beginning around 1897 or 1898. I don't know how accurate that info is but it was posted awhile back on this forum.

I'm sure someone will come along later and verify the exact year that it began.

Jerry

On that country of origin thing ...... i had some J. Rodgers that had the "Made in England" stamped in a semi circle/half moon shape, around the tail end of the original stamping. Kind of wrapping around as if they had taken some older blanks and stamped that on there as an afterthought. I think those blades must have been done right around the time the requirement for country of origin was instituted. I don't have any pix since I don't have any of those anymore but there are pix of them around.

OK, the McKinley Tariff Act was 1890. It also stated that was for items to be IMPORTED into the US, they had to had to have the country of origin marked on them. Items that were made in another country and not necessarily for EXPORT to the US might or might not have had the country of origin stamped on them.

The metal band is not original to the razor. It was added at some point in time to hold the broken back scale. It is one piece and appears to be "coin" silver.


What's throwing me is the shorter tail. The stamp was used from as near as I can find from the 1830's forward.

I sure enjoy the way it shaves.

Very nice blade Wullie! I"m liking these Rodgers better than W&Bs as of late.

Of all the vintage fixes I've seen, I like that metal band the best. It's neat, and it goes nicely with the 'Military Razor' stamp!

Unfortunately, I didn't have any of my Rodgers blades handy for this (other than that 7-Day set), and I didn't get all the pins lined up and didn't notice until I'd put everything back in the case. Maybe later I'll be motivated to do a really thorough chart like this.

A few caveats. The manufacture dates I'm listing are my best data. They are not necessarily accurate. Double check everything always! There are a couple of razors I should have included that I didn't have handy because they are either not in the house or currently disassembled. I assume razors 'from London' were made by Sheffield cutlers for London firms. There are distinct stylistic differences however. I would like to refine this chart further, but I don't have the time right now.

In the interim, I present Zak's Razor Tail Chart:

I think tail length should be taken only as a very general guide, or used when there's no other possible data.

(man it'd be helpful if I had any of my Joseph Rodgers blades handy -- one is at a friend's place getting honed, the other is in the bottom of a pile of disassembled razors)

I love the shave you get from a Joseph Rodgers & Sons razor, so much I currently have 6: a matching pair in original Ivory scales that I shave with occasionally and 4 in my regular shaving rotation, one in Ivory acrylic, one in abolone, one in original horn and one in black linen micarta.

I have a pdf file on my computer about the history of Joseph Rodgers & Sons. It has been a while since I've read it and not sure if it tells anything about manufacturing dates or not but it makes some very interesting reading. PM your email address and I'll send it to you.

One thing I remember is they were awarded the "Cutler's To Their Majesties" in 1682 so they have been around a while, not sure when they started making str8 razors but the quality of them is superb, ask anyone that owns one.