Thread: double edged cut-throat

anyone seen one here? i went down to the company of cutlers in hallamshire this lunchtime, and was shown one little box of their non restored, un shown razors. some were a bit in need of attention, some were lovely.

but two that stuck in the mind had double edges, one had a balisong type handle the other had a movable guard to shield the edge not in use.

there were a few things there that i could have taken home quite happily! including a nice stag handled one. i'll remember my camera next time.

just wondered if they have come up here before.

cheers

steve

ps a nice way to spend lunch for me!

Hi Steve,
I could be wrong but I think what you found were used by hair stylists to shape hair. Double edge so that if the customer complained of pulling, the stylist could just switch to the other edge to finish.

Steve - Without pictures or a more detailed description I'm making a guess that you may have been looking at a safety razor such as the Durham Duplex. It has a double-sided blade which was intended to allow the shaver to use either hand. This type of razor was initially produced as a shaving razor and was later hijacked by the tonsorial trade to be used as a hair shaper. There are quite a few razor manufacturers that had a slip-on toothed guard on their blades to make shaving "safer" because it didn't allow the blade to touch the face at too sharp of an angle. Therefore they were commonly called safety razors. They were made by a number of companies, some of which were; Durham, Weck, Litt, Genco, Curley, etc. These razors were all intended as shavers and not hair shapers. That came a lot later.

Regards - Walt

Originally Posted by Walt

This type of razor was initially produced as a shaving razor and was later hijacked by the tonsorial trade to be used as a hair shaper.

Oh, I didn't know that -- I stand corrected. Thanks Walt.

Steve, my apologies.

thankfully the lovely lady who is the archivist there sent me some pics



and this one is just lovely

you can't see it but the spine is fileworked
steve

Wow! I dont think I've ever seen anything around these parts like those first two (except Lezcha's custom) - very cool!

That is definitely NOT a Durham Duplex! Very interesting razors. If you get the chance to go back there perhaps you could jot down the names of the makers, etc.

Regards - Walt

Wow! I'm impressed!

I was just thinking. . . . razors like that must have been murder on strops.

so, number 404 they don't know who the maker is, i'm not sure its been struck,
228 was made by TH Wilson
the stag handled one by W Mawcroft.

i've been invited back to spend any amount of lunchtimes down there, they have cupboards full of boxes full of razors, i must try and get a decent look at any of the sets that they have, there are a few on display, but to handle some would be nice.

i'll take my camera next time and post some more photos

steve