Thread: Book Excerpt from British Industries under Free Trade 1903.

Found it quite interesting that "sheffielders" dindt want to adapt to the concept of hollow grinding, and manufacturers were sending their blade to Germany for the process.

Interesting article, I wonder at what point in time Sheffield started to actually do hollow grinding? I ask because I used a W&B "Extra Hollow Ground" razor this morning that does not say England on it so is pre 1891. While it is hollow ground it appears to be not as thin as a DD nor is it as noisy when shaving. I take it that this was an early Sheffield attempt at hollow grinding.

Bob

That definitely explains why there are so many big ol' Sheffield wedges out there....

Whats the phrase?
If you cant beat'em? Join'em!
Thanks Martin

I can recall having an older full hollow Sheffield that had "Ground in Germany" on the back side of the tang. I'll dig around and see if I still have it.

Just noticed in the classifieds that there is a Kropp razor that is stamped made in England/ground in Hamburg.

Bob

I think one of the two KROPP razors that I sold was marked thusly. Got no pics of it though.

The one I have that I was thinking of and have a pic of is a GOTTA.

But it doesn't count.

Here is one that is marked " Made and ground in Sheffield England." Whether the opalescent/ chatoyant celluloid scales were as new or a later rescale I am not sure. The blade style and scales appear to be the early twenties.

I have no guess when the blades with all work in Sheffield began.
~Richard

Interesting article - thanks for posting it, Martin!

I think that the article tends to 'generalise' somewhat - there were lots of hollow ground razors that predate the article date by some length of time. I have a number of razors by different Sheffield makers that were exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition at Crystal palace - the gold-washed etchings on the face of the blades confirm the hollow grinding was original. And, of course, hollow grinding in Sheffield pre-dates the Great Exhibition.

Another factor that could have influenced this is the propensiity of Sheffield firms of earlier years insisting on doing everything by hand, including hollow grinding, which took considerable time to learn and which was a highly skilled occupation. No doubt german firms at the time also hand ground, but the introduction of the Witch ('Hexe') double grinding machine in 1893 by C. F. Erns company changed all that, of course.

NO doubt the above is a simplistic view, and there are other reasons.

However, it is correct with respect to many firms - a lot of companies sent out Sheffield steel forged razors out to Germany to be hollow ground, but I feel that one of the deciding factors was economy - Germany could do it cheaper.

I noticed a couple of mentions of Kropp razors that represent that. Osborne, Garrett and Co have their history on the tang marks - economics and socio-political events seem to have dictated when there product was ground in Germany - right up to the point when the head grinder - Charles Myers - took over the company and produced all the Kropps completely in Sheffield. Myers had his own razor company - C. Myers & Son, and records show that the renamed Kropp company (now C. Myers & Son but still trading as Kropp Manufacturing Co. in many instances) both shared the same premises: 51 Athol Road. It remained there into the 1960s when Myers, Ragg and Cadman were the only manufacturers working out of Sheffield.

Regards,
Neil

Interesting Neil, I must say im more surprised of the early gold-washed then the hollow grinding, somehow gold-washed razors were in my mind around 1890. The Germans definately worked for cheap and if it wasnt for the US govt changing tariff rates, Germany would kill just about every cutlery companies in the US.