Thread: 1700s Gronstrand pair in ivory

Nice, whats the other little tool in the box?

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Nice, whats the other little tool in the box?

I'm not sure, it looks like some kind of nail tool, like the smaller tool on fingernail clippers. Looks newer than the set.

Ahh, it was you who got them!

Originally Posted by Lemur

Ahh, it was you who got them!

Being from Sweden / Scandinavia, do you know anything of the history of them? To me the name sounds like it is from that area.

Stunning...wow...to hold a piece of history like that in your hands.

To imagine all the faces and all the places and lifetimes it's witnessed..sheesh...sounds like they could of been around during the French Revolution!!

Simply awe inspiring...

That is too cool! How do you date those? Where did you find them? They must have been extremely well cared for. I wonder what the carbon content is.

Originally Posted by Bobaloo

That is too cool! How do you date those? Where did you find them? They must have been extremely well cared for. I wonder what the carbon content is.

Dated very roughly based on blade and scale shape and experience. Found online.

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

Being from Sweden / Scandinavia, do you know anything of the history of them? To me the name sounds like it is from that area.

Never heard of them but the name "Grönstrand" is quite normal here, (Grön - Green, Strand - Beach)

Think I just found him; Grönstrand, Nils, rakknivssmed. (Rakkniv - Straight Razor, Smed - Smith)
He is mentioned in a book; Eskilstuna, en Svensk märkesstad: kloster-, slotts- och industri-stadens öden genom seklerna i historisk belysning, by Knut Hellberg, written in 1919 - 1920 about industries in Eskilstuna.

Digitalen: Eskilstuna en märkesstad del 1 och 2 1919

Here comes the crux, part 1 and 2 of the book is digitalized, not part 3 that he's in!

Originally Posted by Lemur

Never heard of them but the name "Grönstrand" is quite normal here, (Grön - Green, Strand - Beach)

Think I just found him; Grönstrand, Nils, rakknivssmed. (Rakkniv - Straight Razor, Smed - Smith)
He is mentioned in a book; Eskilstuna, en Svensk märkesstad: kloster-, slotts- och industri-stadens öden genom seklerna i historisk belysning, by Knut Hellberg, written in 1919 - 1920 about industries in Eskilstuna.

Digitalen: Eskilstuna en märkesstad del 1 och 2 1919

Here comes the crux, part 1 and 2 of the book is digitalized, not part 3 that he's in!

Well that explains why my searching through the digitized versions turned up nothing, ha.

I am thinking like pixel on this one. Not that I know much but they would have had to grind a lot of detail and the stamp would be missing. The hollow would be a rather course grind in the first place.

Looking at it again, I'm 99.99% certain this has been reground. Stamps go deep, and usually are left intact after regrinding (we're talking a light brush on the surface to get it shiny again, which doesn't take off a lot of metal. Nowadays when we hear 'regrind' we often associate it with changing some shape of the blade). See below:

Wostenholm, complete regrind of blade face, tang, and tail. This one has little spots of crocus polish left, so I know with absolute certainty it was reground; but on first inspection you might not be able to tell. Also, the angles on the tang have been kept very sharp:


Aux, complete regrind all over. Clark and Hall, ground on the blade:


Again, it's hard to see from the photographs, but the surface is quite roughly finished by razor standards even though it looks like a mirror. The maker would have finished them to a higher degree before releasing them.

This might help clarify:



Two razors, one has had its finish reground, the other hasn't.



In the closeup, it's obvious.



Yet another reason you've got to be careful buying things from eBay. It can be really hard to spot in a photo, depending on the light.