Newly arrived from England

I bought this razor on the 'bay, mainly because I like the oblique point. The vendor didn't have much to say about it: "A vintage, English, black cased Straight Razor by 'Wood'. It is marked 'Wood, York'." I haven't been able to find any info on the manufacturer so far.

Attachment 163642 Attachment 163639 Attachment 163640

I was expecting a wedge grind, but it turns out that there's just a smidgen of hollowness to the blade, which measures just shy of 6/8ths, at 23/32nds. There are jimps below. There's no rust anywhere, and there's only a little bit of shallow pitting on the blade's faces, and a bit more on both sides of the spine at the point and on the shank; the rest of the blade is amazingly smooth! So, is the discoloration really just patina? The scales seem to be ordinary Bakelite.

My original plan was to make this my first effort at restoration; I figured that I couldn't mess up a wedge's geometry while hand-sanding; but a near-wedge? I've decided that I kind of like the patina, and am now thinking that I'll just try a little Flitz on it. My only concern is the pitting on the spine: it seems that it could damage my strop. But if I sand that off, I guess I'll have to do the whole blade, right?

Any advice on how to proceed will be appreciated!

That's a nice blade and I wouldn't worry about your strop. I've never had any experience of pitting damaging a strop.
You could always make a paddle strop, right ? Ten bucks for a piece of leather glued on to a 3" x 17" piece of wood.

Maybe it's my poor eyesight, but I can't really see any pitting worth worrying about.
That should clean up just fine....

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Originally Posted by bongo

That's a nice blade and I wouldn't worry about your strop. I've never had any experience of pitting damaging a strop.
You could always make a paddle strop, right ? Ten bucks for a piece of leather glued on to a 3" x 17" piece of wood.

Maybe it's my poor eyesight, but I can't really see any pitting worth worrying about.
That should clean up just fine....

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Most of the pitting is so minor that I only found it by feel, but the stuff on the spine is quite visible. Here's a shot that should show what I mean:

Attachment 163644

How would you proceed?

Hey mate, I'm certainly no expert but I might start with a medium grit wet'n'dry, say around 400# or 600#.
You can always go lower if you feel you're not making progress....

Best to put your pics in the "Workshop" forum and you'll get a much more knowledgeable response.
I can't help with the manufacturer's history but Martin is one of the go-to guys who could :)

I've only seen one other example of this manufacturer:
Attachment 163648

P.S. I always like to start a resto by giving the blade and scales a good soak in WD40 !!

Lovely!

I'd guess those were made by Joseph Wood of York. He's listed in Baine's 1823 directory of York as: cutler, gunsmith and surgeon's instrument manufacturer in Spurriergate.

He was born 1775 in Bishopthorpe to Richard Wood and Elizabeth Prentice. In 1799, he married Elizabeth Stables at St. Michaels, Spurriergate. They had 8 children.

He died in 1843, aged 68.

Since it was made outside Sheffield's fashions, I'm a little bit at a loss to figure out when it was made, but It's very safe to say between 1823 and 1843! My guess would be early 1830's, but it's just a guess.

The scales are almost certainly black horn. In actual practice bakelite was pretty rarely used for razor scales. The most common black plastic used for scales was gutta percha, which is a kind of rubber. It was also called 'Ebonite' and it was very popular for things like mourning jewelry (in place of real ebony which was much more expensive).

I didn't even know there was a cutlery industry in York, and I'd never seen any of these razors. Awesome!

I wouldn't worry overmuch about the pitting on the spine. If you sand it down, you'll change the contact angle with the bevel, which could make honing a problem.

I'd try and retain the patination, I think patina looks nice. And I'd agree I don't think the scales are bakelite. It looks like a nice razor...

Thats a handsome thing indeed!

+1 to both Zak and Carl said. Go slow, don't try to do too much and stop when it looks right to you. That patina has been hard won over the last couple hundred years, so don't throw it away lightly. :)

There are very very few 'true' wedges out there, and most that are referred to as wedges are really near wedges, so odds are good that one is more or less as wedgy as it gets. A true wedge would be a monster to hone as you would have to be removing steel over the entire width of the blade. But when you add even in a bit of a hollow, you're then just dealing with the edge and the spine.

I would think that if you go over those pits on the spine lightly with some wet/dry and then maybe polish, you'll smooth their edges so that potential damage to the strop would be eliminated. In other words, don't try to remove the pits, but rather make sure they don't have any sharp edges. But to be honest I'd be surprised if they would do any damage to a strop to begin with. How do the pits feel when you rub with a finger?

That's a nice looking razor - good luck with it!

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Originally Posted by Cangooner

+1 to both ZaK and Carl said. Go slow, don't try to do too much and stop when it looks right to you. That patina has been hard won over the last couple hundred years, so don't throw it away lightly. :)

*SNIP*

I would think that if you go over those pits on the spine lightly with some wet/dry and then maybe polish, you'll smooth their edges so that potential damage to the strop would be eliminated. In other words, don't try to remove the pits, but rather make sure they don't have any sharp edges. But to be honest I'd be surprised if they would do any damage to a strop to begin with. How do the pits feel when you rub with a finger?

That's a nice looking razor - good luck with it!

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Absolutely! The more I examine the razor, the more I like the patina. And Zak's amazing info astounds and humbles me..I most certainly don't want to destroy this old razor's personality!

Good point about the pits on the spine...when I rub my finger over them, the pits are actually quite smooth to the touch. I suspect that they've already been thoroughly burnished during untold years of honing and stropping.

I agree: this deserves a conservative, light touch.

Zak's ability to research, decipher, and retain this history amazes everyone! I appreciate all that he (and a few other historians here) brings to the table on this site.

:bow

You're all on the mark about the scales: I looked at their edges more closely, and there are indeed laminations consistent with horn. There's also a bug bite inside of the scales.

I convinced myself that the scales were Bakelite because I haven't seen sharp, beveled edges on horn scales before, and because these are so DARK. I even tried shining a high intensity light through them to see if they were horn, but didn't appreciate any color variations.

I freaking LOVE this place! I learn something nearly every day! :tu

If you don't already have some, get yourself some neatsfoot oil (make sure it's 100% neatsfoot oil, you'll find it at tack or leather stores) and give those scales a bath. It's the best thing for them and will bring them back to life. :)

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Originally Posted by Cangooner

If you don't already have some, get yourself some neatsfoot oil (make sure it's 100% neatsfoot oil, you'll find it at tack or leather stores) and give those scales a bath. It's the best thing for them and will bring them back to life. :)

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I do have some pure barefoot oil; and now that I know that I'm dealing with horn, that's precisely what I plan to do!

P.S. Neil is awesome..."Needle and the Damage Done" was one of the first songs that I learned for guitar!

Very interesting razor and manufacturer as well, no so common. Came across a timeline and advertisement.
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Similar design to William Wood of Liverpool. 86 miles away. Wonder if they were related.

Bravo Martin!

That timeline suggests Dzanda's razor was made either before 1831 or after 1845.

And Dzanda, as for the scales -- I'm pretty certain that a lot of the scales from that era were dyed deeper black. The insides of them aren't quite so uniform, pretty often. But there're a lot of mysteries to old horn scales.

Working on restoring a much-abused old Wade & Butcher FBU, I found that there were initials as part of the mold for the scales "M S". Not scratched in, but raised like a printing die. In the 1820's, and presumably into the 1840's, that would have been Matthew Simpson: "Horn Haft and Scale Presser". I know Neil Miller has talked about finding initials scratched into scales before, but it was interesting to see them embossed in.

Horn scales were their own separate industry.

Sure makes you wonder, doesn't it? We know of at least one son out of the eight offspring that Voidmonster mentioned, so it certainly seems possible. Though we could also be dealing with an entirely different line of Woods, I wouldn't bet on it.

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Originally Posted by onimaru55

Similar design to William Wood of Liverpool. 86 miles away. Wonder if they were related.

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Originally Posted by Voidmonster

And Dzanda, as for the scales -- I'm pretty certain that a lot of the scales from that era were dyed deeper black. The insides of them aren't quite so uniform, pretty often. But there're a lot of mysteries to old horn scales.

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Water buffalo horn is black but the younger part of the horn ie the centre is lighter in colour. Just a useless fyi . :)

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Originally Posted by Dzanda

Sure makes you wonder, doesn't it? We know of at least one son out of the eight offspring that Voidmonster mentioned, so it certainly seems possible. Though we could also be dealing with an entirely different line of Woods, I wouldn't bet on it.

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I went digging through the genealogy, and if they're related it's fairly distant. Joseph Wood's son was, indeed named William, but he spent most of his life in Manchester making surgical instruments. Joseph also had a brother named William, but he was also in Manchester, and doesn't seem to have married.

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Originally Posted by onimaru55

Water buffalo horn is black but the younger part of the horn ie the centre is lighter in colour. Just a useless fyi . :)

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I have definitely come across some which had been dyed or even shellacked. A very light sanding, and suddenly the cracked black scales were translucent!

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Originally Posted by Voidmonster

...
That timeline suggests Dzanda's razor was made either before 1831 or after 1845...

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After 1850 as that's when he invented the York razor maybe?

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Originally Posted by onimaru55

Similar design to William Wood of Liverpool. 86 miles away. Wonder if they were related.

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Seems like William Wood was more of a merchant then an actual maker, found many reference to auction for watches etc with his name on them.
Attachment 163677

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Originally Posted by Voidmonster

I have definitely come across some which had been dyed or even shellacked. A very light sanding, and suddenly the cracked black scales were translucent!

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Yep, me too. Not disagreeing. Maybe they weren't water buffalo but some other kind of horn or as I hinted at a younger bull.
Dyeing was common but some will be black thru & thru as well.

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Originally Posted by onimaru55

Yep, me too. Not disagreeing. Maybe they weren't water buffalo but some other kind of horn or as I hinted at a younger bull.
Dyeing was common but some will be black thru & thru as well.

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(and I wasn't disagreeing either, actually!)

Yeah, since all the ones I've seen like the one I linked to come from a pretty narrow time period, I wonder if there wasn't some kind of import issue. Presumably, all that black horn was getting shipped in from India. This leads me to research questions... :)

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Originally Posted by carlmaloschneider

After 1850 as that's when he invented the York razor maybe?

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I'm thinking the earlier date is more likely, since the York Razor is 'The York Razor' and the one Dzanda has is just "WOOD YORK", but it's all so generic it's hard to really be sure.

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Originally Posted by Voidmonster

I'm thinking the earlier date is more likely, since the York Razor is 'The York Razor' and the one Dzanda has is just "WOOD YORK", but it's all so generic it's hard to really be sure.

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Oh right yeah, LOOKS like an earlier razor too... Quite a short tail...