Thread: My First two vintage French Blades

Hello all,

I just acquired these from a seller overseas in France. Once is a P. Hospital Le Grelot, with a "42" stamped on the tang. Looks like a 4/8 that was honed down to a 3/8? This thing is tiny. I hope the frowning edge can be repaired. The other is a Le Grelot by T.I. I'm guessing because there's no P. Hospital mark. It's a 6/8 with "363" stamped on the reverse side of the tang. Any tips on removing spots on an etched blade that is otherwise polished great would be appreciated. I'm thinking a gentle cleaning with soap and a scotch brite might take care of it. Thank you

Just my opinion but the first blade looks too far gone.
The second looks very nice.

yeah that second one is a catch.

I was thinking the same thing the first one is pretty much honed away , might be wrong but it looks too far gone ,, second one should clean up ,, tc

Welcome to SRP!

Your first razor Le Grelot 42 is originally a 3/8 razor, indeed very small. The second razor is a Le Grelot as well from the same company and not Thiers Issard, its made by Pierre Hospital and co in Thiers, France.

How does it shave? I can't sleep at night seeing the stuff inside those scales. I bet that will shine up to be a beauty!

my thought on the clean up is to take some low tack winters tape and cover the etch nd gold wash and then take some 0000 steel wool and some mothers polish and clean it up a little, then just straight mothers on a cloth. Gold wash is very delicate and just touching it a little bit with polish on your fingers will lighten it dramatically. It does mask easily though.

ya the 0000 wool will polish it. Totally cover the gold wash with anything..take your time doing it too. if you hit that gold with even 0000 its gone,. Just work around it and use your best craftsmanship you can muster. Take your time. The rewards will be fantastic. Please post an after picture. I bet it will turn out great! Just don't rush it. edit..cover the gold with nail polish..take your time like a rembrandt then remove the nail polish with acitone. I wonder what kinda razor rembrandt used? hmmm...just thinking

I was thinking about using some of my 0000 steel wool. I haven't shaved with it yet! A fellow shaver up here in Boston is helping me hone them up before I shave. Thank you @HenryConchile! Also I have another question- MAAS is seemingly impossible to find in stores here lately. I've also read here on SRP about Mothers brand. I understand these are two separate and different things, but would you guys recommend the much easier for me-to-find Mothers as opposed to MAAS? I suppose I could order some MAAS online, but just wondering.


p.s.- RezDog- you mentioned "winters" tape. Is that a brand? What kind of tape should be used. Am I missing something here? Thanks again for your help everyone

that is my bad spelling or typing being autocorrected. Painters tape. I use mother polish all the time. It is readily available, in fact they even have it in stores in the middle of nowhere and in my case about 100 miles past the far edge of nowhere.