Thread: My Biggest Blades

Originally Posted by Phrank

Very nice - I've got two MB's, one 8/8 and this 9/8 W&B Magnum Bonum...always a gas to shave with:

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Nice! Sleek and stylish.. I like

...So Voidmonster is the man to ask about the mystery monster blade? I'm still really wondering about it... any info? I hope he will chime in and enlighten me, the mystery has been eating away at my soul!

Originally Posted by MikeT

...So Voidmonster is the man to ask about the mystery monster blade? I'm still really wondering about it... any info? I hope he will chime in and enlighten me, the mystery has been eating away at my soul!

I'm afraid it'll remain a mystery. Without a manufacturer's stamp, it was most likely made by one of the Little Masters who actually did all the work for the big 'names' and sold as a generic item.

The old Sheffield work system went something like this:

At the top of the food chain were the manufacturers -- usually the name stamped onto the blade, but sometimes (like with Wade & Butcher), that name itself was only a trademark (with Wade & Butcher it was a trademark of W. & S. Butcher, one half of the partnership that ended with the death of Robert Wade in 1825).

The manufacturers owned the trademarks, the factories and the grindstones. They hired Little M'esters, who were essentially foremen.

The Little M'esters were the guys who made all the work actually happen. They rented the workspace in the factories, the tools, the gaslight to work by, and the raw materials. They were paid for the amount of product they produced, and from that pay came the rent and the wages for all the specialists who worked under them -- forgers, grinders, polishers (and at some places, hafters who made the scales).

This was hard work and demand for any given product varied tremendously. Lean times were common. It was common for Little M'esters to work at more than one factory, or sometimes even produce goods for one manufacturer in another's factory. The manufacturers often paid partly in food or coffee, and much to everyone's annoyance, 'truck' -- goods, often inferior, which the Little M'esters were expected to resell.

Once upon a time there were folks with the experience on the ground to look at a blade and tell you which Little M'ester had made it based on criteria that are now lost. We can guess at that now, but at best they're guesses of 'all the blades from X, Y, and Z, from this time period are very similar, so they must have been made by the same Little M'ester'.

Your mystery blade has some features of a couple of things that are familiar to me -- it does look a little bit like the T. Ascher Masonic blades (which would place it in the early-to-mid 1840's), but it's got a characteristic tang-to-spine droop that I associate with 1810's Magnum Bonum razors (most likely made by George Marsden whose works were taken over by James Barlow, or someone who worked for both men).

Magnum Bonums appear during two distinct periods and with distinctive styles. The ones produced in the first few decades of the 19th century had that slight droop from tang to blade, very tall spines, and were etched "Magnum Bonum" on the top of the spine.

The later ones had the slogan etched on the blade face, like the one you have, and were fairly generic in form. Those date from the late 1830's to the mid 1840's, and were produced around the same time as the 'Real Dutchman Razor', which were also huge blades with a slogan etched onto the blade face. I recall at least one of the 'Dutchman' razors having a little of that droop from tang to spine, so that's where my suspicions lie on the source of your mystery razor. The 'For Barber's Use' designation also seems to have begun in the mid-1830's.

As to who made it? I'm afraid that's not knowable. It was someone who made razors for William & Samuel Butcher, George Wostenholm, William Greaves, Marshes & Sheherd, Fred Fenney, Jonathan Crookes, and probably others I haven't seen.

I know that probably muddies the water a bit, but that's pretty much the state-of-the-art when it gets down to this sort of identification.

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

I'm afraid it'll remain a mystery. Without a manufacturer's stamp, it was most likely made by one of the Little Masters who actually did all the work for the big 'names' and sold as a generic item....
...I know that probably muddies the water a bit, but that's pretty much the state-of-the-art when it gets down to this sort of identification.

WOW! I could not have asked or expected a response even close to as thorough and fulfilling as that! Seriously bravo master Voidmonster! Thank you
I want to copy and paste that to my research files, I'll make sure to site the info.. this is a huge benefit to being a member here!

Told you ;-)