Thread: Rusty Anchor

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

This one wasn't even made in Sheffield, though whoever made it went out of their way to make it look like a Sheffield razor:





(Sorry about the picture quality, I haven't had a chance to build a new lightbox since moving).

The front of the blade is etched FINE SILVER STEEL and the pile side (unusually) is also etched, "Probe gut". German, something like 'Proven good'.

I say it's not Sheffield made for a collection of reasons:

• The flower-shaped pin collars are different from any Sheffield made ones.
• The lettering pressed into the scales is even more non-uniform and poorly kerned than the worst Sheffield ones I've seen.
• The inside of the scales have the maker's stamp -- G. Linder. A German name (and no one of that name worked in Sheffield until the early 1900's.

Yes, the scales are dyed horn, they're just died a vivid candy-red.

In short, the anchor mark was used all over the place. It seems to have been a standard symbol included in many letterpress kits (which is almost certainly what most razor stamps were derived from).

Hey Zak - hope things are well with you.

Regarding the collars - here's a pic of a matched pair of WB's I have, do you think the collars are similar?

Originally Posted by Phrank

Hey Zak - hope things are well with you.

Regarding the collars - here's a pic of a matched pair of WB's I have, do you think the collars are similar?

Those look like regular old Sheffield ones. They've got more definition to them, and even though it looks like a few of yours are held on with microfasteners, you can tell that the way it was pinned together is different.

Here's a closeup of three Sheffield ones and my mystery (probably German) razor:



It should be relatively clear.

Good to see you posting Zakster!

Zak - the pic of the W&B's on the left is before Wolfpack restored them - perhaps he can illuminate regarding the pins...interesting, yes, you can clearly see the added detail.

Originally Posted by Phrank

Zak - the pic of the W&B's on the left is before Wolfpack restored them - perhaps he can illuminate regarding the pins...interesting, yes, you can clearly see the added detail.

I haven't taken this one apart, but I'd guess there aren't any support washers beneath the decorative one, so when they hammered the pins, it flattened. Also, looks like they're steel (as well as the pins), which is really rare on Sheffield stuff.

Originally Posted by Phrank

Zak - the pic of the W&B's on the left is before Wolfpack restored them - perhaps he can illuminate regarding the pins...interesting, yes, you can clearly see the added detail.

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

I haven't taken this one apart, but I'd guess there aren't any support washers beneath the decorative one, so when they hammered the pins, it flattened. Also, looks like they're steel (as well as the pins), which is really rare on Sheffield stuff.

Zak...the ones that Andrew pictured above (rosette collars) did have your standard SS support washers underneath. When I re-pinned them I also used support washers that I made for them. BTW...the collars for Andrew's pair of W&B's look just like a few old Geo. Johnson razors with rosette's that I have. So perhaps there was some 'sub-contractor' back in the day that made collars for many different manufacturers of razors????

No need to apologize for the rosette photograph Voidmonster....you can see a hellish amount of lint as well as the difference in collars.

Originally Posted by Wolfpack34

Zak...the ones that Andrew pictured above (rosette collars) did have your standard SS support washers underneath. When I re-pinned them I also used support washers that I made for them. BTW...the collars for Andrew's pair of W&B's look just like a few old Geo. Johnson razors with rosette's that I have. So perhaps there was some 'sub-contractor' back in the day that made collars for many different manufacturers of razors????

My guess is everybody got their tools struck off the same mold, or even from the same original manufacturer (even the guys that made tools had to buy tools to make tools).

Originally Posted by WW243

No need to apologize for the rosette photograph Voidmonster....you can see a hellish amount of lint as well as the difference in collars.

170 year old velvet lined boxes really do ONE particular thing VERY well... Can you guess what it is?

Here you go Dave!

Getting this one done has been a real project to be sure and for certain! Dave's been as patient as Job with me, BUT in my defense taking on a project like this one is a challenge and you really have to go slow as you go.

Anyway...here is a picture tutorial of this project. All that's left to be done is for Dave to pick out the collars (either brass bulls-eye, or Domed SS) that he thinks will look the best for him and get it pinned up and honed up.

Here's the way the razor looked when it arrived:

And here’s is what the razor looked like after all the red surface rust and the black discoloration (what some would call “PATINA” ! ) had been removed to show what and how bad the pitting damage was before beginning the restoration project…

MORE PICTURES: