Thread: Shopping a Picker's Estate.

Ugh. I typed a description, and the circumstances that lead me to these finds, but there was some sort of low memory error that reloaded the page, minus all of what I put in the body of this post. Past my bedtime. Btw, the picker is still among the living.

















I dug through a few threads related to this brand of razors; seems like I found a good one. I'm curious about the model number, and when exactly it might have been manufactured??? My assumption, based on previous threads & my deductive reasoning, is that the "B" refers to the square point, "GL" is obviously for "Green Lizard", but what about the "44"? Me thinks it could stand for the year of production. Any help nailing down the specific date would be awesome!

Btw, the block is a Norton griddle brick that I hope to use as a lapping stone. I'll add a pic of the label on the bottom tomorrow.

B64GL...6/8 square point
B54GL...5/8 square point
B44GL...I can only deduce yours to be a 4/8 square point ?

I guess it goes without saying that it is a Cattaragaus Green Lizard . A well used one. Interesting lot of stuff. No idea what the instrument is.

It is just a compass on steroids. As for the stone, I am not sure a greasy grill cleaning stone would be a effective normally they are made of pumice.

Yes, the instrument is a "beam compass", with a 72" capacity . I grabbed it to aid the wife drawing uniform circles for her geometric patterns on decor.



Got the whole bunch for about $20 .

I managed to find more info on the griddle brick. It is made from Alundum, which when searched for, Wikipedia redirects you to aluminum oxide. So it's basically a brick of aluminum oxide.

Because of the various company names on the label, I can tell it was produced sometime between 1931, and the 50's. Behr-Manning just isn't really mentioned beyond the 50's.

A history of the Norton Abrasives company:
History of Norton Company – FundingUniverse

Not too shabby of gumshoeing, IMO.

NOW... if only I could nail down a ballpark date for the Cattaragaus razor !

P.S. What would be an ideal way to sanitize any kind of abrasive hone/stone?

Since it is made for a griddle, I would think that boiling water wouldn't harm it. Issues with absorbed grease and oils may arise?

Originally Posted by dinnermint

Since it is made for a griddle, I would think that boiling water wouldn't harm it. Issues with absorbed grease and oils may arise?

Not the worst idea. Starting the heat only after the brick is already in would prevent thermal shock, and explosive oil & water mix results. The water would flush some of the oil out... might do it over the course of several "baths" for this reason. And I'm not sure how strong degreaser chemicals might affect it.

Yea, my first impression is that there is some sort of binder in there and how that would work with industrial chemicals is tough. Drawing oils out with baths should work to an extent but for deeply impregnated oil in the core....

But that's assuming it is some sort of porous material, which could have oil drawn out with hot water. Hmmm... what's the future plan for the griddle brick?