Thread: Manufacture date?

Hey guys,
I recently acquired this bad boy. I want to get a manufacture time frame and any other info really would be very much appreciated.

I can say pre 1890's sense it doesnt say England on it. Sorry, that all i got for ya.

It's got some horrendous hone wear that will be hard to overcome.

Originally Posted by Newguy2017

Hey guys,
I recently acquired this bad boy. I want to get a manufacture time frame and any other info really would be very much appreciated.

It was manufactured at some point between 1840 and 1860 and later reground to be hollow.

The style is very ‘meat & potatoes’ Sheffield for the period. They’re very solid workhorses.

Scales are black horn, the wedge is pewter or tin.

That style collar on the pins suggests earlier in the given time frame than later, but isn’t a strong indicator. The major features of dating are the style of tang stamp (IE, actually a stamp and not a shallow etching) and the blade shape.

The blade shape covered a very broad time period. Roughly 1840 to 1890 and possibly later. The tang stamp is more indicitave as W&S Butcher stopped using stamps on their most basic razors around the late 1860’s.

Regrinding was a very common maintence done on razors into the 20th century and the quality of work varied enormously. That one looks quite competently done, and while the razor does have a notable degree of hone wear, it’s well within usable range.

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

It was manufactured at some point between 1840 and 1860 and later reground to be hollow.

The style is very ‘meat & potatoes’ Sheffield for the period. They’re very solid workhorses.

Scales are black horn, the wedge is pewter or tin.

That style collar on the pins suggests earlier in the given time frame than later, but isn’t a strong indicator. The major features of dating are the style of tang stamp (IE, actually a stamp and not a shallow etching) and the blade shape.

The blade shape covered a very broad time period. Roughly 1840 to 1890 and possibly later. The tang stamp is more indicitave as W&S Butcher stopped using stamps on their most basic razors around the late 1860’s.

Regrinding was a very common maintence done on razors into the 20th century and the quality of work varied enormously. That one looks quite competently done, and while the razor does have a notable degree of hone wear, it’s well within usable range.

I think I am sort of staying on topic.

With these reground blades did they as a general rule keep the scales on when they were reground? Or did they remove them from the scales and at that time replace the scales if needed?

Why I am asking this is because at the time these were reground they were 100% tools and done for economy. Maybe they could reuse the washers but if at the time it was easier to wreck them during removal and then replace them why do it? The same with scales.

For example today unless I am a collector I am not going to spend $100 on labor to keep a $20 set of scales.

Originally Posted by 32t

I think I am sort of staying on topic.

With these reground blades did they as a general rule keep the scales on when they were reground? Or did they remove them from the scales and at that time replace the scales if needed?

Why I am asking this is because at the time these were reground they were 100% tools and done for economy. Maybe they could reuse the washers but if at the time it was easier to wreck them during removal and then replace them why do it? The same with scales.

For example today unless I am a collector I am not going to spend $100 on labor to keep a $20 set of scales.

It seems to have varied. I find a lot of reground razors that have marks on the scales where they touched the grindstone. Some are clearly reground and in the original scales without any obvious marks. Others are in much more modern scales than the blade.

Regrinding was also done for a variety of reasons: to remove bad hone wear, clean up rusting & pitting, or to convert old wedges to full hollow.

The precision in which regrinding was done makes the difference.
I love well-done long-ago reground blades. There were some great jobs done on a lot of them.
It's crazy what was often achieved from the old thick wedges around turn-O-century.
JMO, of course!

Originally Posted by sharptonn

The precision in which regrinding was done makes the difference.
I love well-done long-ago reground blades. There were some great jobs done on a lot of them.
It's crazy what was often achieved from the old thick wedges around turn-O-century.
JMO, of course!

Absolutely!

I've got a mid-1830's Fenney that was reground as thin as anything out of Solingen in the 1920's and it's just superb. They even retained the original smile.

A club to the old regrinds.....

Originally Posted by sqzbxr

It's got some horrendous hone wear that will be hard to overcome.

It’s got a good amount of wear but it’s not that bad. Should hone up fine.