Thread: 3/4+ Joseph Rodgers & Sons Cutlers Sheffield Near Wedge

Beautiful old razor. I agree with sharptonn that it looks like it could be styled for the French market. Pointed razor scale tips are an almost exclusively French thing in my experience. The sweeping undercut tang style is also something I also associate with French market razors, but more relatively "modern" (post-1870) styling. Yet that blade style and grind is definitely really old. The tails I've seen on pre-1830 razors seem to be much stubbier and thicker than this one.

It's a mix of things, maybe a transitional late old-style razor or an early new-style razor. Joseph Rodgers that I see tend to be very traditionally styled British choppers, so this one is pretty unusual. So being a non-British marketed razor seems very plausible to me.

On an interesting side note, I recently dug up an out-of-print book I bought years ago called "A Razor Anthology", kind of a collection of razor-related articles from the publishers of Knife World magazine from 1995. Overall it's kind of boring, but it has a great article titled "Razors of the Bowie Men." It turns out that most Bowie Knives sold and used in the United States between 1830 - 1870 were made by a handful of Sheffield companies I only associated with razors. I knew they made knives, but I always figured boring household knives, not something as associated with adventure as Bowie knives in the mid-1800s. Pretty cool.

Joseph Rodgers was apparently one of the key smaller high-quality Bowie knife makers, along with Wm. Greaves & Sons. Wostenholm I*XL brand was the largest, along with Wade & Butcher.

These read like a list of my favorite Sheffield razor makers, and I just thought it was interesting that they played such a badass part in American frontier history.

It does look like a french razor. Perhaps it is even a forgery.

Joseph Rodger, as Pradier in France and several other makers were in trial several times due to falsifiers.

It would be, imho, if it is the case, as collectible as a real Rodger.

Originally Posted by Thaeris

It does look like a french razor. Perhaps it is even a forgery.

Joseph Rodger, as Pradier in France and several other makers were in trial several times due to falsifiers.

It would be, imho, if it is the case, as collectible as a real Rodger.

BLASPHEMY....LOL. I hope it's a real JOSEPH RODGERS

There are several threads on here addressing all these "other rodgers" and one of them is called "Jospeh Rodgers - a query":

Manah had replied in the thread as saying:

9. And Joseph Rodgers & Sons.
According to the form of your blade. I think, the Joseph Rodgers & Sons company is closer.
From Henry T.Lummus article:
"In 1821, Joseph Rodgers and Sons secured an appointment as cutlers to His Majesty King George IV, an honor which encouraged them to greater efforts and stimulated their competitors. About that time arose the practices of scoring the top and bottom of the tang with file-cuts or flutings to keep the fingers from slipping, and of stamping the initial of the sovereign (G R, which became WR on the accession of William IV in 1830, and VR when the reign of Queen Victoria began in 1837)".
So. Jimmy, I'm sure, your razor was made before 1821.


So the blade has the correct Name - "Joseph Rodgers", it has Sons (plural). I think the actual "&" is missing. It's even got the fluting so everything seems in the right order but the Monarch Stamp.

I hope that I'm using Manah's reply in the right context

I Hope it all get's solved.
Funny and complementary, an expert Frenchman would agree to my assessment.

The pointed ends, as was pointed-out.
Blade is heavy, chunky, round-pointed, and lightly-ground as the majority of mid-1800's French blades were.
Just by looking at lots of razors, my first word was 'FRENCH'.

An old Rodgers is more likely. Very old?

You should check with Voidmonster or Altus, but the shape tells me around 1860 french razor.

Beautiful razor and the historical mysteries just add to the mystique, no? And I love that old leather pouch!

It is definitely a forgery! Note Sheffield is misspelled. I’ve seen some inexplicable misspellings on razors, but never “Scheffield”.

Thaeris is on the money here. Probably French, 1860’s or so, and a very collectable forgery!

The awesome thing about razor forgeries from the era is that they’re much rarer than the real deal and often just as good.

I’ve nabbed a few fake Rodgers, but none so blatant as this, and it’s wonderful!

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

It is definitely a forgery! Note Sheffield is misspelled. I’ve seen some inexplicable misspellings on razors, but never “Scheffield”.

Thaeris is on the money here. Probably French, 1860’s or so, and a very collectable forgery!

The awesome thing about razor forgeries from the era is that they’re much rarer than the real deal and often just as good.

I’ve nabbed a few fake Rodgers, but none so blatant as this, and it’s wonderful!

Thanks for the addition of all this useful info Mr. Void. I totally skipped over the misspelling and I saw what I wanted to see...an opportunity to have something that few others have. And now I have just that...lol. A FAKE.

Staring me all in the face when I get into work tomorrow.

Never a dull moment around here.

Thanks again

Cheetah

Forgery is the most sincere form of flattery. I'm probably showing my ignorance here but I remember hearing a story about at least one particular forger whose give away was that his fakes were actually better than the original.

Originally Posted by cheetahmeatpheonix

Thanks for the addition of all this useful info Mr. Void. I totally skipped over the misspelling and I saw what I wanted to see...an opportunity to have something that few others have. And now I have just that...lol. A FAKE.

Staring me all in the face when I get into work tomorrow.

Never a dull moment around here.

Thanks again

Cheetah

It’s a seriously cool and rare find!