Foulde & Hodgson found in the wild

Found this at a local antique/junk store yesterday. $15 CDN.

First razor I’ve found stamped with a Canadian maker’s mark: Foulde and Hodgson, Montreal. Looks like a near wedge, about 11/16 with a French point.

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It has some pitting at the toe, but the bevel looks pretty clean of rust and pits. Lots of patina.

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I’ll be sanding a while to clean up the blade. I have no tools where I am to remove the scales, which look to be horn, but I want to see what the blade looks like clean.

Don’t know why the attachments did not load in with the post, but I think you can see the images if you click on each link.

No pics appeared

Clicking the link doesn't come up, error states it is invalid. Could be the file type, I always load using jpegs

I have never heard of the maker. I’m excited to hear of another Canadian maker. I have a Taylor and a Jones bro’s. The Jones bro’s had a hardware company based out of Montreal and is likely made for them. The Taylor is made in Canada. There were not many Canadian makers so your find is exciting.

Tease, need pics.
A rare find indeed!
:tu

Second try at posting the photos.
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Nice..!!
Looks more 7/8 - 13/16

See what ya mean about the blade being fairly clean of pits along the edge. That's a new one, in comparison to the rest of the blade.

Forgot to mention that it has top and bottom jimps. I haven’t seen too many razors with that.

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Originally Posted by outback

Nice..!!
Looks more 7/8 - 13/16

See what ya mean about the blade being fairly clean of pits along the edge. That's a new one, in comparison to the rest of the blade.

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You are correct about the blade width Mike. You can read a ruler scale better than I can.

Most of the time, I have to deal with pitting and devil’s spit on the cutting edge. Does not seem to be the case with this old blade. Hope I haven’t jinxed it.

Very nice find.

Bob

I’ve spent a good part of the afternoon searching the net for the company name with no luck. St. Paul Street is one of the oldest streets in Montreal - dates back to the late 1600’s, so there could have been a lot of businesses at that address.

As much as I would like the razor to be Canadian made, I suspect It was made somewhere else and marked with a vendor’s name and address. Is it unusual to find a street address as part of the maker’s mark?

It looks like a Sheffield razor I have that dates to early to mid 1800’s.

I suspect that you are correct. It does look like a Sheffie razor. OTH there was a time when US made razors resembled a Sheffie made because there were immigrants from Sheffield that worked making razors in the US.

Bob

Finally got to look at the tang stamp with a magnifier and noticed I had misread the first part of the name.

Foulds & Hodgson came up immediately on a Google search:

“ In 1856 or ’57, Jonathan Hogdson and John Foulds established their business, Foulds & Hodgson. Figure 1 shows an engraved corner card advertising the firm as “Importers of/ British, French, German, and/ AMERICAN / DRY GOODS,/SMALL WARES,/ AND FANCY GOODS” and lists the firm’s address as 216 St. Paul Street. “

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SO they did not make the razor, but imported it, probably from England, but possibly from the U.S.

Man, you don't see elegant script like that anymore. Your lucky if people know how to print with a crayon now.

Bob

I’ve been trying to clean this blade up, but have now reached a point where removing the pitting is likely to require too much sanding or a regrind. I used 600wet/dry and fine Emory cloth and followed with 2000 grit with WD40 and Mother’s polish.

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Rehoned it and reset the bevel with a Shapton Pro 1000 and 1 layer of tape. Then went to BBW and coticule, thick slurry diluted to water and then finishing strokes under running water. FInished with 10 light laps on my Shapton Glass7 30K and some laps on CrOx on a balsa strop.

It was one of the best shaves ever. Hardly noticed the stubble being cut and no skin irritation at all.

Has some of the characteristics of a Wosty.

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Originally Posted by outback

Has some of the characteristics of a Wosty.

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It sure looks similar. I have a couple of Wosties and the steel feels similar on the stones.

Were Wosties sold under store branding?

Love the lines on that. I have a few in the same vein.
Beauty

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Originally Posted by DZEC

It sure looks similar. I have a couple of Wosties and the steel feels similar on the stones.

Were Wosties sold under store branding?

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Not that I'm aware of. I have quite a few of them, none with the sellers name on them. But that could have been another market, the blanks might have come from there.

Just a guess.....probably never know.. :shrug: