Thread: Never honed Joseph Elliot c.1850's ?

So DwarvenChef and I got together today and I took him to my secret stash antique stores and we both picked up some great razors....see what you miss when you miss a CenCal meeting! At any rate, I've sure he'll post to the thread with his finds, but as for me, I got this interesting piece. I can't, however, date this guy since it has some weird features...

1. it's never been honed until today! It's never had anything other than some metal polish on it...no grinders.

2. It's been used as it had some active rust in the pivot, but has never been honed.

3. Tang and scales look like the 1870's, monkey tail appears to be transitions from the shorties to the long...so maybe 1850's, the grind appears to be 1840's.....very strange razor.

4. There is no country or city stamped on the razor, but duh it's a Sheffield.

If you guys want to venture a guess on the age of this guy, be my guest.





It's a great little shaver...finally, a wedge I can get excited about!

Ack haven't taken Pics yet I was honing up the Jmperial

That cleaned up very nice

I could be wrong, but given the size of the tail, tang, and scales as compared to the razor, I'd guess that is a regrind.

Can't really help with a guesstimate on razor...

Nice choice of fountain pen ink though.

Originally Posted by red96ta

1. it's never been honed until today! It's never had anything other than some metal polish on it...no grinders.

you mean none that you saw That blade most certainly doesn't look like it started at the current tang width size and with that hollow.

Originally Posted by gugi

you mean none that you saw That blade most certainly doesn't look like it started at the current tang width size and with that hollow.

Shoot, that thing isn't hollow by any means, it's a wicked solid wedge. However, I've compared it to a similar sized Jo Allen I have and they are almost exactly the same. The only difference between the two is that the Jo Elliot is slightly shorter where perhaps a barber's notch used to reside...well that and it's now a 5/8ths now.

If this was a regrind, it makes you wonder why someone would go through such an invasive procedure on the blade. I suppose wedges can chip up like a hollow, but that would have been a huge chip or even a crack in order to grind away that much steel. Another possibility is that it had a huge amount of hone wear. In fact, it seems that after honing it, it's taking on some pretty uneven wear no matter how gently or which direction I hone in...it comes out heavy on the toe on one side and heavy on the center in the other....

Either way, it was a great regrind.

Should be an interesting shave.

Never tried the Diamine inks, still have a dozen bottles of Noodlers to work threw...

Originally Posted by red96ta

Either way, it was a great regrind.

Most old regrinds that I have seen were very well done. Maybe a handful weren't.