Thread: John Barber Unwrapped!

Originally Posted by WBK

According to a copy of an old Lummus article I have, your style tang was used on razors from 1833-1840. So that matches with sometime during the last 2 years of his business. str8fencers looks like one from the 1820-1833 period in the article.

Let me start by saying that I agree with you about that 100%. I really think that based on what we know and what we can compare it to, we can fairly confidently date it from 1830-34. Which is pretty cool!

The question that I have is this; what would have stopped a maker from making a tang in 1825 that looked like an 1835 tang? Were there actual rules, or how did that work? I think old Judge Lumus knew his razors, but I wonder if he said "I know this one razor by this one maker has this type of tang and is an 1835, so that's the cutoff." or exactly how he did know.

From what I have read, basically a cutler came up with an "improvement" and the others copied so as to have the "latest/greatest" design as well. A lot of his research came from old collections. I suppose he was also able to verify what he was seeing by looking at dates various cutlers were in business and the styles used during those dates. I wish I had that kind of time on my hands!

Well, I guess study law, become a judge, retire rich and then you cam spend all the time you want playing with razors. Lol. Thanks for the info. I didn't know that.