Thread: W R Case & Sons

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Originally Posted by kmadden

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Interesting! Kunstschliff may have been a steel producer. Seems it is to advertise a 'voltage tempered' steel?
I have seen many makers from early to late advertise the steel in their blades on the tangs and even blade-face.

I suppose it also may be a 'giveaway' razor the company commissioned Case to stamp in order to simply advertise their steel?

A quick google search yielded nothing on them for me, aside from razors such as this.

I realize that I am responding to an old post, but I wanted to clarify some things and add some information.

As a few of you here know I work for WR Case Cutlery and have access to the Case Historian (Katie) as well as some records still in the system. Katie and I have done some research and we were unable to find any information or evidence that Parker produced or had someone else produce straight razors marked with the Case name during or after he owned the company. I cannot say with 100% certainty that he did not have any made, I can only state that we were unable to find anything saying he did.

What we do know for sure is that the razor in the original post is definitely from 2001 (more than a decade after Parker) and was part of a marketing project based on WR Cases history with German cutleries. See the picture below titled “Shadows of the Past: Case and Germany Reunited”. I have also seen and read through the original project meeting notes for these razors. Many of the people in those meeting are still with the company and I have spoken to a few of them to confirm details.

Some additional info: There was also a Leather Strop offered in 2001. In 2002 there was 1 razor offered to Case Collectors Club members as a Fathers Day offer (Gold inlaid etching on blade). In 2003 there were 3 additional razors offered. All these razors from 2001 – 2003 were produced by Dovo (Soligen, Germany) with WR Cases name on them for WR Case.

Below is production information that was copied and pasted from an email the Historian sent me:

“For all of these items, we advertised a limited production run of “about 500” although we were under on most, but went slightly over on some.

In 2001 we came out with these:
.
Item # - Description - Quantity
20971 – Mother-of-Pearl - 478
20972 – Smooth Grey Bone - 450
20973 – Smooth Green Bone - 350
20974 – Smooth Red Bone - 350
20975 – Smooth Black Plastic with the Case Logo on the handle - 553
20976 – Smooth “Blonde” Plastic with the Case Logo on the handle - 552

We also did a Razor Strop:
Item # Description
20977 – Leather Razor Strop - 550

In 2003 we came out with these:
Item # - Description - Quantity
20978 – Smooth Tortoise Celluloid - 543
20979 – Jigged Chestnut Bone - 416
20980 – Jigged Green Bone - 480

We did another at some point for the CCC, but I will have to look for that item later…I’m late for a meeting."


One other interesting thing to note was that only the Black Plastic and Blond Plastic scale models from 2001were Carbon Steel, all other models were Stainless Steel and were marked with “Tested XX Stainless” on the back of the tang. The Carbon models have a single shoulder while the Stainless models have a double shoulder.

Just wanted to make this post to share the info I have found as I have seen incorrect information on these razors in multiple places on the web.

I have a 2003 Jigged Chestnut Bone and a 2003 Smooth Tortoise model as well as a couple of unscaled blades if anyone wants to see more pictures.

Excellent info! Thanks!

Originally Posted by kmadden

What can one tell about a W.R. Case and Sons razor if you see "Kunstschliff" stamped on the tang?

The literal translation of "Kunstschliff" from German to English is "Art Cut". What that means in relation to a straight razor is beyond me but it sure do sound fancy.

Bob

Originally Posted by Fenster

Below is production information that was copied and pasted from an email the Historian sent me:

[COLOR="#0000FF"]“For all of these items, we advertised a limited production run of “about 500” although we were under on most, but went slightly over on some.

In 2001 we came out with these:
.
Item # - Description - Quantity
20971 – Mother-of-Pearl - 478

Item 20971 appears to be the same as a Dovo 41 I have. It is stainless steel with real one piece MOP scales. Real one piece MOP scales from Dovo have not been nade for quite a while.

Bob

So interesting to be able to hear the facts provided by folks who have access to original sources of information. Thank you.

Originally Posted by BobH

Real one piece MOP scales from Dovo have not been nade for quite a while.

Bob

that does not surprise me, while I certainly have no insider knowledge of Dovo's inventory or its supply chain, I can tell you that it has been increasingly harder and harder to source production quantities of larger size slabs of pearl over the last few years.

Originally Posted by Fenster

that does not surprise me, while I certainly have no insider knowledge of Dovo's inventory or its supply chain, I can tell you that it has been increasingly harder and harder to source production quantities of larger size slabs of pearl over the last few years.

I emailed Dovo Germany about their one piece MOP scales and was told they cannot source large enough pieces anymore and now use faux pearl material for their scales. It has to do with certain areas that did produce large shells being placed in a protected state allowing no harvesting.

Bob

Yep, and the places that are farming the shell don't get the big ones or don't wait long enough for them to get big.

At least that is what I was told at work.