Anyone know anything about T. Ascher?

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I just got this fella. Roughly 13/16, about a II 1/2 on the Henckel scale. THICK blade -- a full quarter inch at the tang and only marginally thinner along the blade, swage back, hollow toe. That little decorative bar on the scales appears to be silver. REALLY nicely cut jimping on the top and bottom. It's a heavy beast.

The tang reads:

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SUPE SILV STEEL
T. ASCHER
SHEFFIELD

The single reference I can find to T. Ascher is from the second Lummus article, which has a gigantic T. Ascher Masonic razor with the same tang stamp and dated to 1845. I cannot find any references in the Sheffield directories. Any more info would be greatly appreciated!

For now it goes into the neatsfoot oil. It's the second razor in a row which peeks out the bottom of its scales. This one I want to do only the bare minimum of cleanup and structural fixes on. Initially I thought the toe was a bit unevenly honed, but I'm not so sure. The bevel is pretty even all along the edge, only really widening when the toe curves up. It's not as pronounced a taper as the Elliot, Greaves and Marshes & Ponds I've seen, but this one does appear to be deliberate.

Wish I could help you other than to say I LIKE THAT BEAST! :)

I'm doing a minimal restore, basically just a thorough cleaning and structural shoring-up. It's still a work in progress -- there's a bad crack at the toe that re-cracked when I tightened it up with microfasteners.

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Looks good so far.

Let us know how "SuperSilv Steel" hones and shaves.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KindestCutOfAll

Looks good so far.

Let us know how "SuperSilv Steel" hones and shaves.

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I've got lots of irons in the fire, so it's taken me a bit. I just got this blade back from Ogershok yesterday and I shaved with it today.

How does SUPESILV STEEL shave?

It's moving into that mythical 'too sharp' territory. There's little feedback on the hair cutting. I've got plenty of blades that are similarly hollow and they tend to be talkative when they shave. Each hair goes with a 'pop'. With the Ascher, they just kind of whoosh off. There's no pop because they just fall as the blade hits.

On top of that, the blade is just a fantastic weight and shape to hold. The jimping is the perfect cut for my tactile sense, like a precision tool, so the blade feels incredibly secure.

I actually missed a few spots shaving because I rely on tactile feedback to 'feel' if the razor is cutting or not, and that sometimes just went away even when I was mowing down whiskers.

Now to finish fixing up the scales. I might as well make'em perfect, even if I'm leaving the patina on the blade.

Very cool - I've had dreams about that huge Masonic Ascher from the Lummus article, nice to see another.

BTW *WHEN* that monster Ascher surfaces I get dibs lol ;)