Thread: As though last month weren't bad enough. 1820's Rodgers 7-Day set

That set is what I would expect to find in my bathroom when I get to heaven. Awesome score

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

It's taken me a long time to find a 7-Day set at a price I wanted to pay.

Now I have, and what a thing it is.

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The box is a bit ageworn -- enough so that I did a few minor repairs on it so the blades wouldn't move around or slip through the gap and touch the edge on the bottom. It's wood covered in decorative papier-mâché. It was probably quite lovely in its day, but the box is ready to retire now. At some point I'll make a new one. Interestingly, the interior velvet isn't in bad shape at all.

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I was surprised how compact it all is. The handle is about 2/3rds of a regular razor, and the blades are a bit short as well. About 2.75". They're all in the 5/8 neighborhood, with handmade object variation. You can see where I replaced a missing wall of the box and one of the small flanges that separate the blades on the notch-end. I used pieces of popsicle sticks and woodglue.

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Each blade has the spine etched with a day of the week. Of course the moment I got it in the house I stropped up the Wednesday razor and shaved with it -- I bought this through eBay from our very own Harvitz81. He's responsible for the restore and the honing and he did a fantastic job.

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The scales are ivory (sadly cracked on the pile side, but such is the way of ivory), the wedge is a beefy chunk of lead so even while a bit short, the scales still balance the blade nicely.

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The way the blades lock into the handle is really neat. They have a keyed end which presses into the partial brass tang. There's a piece of spring-steel on the bottom which holds them tight against a keyed tab on the top. The blades just 'snik!' right into place and then you just put a finger on the monkey tail and gently press down on the spine of the blade. The spring-steel bends just enough to detach the keyed tab and it slides out.

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It took a bit of digging to sort out what's going on with the stamps here, but I think I've got it.

First, it might be useful to look at this. That's another 1820's Joseph Rodgers -- you can tell it's Joseph Rodgers because of the 'CUTLERS TO HIS MAJESTY' stamp. Rodgers received the royal warrant in 1822 and not long after became Joseph Rodgers & Sons, as Joseph died in 1821.

The coronation of George IV was in July of 1820. James Stodart and Michael Faraday published on alloys, including silver steel, in 1818 and then again in 1822.

So my best guess is that this set was made at some point after July 1820 and probably before 1822.

Interestingly, there's a remnant of marbled paper on the bottom of the box that's nearly identical to the marbled paper used in the bookbinding of the 1822 publication from the Royal Society, linked just above.

I'm just slightly happy with this set.

Awessommee how much was the score?