Buying French razors in bulk...
The mostly magnificent seven?
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I've been on a French razor kick lately. Three lots of razors later and I've got four razors that'll almost certainly go into regular rotation and three who will ... um. Be a lesson to others? Certainly a lesson to me.
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From top to bottom
- Front reads "Briau / Lyon." Blade reads "Royal Star" Back tang - "Deposé". Fairly hollow grind, very light text frosting on the blade. It had a bit of a frown, but I ground it out. Looks like it's going to take a great edge.
- Sadly honed out little guy reads "Special Barbe Dure" -- looks like someone's barbe was way dure.
- Front: "Charriere/ a Paris" back "Collin & Cie/ a Paris"
in 1866 two of Charriere's apprentices took over his business, Adolphe and Robert Collin. Robert went on his way shortly after but Adolphe continued to produce fine instruments under the name Collin & Cie until 1935. This feels like a razor made by a maker of surgical instruments, much like the J. Weiss blades I've handled. - W. Picard Garanti. Frowny. The back is stamped 61.
- Cotte with a cannon. Small, frowning, but nicely made.
- Front reads: Barriere / Paris No. 4 -- there is what appears to be the bottom of a crown and then below the 'B' is a tiny caret. The back reads 134 Medaille ARGt (Silver medal?) Fontinille.
It's a smaller blade, but lightly ground and very nice in hand. Heavy for its size. - Rameau Fcant / SENS (Yonne) -- IE: Rameau Sens, made in Yonne (yes?). The scales are engraved with D. ROUSTAN, and it's not the usual owner scrawl but something much more decorative and close to professional. This is my favorite razor of the lot. It's not a huge blade, but it's heavy, has superb tool-grade jimps and unusual but attractive flat scales.
And that's all I know. If anyone has more information, I'd love to hear it!
Re: Buying French razors in bulk...
I am really looking forward to shaving with that Rameau Sens. Out of the shipping packet it was sharp enough to effortlessly cut hair off my arm, and it's only got about 0.5mm of hone wear. If it weren't for a couple tiny chips I'd just wipe in on the CNAT, strop & go.