Thread: Robert Wade and the challenge of sorting history.

I got this off of eBay because I felt certain, based on the grind of the blade, that it was an late 1820's model and thus made under Robert Wade's name by his widow, Jane.

However Neil Miller wasn't too sure about that dating when I showed it him, and now that I have it in hand, neither am I.



There's absolutely no doubt that it's old. I've seen numerous razors dated to the late 1700's with this basic style and it's a style that clearly continued into the 1810's. Supposedly, Robert Wade began making razors in 1816, but the man is surrounded by mystery and there's very little solid information about him. He died in 1825.



The other Wade stamped razor I have was purchased from Robert Doyle who dated it to roughly 1815. When you see both razors together it really looks like a slam dunk that Doyle was wrong and my new Wade razor is actually the older one. The straight scales, the small shoulderless blade (it's about 4/8), the simplistic stamp, all scream 'old' far louder than the design features of the R. Wade / Warranted blade.



Compare it to this very early Thomas Scargill blade. Note that the scales are very similar (though the Wade razor has a lead wedge and the Scargill does not).

So where's the challenge here? Clearly this Wade razor is from the beginning of Robert Wade's known production, right?



Except, the grind of the blade, with that pronounced lip along the spine, is quite similar to this Hiram Gilbert stamped razor (probably made by Joseph Elliot) in the 1830's. To the best of my knowledge, no one was grinding razors like that in the 1810's.



But the lip isn't that pronounced compared to the Hiram Gilbert. Plus, razors were regularly reground by street vendors who set up foot-powered wheels and offered to clean and fix old razors. Maybe it was reground into the 1830's style?

Or maybe Jane Wade made it herself, desperate for income after the death of her husband, and with only the skills she'd acquired by watching her father or brothers or spouse at work. She continued to produce razors with his stamp for four years before the inevitable caught up to her.

I seriously doubt I'll ever know. But there are some questions that MIGHT help.

Are there other very early razors with a pronounced spine bulge?

Is the lack of a first initial on the stamp any kind of indicator?

Those are things we might be able to find out.