Thread: Roll the eBay dice: get an 1820's Stenton Masonic razor.

I noticed the etch on this but couldn't make out what it was from the eBay pictures. I got it real cheap on the off chance it was interesting.

It's interesting.



I also used this as an excuse to screw around with a new light box I got. The lighting can use a lot of tweaking still, but it's a passable result.

The blade is badly rusted. I used a little bit of Wullie's graphite trick and it works awful sweet, but the corrosion on this poor oldie is more than a match for it. You can see the difference in the rusted spots on the left side and the right.



I'm pondering whether I want to use this as an excuse to attempt a total factory-quality refurbish which would mean sanding down to clean metal, polishing up to a crocus shine and then re-etching the Masonic design. On the one hand, it would be fun to have an 1820's (see the GR stamp next to 'Stenton' on the tang) blade that looks pristine, but on the other hand it would by necessity be a recreation that destroys part of the original work.

Anybody have any thoughts on that? I'm certainly not averse to just killing the active rust (with an industrial-size can of Rust-formulation RAID) and using it as is. Almost as is, the pile-side pivot is cracked and missing its washer, but that's no impediment to fixing the scales.

To me i would remove the active rust clean up and use as is, no need for a shiny full restore that like turning a model t into a ferrari just doesnt work.

This could be a good candidate to try removing the rust with a dunk in citric acid which would not damage the etch like abrasives would. I'd hate to see this one lose the etch in the name of a shiny restore.

If I do a shiny restore, I will re-etch the blade with the exact same image.

I hope you can get a better image of the etch.

OLD Masonic imagery is fascinating to me.

WAY cool old razor!!

Originally Posted by Wullie

I hope you can get a better image of the etch.

OLD Masonic imagery is fascinating to me.

WAY cool old razor!!

I can surely get a better image of the etching!

In the interim, here's the eBay image I was going by when I bought it:



The compass isn't visible at all, but I guessed by the daggers that it was probably a Masonic razor.

What I'm curious about is whether these sort of things were etched by the manufacturer or if they were done by the reseller. I can see good arguments for either and both.

Here's a much better photo of what remains of the etching.

From this last photo; I'm not sure it's Masonic ? Man in the Moon? Not sure...

It may be nautical theme?
W. STENTON & SON
New York City
ca. 1846 - 1860

R S STENTON
New York City
ca. 1846 - 1860

Originally Posted by Johnus

From this last photo; I'm not sure it's Masonic ? Man in the Moon? Not sure...

A lot of the same imagery is on Wullie's big Greaves Masonic blade.