Thread: Pygmlian's disease: in which Zak fixes every ugly duckling he can find.

ScienceGuy tipped me to this one, since I'm always willing to throw a few bucks at oddities in search of the hidden gem.

What we have here is a straight razor that's been... modified.



It looks like someone glued it into a hickory handle a very long time ago, wrapped tape around the wood and kept using it as a razor. Kamisori, farm-style!

What caught my eye was the squared back, the swaged spine and that 'superior refined steel' stamp. I guessed 1820's.



The stamp looked suspiciously similar to a Joseph Rodgers I'd seen a while back, so I nabbed it. To my astonishment, there were three other bidders!

With something like this there's no telling what you'll find when (and if!) you get to the maker's stamp.

Upon arrival, I took pictures, got out the coping saw, the Dremel, the chisels, the hammer, and the pincers.

The tape came off easily. The wood did not. The glue went most of the way down. I had to cross-section and pince and prize and tap and hammer to get it all off. The first part to become visible was a very neatly cut thumb notch and bottom jimping. I was careful not to saw deeply enough to hit the metal. Finally I got the whole thing to crack in half and there it was, a complete blade, tang, and tail. But the stamp was unreadable because it was covered in glue and oxidation.

Out came the sanding tools and here's what I was left with. It isn't what I thought it was, it's quite a bit more unusual!



And the tang stamp...



1820's MAUDE.

I can only find reference to one other, over here.

Maude doesn't turn up in the trade directories of Sheffield. Tweedale has no entry. The last Maude listed in the History of the Cutler's Company of Hallamshire was in 1680.

There are a few tantalizing clues: a son named John born to Harriet & John (grinder), 1827-03-30 and another son named William born 1834-01-28. Lydia, born to Martha & Thomas (grinder), 1824-03-09.

But a grinder is not a cutler. The Maude who made these two razors wasn't necessarily from Sheffield.

As for this one, I'll be cleaning the rest of the grime off and putting it into a set of appropriate 1820's scales.