A ten razor day.

Most days go by without bringing me any razors at all. Then there're days like Monday.

Here's what I got:

(I'm currently experiencing a bizarre technical glitch that prevents me from getting to my website, so these will be smaller images than I usually post)

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This one came to me completely out of the blue. My cousin got it for me and had it shipped via FedEx. Nothing GOOD ever comes to me from FedEx, so I assumed the worst when they called and told me the driver couldn't find my house. Instead, I got this neat early American razor.

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Places like Goins list the company as operating between 1905 and 1910. Various sources list various different cutleries as producing the goods that Tom Ray sold wholesale out of his Kansas City warehouse. Sadly, it's now a parking lot. The razors were probably made by the American Cutlery Company, which Tom Ray also worked for. There's a little write-up about him in an early issue of American Cutler, announcing that he'd picked up stakes and took at job at Remington.

http://books.google.com/books?id=m3k...1%2C855&edge=0

You might notice a couple of familiar names in his line up of former employers and associates.

Next up, a pair of French razors that came in from Turin, Italy. They came in a double coffin box. The seller was sure they were English razors. Uh... Nope.

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I can't find much information on this one. In case the picture isn't clear, the tang reads 'BANCELIN no. 50, RUE DE SEINE' then there's an image of a gavel with 'A PARIS'. My best guess on the age of this is... too wild and variable to print. The only thing I know for sure is that 'A PARIS' means it was made in Paris.

It needs some serious cleaning to get the rust out of the pivot -- I'll probably have to take it apart, but I see no reason to think it won't hone up and shave great.

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This one is in bone scales. I'd guess 1850ish. I've seen Aubril mentioned as a good French cutler. The tang reads AUBRIL '39' and something partially legible that I'm guessing is "PALAIS-ROYAL", which probably places this as a Paris razor too. This is a meaty wedge -- just my kinda thing! -- and I'm looking forward to shaving with it, but there's some others in line first... Like one out of the next batch.

And the last, and biggest catch, I picked up locally. It was a co-buy through eBay with ScienceGuy, and you're only getting one tantalizing picture until he's got his half of the purchase. I can tell you that it was originally purchased in Paris around 1905 (bit of a theme, there, huh?). The seller I got it from got it from a little old lady almost 40 years ago. I have no idea who that little old lady was, but she was no doubt somebody around the turn of the century. A set like this wasn't going to be sold to any old plebe...

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Alright! ScienceGuy has his half of what is in that box, so now everyone gets to see.

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A 7 day set of Heljestrand MK31 in tortoise shell scales.

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In the bad column, one blade is broken (not shown, because it's too sad to behold), there's some corrosion on the spines (though almost none on the blades) and the vintage of the scales has been tasted by that most discerning of palates, the dermestid beetle.

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In the good column.... LOOK AT THEM! HOLY MOTHER OF LOVE!

I've shaved with one of the three I kept (it took only a tiny amount of honing on the 8k and a gentle kiss from the CNAT to get it ready), and all I can say is that if the quality of the shave were the main thing I looked for in a straight razor, I'd be selling all the rest of my razors. It really was that good a shaver. I'll need to be careful and never shave late at night lest I wake the neighbors, it's so hollow that shaving sounds like pouring gravel down a fiberglass cathedral. All in all, totally not the sort of thing I look for in a razor and all the more precious because of it.

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And then there's those scales. I've seen turn-of-the-century lucite faux-tortoise that's surprisingly close, but that tiny bit of difference is the difference between 'that's nice' and '{covetous whimper}'. (Really, I can covet, I only have three of them.)

man ! what a score .

What a fantastic 7 day set.............great score indeed..........
About the Aubril razor,"Palais Royal", turns out Mr Joseph Aubril was quite the character! He was an inventor, a Coiffeur (hairdresser), cutler,
re-seller of cutlery.

Among his inventions were a paste for leather for razors, an oil for hair conservation, and also a couple of patents for a razors made out of glass,
and one out of crystal, but the later two never materialized.
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From what i gather his business ventures where from 1815 to 1850.

So the '39 on the tang may well be the year of production?

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Originally Posted by Voidmonster

So the '39 on the tang may well be the year of production?

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Thats what i was thinking! But then i came across two Aubril with 139, and looking at your razor its possible the number one wasnt struck properly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Martin103

Thats what i was thinking! But then i came across two Aubril with 139, and looking at your razor its possible the number one wasnt struck properly.

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With that in mind, I think it's even likely. What I was previously reading as just bits of oxidation start looking like the marks from an imperfect number 1.

Any thoughts at all on the Bancelin? My guess is it's either genuinely 1800ish or revival, and thus probably 1850s(?)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Voidmonster

Any thoughts at all on the Bancelin? My guess is it's either genuinely 1800ish or revival, and thus probably 1850s(?)

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There is certainly evidence of Bancelin in 1830 and 1840 at the same address. Like below, about tools for lithography.

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But to me looking at the razor, the blade, scales, pins screems early 1800's.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Martin103

There is certainly evidence of Bancelin in 1830 and 1840 at the same address. Like below, about tools for lithography.

Attachment 128135

But to me looking at the razor, the blade, scales, pins screems early 1800's.

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I don't know French razors well enough to have a lot of confidence, but my recollection of the revival-style razors was that while they had a lot of the features of the older razors, there were subtle clues that they're actually more modern.

Not visible in the pictures I took, both the Bancelin and the Aubril have ivory wedges... But the Bancelin has an ivory wedge in ivory scales.