Thread: New Member - First Post & First Razor

eBay Australia: Buy new & used fashion, electronics & home d

try this link this one was on the bay.
as i was saying i cant find any information on them as cutlers or anything i have seen that most razors that say liverpool on them were really made in sheffield though.

Oh, I thought it was an actual informational site. A seller's description isnt really the most accurate thing to go by. I already sent an email to Taylor Eye Witness and asked if they could point me in the right direction for more historical information regarding their company. Hopefully it works.

Thats a great idea good luck let us know if you find anything out thanks.

Well jumbojohnny i got my razor today and on close inspection i think you are right it is an eye witness,where it says plunketts on the blade its in a different etch so it has been added on top of ,celebrated hollow ground set ready for use.The plunketts liverpool has also been added in next to the eye witness,So it would seem as though plunkett bought eye witness razors and exported them to the US but not befor putting their names to them.I do still think they are 1800s razors because there is no mark saying england on them.

It sounds like Plunkett may just have been the retailer. For various items, the manufacturer would put that on if requested, although it is less common with razors than some other things.

The silver steel razor was an excellent buy, and looks functionally sound as it is. The two problems (or potential problems) have been correctly identified. They are the possibility of the edge rust going deep enough to pierce through altogether, or deep enough to make a fragile, paper-thin blade when it is removed, and the difficulty of repolishing without removing the etching.

Hollow ground razors aren't all alike. With some, the thickness reduces all the way to the bevel. But with others the thinnest part is further back across the blade, which thickens slightly towards the edge. The latter is a much easier propect for restoration, as you can afford to remove more metal. I think there are diagrams illustrating this, in the Wiki and in the Wikipedia article on razors. It isn't easy to see the difference, especially in the sort of lighting antique shops often have, but you can generally feel it with your fingers.

For mechanical removal of rust, the best chance of keeping the etching is to glue fine abrasive paper to a rigid cylindrical object, of just the right curvature to fit the hollow grind. There may also be a case for chemical removal of rust. You will often see warnings against using acids on razors, and this is very true of anything aggressive. No chemical should be used on a razor that is reasonably well polished except for the occasional rust-spot. But the pink naval jelly type removes rust quite effectively, leaving a very fine pearl-grey surface, and you are no worse off sanding that, than sanding a rust-marked one. The pitted and unpitted parts of the recessed ground of the etching will be the same fine texture, which makes the pitting quite unobtrusive, and if it is too matt for your taste, metal polish on an old toothbrush will reduce it.

You should wipe naval jelly aside with a matchstick to see what is happening under it, and remove it all for inspection after a much shorter period than the instructions say. Ten one-minute applications are just as good as one ten-minute. Similarly weak diluted hydrochloric acid is pretty benign, if you start with it so weak that it does nothing whatever, and increase the strength progressively while watching it all the while. Hydrochloric acid is a major constituent of our gastric juices, so it is no exaggeration to say that people can be full of it. I wouldn't use sulphuric acid, even though it is easiest to get, and nitric acid is suitable only for etching, as the bnd between do-nothing strength and eroding steel is too narrow.

I havent got a response from Taylor, I assume that I wont be getting one. I wasnt expecting to hear back at all, so there is no disappointment I guess.

I would like to see some pictures of your razor BigG. My razor is a wedge with nothing on the blade (only the tang stamp). I have yet to decide what type of scales to use when reassembling. The blade itself is polished and ready to be honed and rescaled.

Cal- Those are some solid ideas, but I am certain that I am going to be leaving that Solingen alone for a while. I need to learn some more finess before I attempt to proceed. Its a nice blade and I dont want to strip it down and lose the etching (assuming it can be spared).

Ok here is the eye witness with the plunkett name on it.

Thats a nice looking razor. Mine doesnt have any etching or stamping on the blade, but I see what you mean about Plunkett's being a vendor possibly. With the markings on my tang I figured it was a location.

Google Maps gives innumerable streets, schools, companies etc. with the name Plunkett, but no towns or villages. A useful comparison is pocket watches and firearms, where it was entirely routine for the retailer's name and no other to be attached. I have a Charles Daly 10 gauge hammer shotgun which was actually made by a Prussian contractor and engraved with his name, and a pocket watch movement which was engraved in the 1830s or 40s with the name of a watchmaker in my small Scottish town. It isn't cut through the gilding on the brass movement plate, indicating that the anonymous makers probably did it for him.

It is less common for razors to be so marked, but not unknown. Incidentally the increasing depth of the Plunkett and Liverpool mark suggests to me that it isn't etched, but stamped, which would have had to be done before heat-treatment.

I believe I remember seeing "Wade and Butcher blank" stamped on a razor, but not surprisingly this seems uncommon practice. Anybody here, with a hacksaw, bench drill and files, could make a razor blank ready for grinding. (It is unlikely that we could make them fast enough, at least for a while, to finish and sell economically. But then, the same applies to a lot of Victorian technology, from nails on up.) It is the hollow grind and the heat treatment are the difficult part of razor making. So why buy in the blanks?

The blade has the etch, but the tang is stamped ,so from what you are saying Caledonian it looks as if eye witness made the razors for plunkett to export and stamped the plunkett liverpool on them befor they were heat treated that way plunkett was buying the finnished product ready for resale.