Thread: Wooden Scale Advice

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

As has been said above,wood was used because of cheapness,ease of working.availibilty....

....or then again, others say different things...

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

... Why didn't wood catch on more? Simply because it was not a 'plastic' easily formed and worked material and the requisite type wasn't locally available everywhere, unlike cows, for instance - I maintain that it took more skill to use it than it did to pour something into a mould and make hundreds at a time. Horn really caught on because it was the first 'natural plastic' material that could easily be split, moulded and even impressed [...] Things usually gain prevalence due to ease of working, cheapness, availability and other market factors - not because they are harder to work, IMO.
Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by DGilloon

To Neil's point. It was all about mass production, assembly lines and quality control. In 1918, $5,000,000 worth of razors were made and sold in the US, Germandy and England. That's a lot of scales and to product that many, manufacturers couldn't rely on natural elements in the production because of the fickle nature of those products. If you are going you make 500 razors this month, you needed to know that all the supplies needed would be consistant.

However...

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

To see great blades dressed in gaudy plastic,multi colored Micartas,things that did not exsist when the razor was made makes me sick,But again,JMO

those are my thoughts, too.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by celticcrusader

and regarding keeping the razors original i'm not sure that as any real relevance, because i'm 100 per cent sure if the very best razor manufacturers back then would have had Micarta Carbon fibre and the vast array of plastics and materials available back then I have absolutely no doubt they would have used them, .

I agree Jamie, one only has to look at Dovo and TI today and see that some of their new scale designs came directly from SRP and the Restorers designs from here... Doubt me ???

Start at 2006 and move froward in the archives and look for yourself...

My opinion on the matter relates to cars. There are plenty of vintage restores out there. There are also plenty of hotrods. I have a nice old extra hollow Clarke in three-pin horn scales that I would consider a classic. I just chose a (conservative) hotrod route for my W&B restore. There's room for both, even in the same collection.

Originally Posted by DGilloon

To Neil's point. It was all about mass production, assembly lines and quality control. In 1918, $5,000,000 worth of razors were made and sold in the US, Germandy and England. That's a lot of scales and to product that many, manufacturers couldn't rely on natural elements in the production because of the fickle nature of those products. If you are going you make 500 razors this month, you needed to know that all the supplies needed would be consistant.

In the 1920's the industry trades publications actually hailed the switch to assembly line methods in the Sheffield factories as the American mass production methods were consisted more more efficent and more humane to the workers.

Manucfacturers couldn't rely on natural elements you say Looks like the Joseph Rodgers cutlery had their act together to me.

True enough for a good long time. However.

Forgetting for a moment how they sourced their materials, these materials were used on their higher end and more profitable cutlery lines, knives and razors for which Joseph Rodgers were famous. Thus a larger degree of waste in the manufacturing process could be tolerated.

It was somewhat arrogantly presumed that both the source for the materials, the demand for hand craftsmanship and the market for their finished products would continue indefinitely. That wasn't the case. The US assembly line method of manufacturing, with it's lowered cost of production and higher profit margins which would help to start the decline of the Sheffield and Solingen industrial centers.

History repeats itself. There are distinct parallels to the current growth of industrial capacity in China and India with the decline in the US and European counterparts and the development and the growth of the US industries a century ago and the decline in the old European industrial centers. The European merchants of the 17th and 18th century were successful, in a large part, because of the exploitation of cheap resources and to the demand for their products in the US. The US became an economic powerhouse when they stopped importing goods (helped in large part by tariffs) and began manufacturing goods for their own consumption. This pattern is repeating itself in Asia.

The History of Joseph Rodgers - Egginton

To parkerskouson, sorry about the digression on your thread about the walnut scales. I would like to see your progress with them.

Originally Posted by Martin103

Manucfacturers couldn't rely on natural elements you say Looks like the Joseph Rodgers cutlery had their act together to me.

Thats nothing,I have been in warehouses, In England, that hold 1000 times more Ivory,the brits raped africa and india of Ivory.legally, back in the day,most today gets doled out at auction to buyers in China (legally). The Queen makes a bundle off of it.

Originally Posted by DGilloon

True enough for a good long time. However.



It was somewhat arrogantly presumed that both the source for the materials, the demand for hand craftsmanship and the market for their finished products would continue indefinitely. That wasn't the case. The US assembly line method of manufacturing, with it's lowered cost of production and higher profit margins which would help to start the decline of the Sheffield and Solingen industrial centers.

Decline of sheffield? In 2008 The steel industry now concentrates on more specialist steel-making , currently produces more steel per year than at any other time in its history, with less workers an automation of course.

Originally Posted by Martin103

Decline of sheffield? In 2008 The steel industry now concentrates on more specialist steel-making , currently produces more steel per year than at any other time in its history, with less workers an automation of course.

Of course we are talking about back in the day, when razors were scaled in ivory. Things certainly declined in these centers from the old days! In a physical way! We are light-years away from the way things were done back then. I am glad to see some old industrial centers coming back in a modern way! I wish it would happen in my country.

"Sheffield, I suppose, could justly claim to be called the ugliest town in the Old World"
George Orwell, 1937

O my if only we Brits could buy and work Ivory, it's a material i would love more than anything to work with, i would re-scale a vintage razor, then send a piece off to Bill of Le Tuft brushes and have a brush made to match the scales.


Jamie.