Part of the kit I'm assembling for my friend, had to test shave with it of course, so here's the results:
Price: just over £5 -can't fault it! Needed quite a bit of cleaning up though, but it's now quite sparkly, with no deep corrosion marks.
Craftsmanship- nothing fancy, but it all fits together just fine, everything works, hinge moves smoothly but not at all loose. The jumps are nice and even, the grinding is well excecuted, and the engraving on the handle is really smart. As you may see on the picture, the box is in disrepair, but is still adequately functional, and looks like it was once very smart.
The blade is fully hollow, but is actually quite stiff, the blade says it is "hard tempered steel", so perhaps barbers preferred a less flexible blade? I weighs as little as any other full hollow razor, so perhaps this is to optimise balance, without making a really flexible blade. Either way, once I got it tuned up, it mows through my (coarse) stubble almost as easily as a wedge, but without the same feeling of the weight behind it. This might make one of these an ideal beginners razor- easy to handle, but not too flexible.
Honing it was tricky- the blade was somewhat ovalled, I'm guessing the barber who owned it previously liked pasted strops. Once I got the bevel set, there is actually ovalled, abraded steel above the bevel, neared to the spine! Must have been a very soft leather strop with abrasives on, I suspect. It was quite slow to hone, so I'm guessing the steel is quite hard- that's why I've estimated quite a high score for the lasting edge- I don't think it'll need to see a hone again for a while. But it may be a tad more tricky to hone when it does. Nothing that challenging though I'm sure.
Joseph Rogers had a royal warrant -"Cutlers to Their Majesties", and I've seen a few very ornate razors by them, including a couple of boxed sets. I'd say if this is anything to go by, they must be some excellent razors.
Not terribly good picture:
View attachment 8515
Price: just over £5 -can't fault it! Needed quite a bit of cleaning up though, but it's now quite sparkly, with no deep corrosion marks.
Craftsmanship- nothing fancy, but it all fits together just fine, everything works, hinge moves smoothly but not at all loose. The jumps are nice and even, the grinding is well excecuted, and the engraving on the handle is really smart. As you may see on the picture, the box is in disrepair, but is still adequately functional, and looks like it was once very smart.
The blade is fully hollow, but is actually quite stiff, the blade says it is "hard tempered steel", so perhaps barbers preferred a less flexible blade? I weighs as little as any other full hollow razor, so perhaps this is to optimise balance, without making a really flexible blade. Either way, once I got it tuned up, it mows through my (coarse) stubble almost as easily as a wedge, but without the same feeling of the weight behind it. This might make one of these an ideal beginners razor- easy to handle, but not too flexible.
Honing it was tricky- the blade was somewhat ovalled, I'm guessing the barber who owned it previously liked pasted strops. Once I got the bevel set, there is actually ovalled, abraded steel above the bevel, neared to the spine! Must have been a very soft leather strop with abrasives on, I suspect. It was quite slow to hone, so I'm guessing the steel is quite hard- that's why I've estimated quite a high score for the lasting edge- I don't think it'll need to see a hone again for a while. But it may be a tad more tricky to hone when it does. Nothing that challenging though I'm sure.
Joseph Rogers had a royal warrant -"Cutlers to Their Majesties", and I've seen a few very ornate razors by them, including a couple of boxed sets. I'd say if this is anything to go by, they must be some excellent razors.
Not terribly good picture:
View attachment 8515
