What's new

A British Darwin

T

Treedoc

I picked up this little beauty at a car boot sale the other day, I shan't tell how much I paid but I am very happy.
It is a Darwin, stamped underneath: Darwin Ltd Sheffield England and: Patent Cobalt Steel. It's a heavy little thing: 71 grams, approx 2 1/2 oz. I am struck by how like the Merkur HD the head design is, I wonder if Merkur were aware of this razor when they designed their HD?
Our own St George (Tony) aquired one of these and did a review of it on Shave my Face, here: http://www.shavemyface.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16463&highlight=darwin
Personally I found it pretty aggressive, I put in a new Swede and it proceeded to bite me mercilessly, I will be trying again soon though, it's just a matter of technique I'm sure. As Tony mentions in his review, it does sing when cutting, like a Futur but in this case it reminded me of The Lord of the Rings; the Battle of the Pelennor Fields: "And they sang as they slew". My face looked like a battlefield afterwards..., ok, I exaggerate slightly, it was more like an argument in a basketful of puppies.
The handle is hexagonal by the way.
John.
 
Haiku

Haiku

That's a beautiful razor, I hope it gives you years of pleasure.

I was outbid on one of those a few months back, I suspect your friend over at SMF may have been the one.

If it bites you, you may not have the blade loaded quite right. Check the alighment by looking at the razor from the top down and make sure the edge of the blade is lined up with the edge of the safety bar.

The old blades that this razor was designed to use may not have been exactly what we use today. On that note, Darwin made their own blades, and they may have been made to slightly different tolerences than today's blades.
 
T

Treedoc

Ontario said:
That's a beautiful razor, I hope it gives you years of pleasure.

I was outbid on one of those a few months back, I suspect your friend over at SMF may have been the one.

If it bites you, you may not have the blade loaded quite right. Check the alighment by looking at the razor from the top down and make sure the edge of the blade is lined up with the edge of the safety bar.

The old blades that this razor was designed to use may not have been exactly what we use today. On that note, Darwin made their own blades, and they may have been made to slightly different tolerences than today's blades.
Click to expand...

Thanks Ontario, it is a little darling isn't it? I doubt however that the alignment is out, the blade is such a tight fit on the locating pegs that I have to pry it off with a knife blade, there is certainly no 'slop' to allow misalignment. I think you may be right about the differences between old and modern blades though.
Currently i am trying to find out about Darwin, so far not much luck, I have found out that there were 4 companies in Sheffield with Darwin in their name. I even joined a discussion forum about Sheffield! I've never even been there but it is Yorkshire and therefore friendly.
John.
 
Haiku

Haiku

It is a beautiful thing - and I'm very glad to know that it found a home with someone who appreciates it for what it is!

I know nothing about Darwin either, I do know that from time to time I run into Darwin razors that seem to be from a generation previous to yours, that is to say razors that use blades meant to be stropped with Darwin stroppers, but that's all I know about them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom