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Bengall etchings and stores.

Legion

OTF jewel hunter
Staff member
TR Cadman and Sons were the Sheffield based maker of the famous Bengall line of razors. Most of their production was made to be sold to the Commonwealth countries, so because of this we are lucky to have quite a few in the wild here in Australia. You will also find examples in Canada, India, South Africa, etc.

One of the things Cadman would offer, if you were a retailer of razors, you could pay to have your store name etched onto the blade of the razor. So far I have come across a number of examples of this. Enough that my curiosity is piqued and I would like to know how many variations there are out there.

Please, if you have an example of a "store" Bengall, post it here for the record. Also, if you have a Bengall with an unusual etching or blade shape, post it here as well.

Lets see if we can get a catalogue going.
 

Legion

OTF jewel hunter
Staff member
I got this one this week. It has the regular plastic scales, but a blade shape I have not seen before, and is personalised for the store A. Edments, which was a supply store on Bourke St, Melbourne.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Edments

http://www.victorianplaces.com.au/node/65952
 
And just to add a bit more intrique or confusion to the mix i have this Bengall with a huge tang coming...so the deversity between blade design, etching etc is pretty wild

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Legion

OTF jewel hunter
Staff member
Not a store, but a design you don't often see. Interesting blade shape and genuine ivory scales.


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I am enjoying seeing these razors. My favorite razor is a "Bangall," which I believe to be a Bengall, made for some market somewhere in the world.
 
Here's one I spotted on ebay.

Jim Dempsy Boggabri

Boggabri is a very small town in outback NSW. It's not too far from Narrabri. Unbelievable that someone in a town that small got their business name put onto Bengall razors.

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Legion

OTF jewel hunter
Staff member
Here's one I spotted on ebay.

Jim Dempsy Boggabri

Boggabri is a very small town in outback NSW. It's not too far from Narrabri. Unbelievable that someone in a town that small got their business name put onto Bengall razors.

View attachment 707478

Nice!

Perhaps Boggabri was a bit of a rural hub, back in the day? Maybe that was the general store that serviced a large region of farms and so on...

I have no idea. Never heard of it, but it is a good razor find.
 
I'm a bit late to this, but here is anther:



From searching Trove it seems that The American Novelty Shops were a national chain in the late 19th century. They sold toys, instruments and all manner of odd devices like self fastening trouser buttons. The closest modern equivalent I can think of are those men's gift stores that sell cheap bar equipment, pewter tankards, tie pins and dirty playing cards. I mention the last because the store on Bourke St in Melbourne was raided in 1904 for selling dirty photos. The institution may have declined to a sad shadow of its former glory but some things don't change. :001_rolle

This is from the Adelaide Chronicle of Dec 1897 describing the store:

For ingenious novelties of- all descriptions,
useful or amusing, Mr. Harry Raphael's
American Novelty Shop holds the premier
position. Here is to be found a large and
varied stock that from its miscellaneous nature
defies description. Toys of every kind beneath
the sun may be obtained, from that most
deadly of weapons in which the young
heart delights — the penny whistle — to the
more elaborate of mechanical toys, such
as the miniature locomotive engine, which
makes as much fuss as it trundles its load of
midget carriages across the floor as the
largest of goods engines we could see on our
Government lines.

Clearly advertorial copy is nothing new but don't you wish modern newspaper scribblers wrote like that?
 
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I'm intrigued by the process used to make these.

The "made in England" line is common to all but not the type face. The branding text appears to be in one type face. That is aside from Legion's two which look like they were engraved rather than etched like the rest. Does anyone know how you ordered these and exactly how they were made? I presume you filled out a card and sent it away to Sheffield, either by mail or via a sales rep, where it was made up as a mask somehow and acid etched onto the blade.

But with my limited knowledge of that process I can't see how to do this at scale and with such customisation at a cost that every corner store in rural Oz seems to have done it.

Another thought: ship borne mail to England, manufacture, then back by ship to Oz. I'm guessing a turn around of sixteen to twenty weeks. That's half a year. Did you pay for these up front, on terms or was there a local agent fronting the finance?

At a tangent, from the Victorian era (the rise of mass produced consumer goods) through to WW2 there seem to have been a veritable army of sales reps employed by thousands of companies like Cadman's. I have visions of dapper young men and women in high collars and sensible boots fanning out across the vast untapped retail expanses of the British Empire...

(Edit due to further thoughts prompting more questions)
 
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I caught up with a fellow Sunshine Coast straight razor user who told me he spotted a Bengall last week that was made for David Jones.
 
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