Anyone know the history of the name "Damaskeene?" And what it means?
Damaskeene razor
- Thread starter santamariasteve
- Start date
It's a play on the word Damascene, as in Damascus steel.
Just my own etymological conjecture here, but I would go back to Damascus or Damascene steel, also called watered steel because of the wavy patterns in it.
From there you jump to damaskeening, which was a decorative finish put on metals that sort of mimicked the waviness of Damascus steel.
You then chuck an "e" onto the end to make it more trademarkable, and you get Damaskeene. If you look at the face of a Damaskeene blade, you can see a circular pattern has been etched across it in something of a similar style to the damaskeening. (Perhaps someone can beat me with a close-up photo here before I'm able to find one or take one of my own.)
So the name would have brought along the connotations of well-made blades, expensive watches, and made the mental connection with "keenness" to boot. In case anyone's wondering about the pronunciation of "Damaskeene," Gem gave us this great little rhyme:
From there you jump to damaskeening, which was a decorative finish put on metals that sort of mimicked the waviness of Damascus steel.
You then chuck an "e" onto the end to make it more trademarkable, and you get Damaskeene. If you look at the face of a Damaskeene blade, you can see a circular pattern has been etched across it in something of a similar style to the damaskeening. (Perhaps someone can beat me with a close-up photo here before I'm able to find one or take one of my own.)
So the name would have brought along the connotations of well-made blades, expensive watches, and made the mental connection with "keenness" to boot. In case anyone's wondering about the pronunciation of "Damaskeene," Gem gave us this great little rhyme:
Excellent detective work! Sounds like a very clean explanation.
Couldn't quickly find a Damaskeene blade, but I had this later GEM blade in my "Box of Tetanus" that shows the idea:
Actually I believe the blades were called Damaskeene- the name just stuck on the razor itself.
Gem was somewhat squidgey on that subject. The blades were clearly Damaskeene blades, as you say. But the ad below from the November, 1912 issue of The Outing Magazine, which still shows the Gem Junior Bar razor frame before the 1912-style Damaskeene took its place, pretty clearly calls it the Damaskeene Razor. You could certainly make the case that what they're actually calling the "razor" is the combination of the frame (referred to as "the famous Gem frame") and the blade together. And since the frame hadn't changed it was really the fact that it was sold with Damaskeene blades that made it a Damaskeene razor.
