Friedmann & Lauterjung / Electric Cutlery

[stringer bean]

J. Christopher Friedmann and Charles R. Lauterjung immigrated to New York City from Germany as young men in the 1860s. They established a cutlery importing business in 1864, branded as Friedmann and Lauterjung.

I have not been able to find any proof, but it is theorized by various internet chat room historians that Charles Lauterjung is related to the Lauterjungs that made the Tiger and Puma brands. This may have been the German exporter that F&L purchased their stock from. Another interesting thing to note about the early days of the company. F&L established a St. Louis outpost and was one of the big suppliers of razors to the Midwest and West after the civil war. Two gentlemen were in charge of the sales team. JBF Champlin was in charge of sales at the NY office. AJ Jordan was in charge of St. Louis.

Around 1876 they both left F&L to start their own razor companies. JBF Champlin moved to Little Valley, NY and started JBF Champlin. He married a woman named Teresa Case. Champlin and his wife's brothers the Cases became one of the great cutlery dynasties of the world putting Little Valley in the same class as Sheffield or Solingen. Names like Cattaraugus. Tidioute, W.R. Case, Kinfolks, Ka-Bar, Robeson, Union, Cutco, Olean, all stemmed from this one guy.

AJ Jordan established an importing business. But he decided that the best razors didn't come from Germany, they came from Sheffield, England. So Mr. Jordan went to Sheffield and bought a razor factory. AJ Jordan was one of the most profitable and prolific razor companies of the early 20th Century.

Back to the main story. Sometime around 1873 F&L introduced the "Electric" trademark. The F&L Electric won several awards at the 1876 centennial exhibition. In the late 1880s Friedmann and Lauterjung began the process of transferring ownership of the firm and its trademarks to the Fuller brothers of NJ. In 1889, the Electric Cutlery Co. of Newark, NJ is incorporated. The Fullers see the tariffs coming soon and decide to use the Electric trademark but to make razors here in the USA. So they build a factory in NJ. From 1889 to 1910 they produce razors in Newark. In 1910 the Electric Cutlery Co. and the NY Knife Co. of Walden, NY merge. Operations are ceased in NJ and the Electric trademarked razors are produced in Walden, NY until 1922.

Anyway, these are my favorite razors to collect and I thought you all might be interested in seeing several examples from each time period. Dates are approximate


Late 1860s Friedmann and Lauterjung's Celebrated Razor with bovine horn handle

Late 1860s Friedmann and Lauterjung's Celebrated Razor with mottled pressed buffalo horn handle

Early 1870s Friedmann & Lauterjung Extra

Early 1870s Friedmann & Lauterjung's F&L

Late 1870s-1880s Friedmann & Lauterjung Electric

Late 1870s-1880s Friedmann & Lauterjung Electric

Late 1880s Friedmann & Lauterjung Electric

This represents a transition between the F&L branded razors the Electric Cutlery Co. It still has the F&L monogram but it says Electric Cultery Co. instead of Friedmann and Lauterjung.

TO BE CONTINUED......................................

 

[stringer bean]

Late 1880s Friedmann and Lauterjung Electric

Late 1880s Friedmann and Lauterjung Electric

Late 1880s Early 1890s Another transition one. This one is really funky. It has the F&L monogram and rolling thunder and lightning trademark. But on the back it says Electric Cutlery Co NY. I have not seen any others that have both F&L and NY marks. I also thought that the first factory was in NJ and not NY. But maybe there was a NY factory that briefly existed or they bought razors from a razor factory in NY briefly before their factory in NJ was up and running. I really don't know.

1890s Electric Cutlery Co NJ

TO BE Continued........

 

[stringer bean]

These are easy to date.
1900 Electric Cutlery Co. Century Razor

1900 Electric Cutlery Co Century Razor NJ

1900-1910 Electric Cutlery Co NJ

1900-1910 Electric Cutlery Co NJ

TO BE CONTINUED........

 

[Polarbeard]

Thank you for a very interesting article and the great pictures of very fine razors.

 

[stringer bean]

1905-1910 Electric Cutlery Co NJ

1905-1910 Electric Cutlery Co NJ

1905-1910 Electric Cutlery Co NJ

1910 Electric Cutlery Co Newark NJ

1910-1920 Electric Cutlery Co Walden NY

 

[stringer bean]

1910-1920 Electric Cutlery Co Walden NY

I believe this is probably the most recently made in this collection. This one would have been produced around 1920-1922 in Walden, NY. Faux alligator scales.

 

[stringer bean]

I have one more interesting thing to note. Charles Lauterjung married Christopher Friedmann's sister. I know this because in doing research about them I came across a proceedings from the NYC Superior Court. Lauterjung is trying to get birth certificates for his daughters from the health department. Both of them were born in NYC. Emma in 1867 and Clara in 1873. But they were born in the home and their births weren't recorded at the time. And this is 1881 and the laws have gotten tougher.

The Board of Health argues that newly passed statutes prohibit them from altering the birth record. Lauterjung's application gets denied so he appeals it to the NYC Superior Court. He gets corroborative sworn affidavits from the physicians, midwifes, his brother-in-law Friedmann, and from his mother-in-law, Anna Friedmann. They attest that the daughters were born in the family's residences in NYC. None of this is disputed. The court rules that the Board of Health is wrong. The births must be recorded. Emma and Clara get their birth certificates.

If you all are interested I will do some more of these. I have some extra time on my hands since I have been furloughed due to something that is happening right now that we aren't allowed to mention. I find the history of razors to be one of the most compelling parts of this strange journey. And I like to look at how the razors change and evolve over time and how they are marketed and how the trademarks get bought and sold and passed around.

I have a bunch of Little Valley family razors so I will probably do that one next if folks are interested.

 

[Joshua223]

Thanks for posting your research.
Definitely interested in Little Valley makers too.

 

[steveclarkus]

Excellent history. Thanks.

 

[Luecke2326]

Fantastic work, I loved this!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[stringer bean]

Fantastic work, I loved this!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

 

[stringer bean]

I found a little more information. The Fuller Brothers, owners of the Electric and F&L brands since 1889, purchased the New York Knife Co. from Thomas Bradley, Jr. in 1903. A decorated Civil War hero, Bradley went on to be a United States Congressman. The New York Knife Co. faced stiff competition even just in the little town of Walden, NY. The Walden Knife Co. was formed after some employees were fired a number of years earlier for defying an order by Thomas Bradley, Sr. to not play baseball at lunch time. Some wives had complained to Mr. Bradley that fights had been breaking out. The fired employees started their own knife company just down the river. The Walden Knife Co. was bought out by Simmons Hardware and used to produce Keen Kutter branded razors. The Schrade pocket knife company was also based in Walden, NY. Schrade was the only Walden cutlery manufacturer to make it past the Great Depression. The NY Knife Company folded in 1931.

 

[JohnMack]

Late 1880s Friedmann and Lauterjung Electric

View attachment 1082056

View attachment 1082057

Late 1880s Friedmann and Lauterjung Electric

View attachment 1082058
View attachment 1082059

Late 1880s Early 1890s Another transition one. This one is really funky. It has the F&L monogram and rolling thunder and lightning trademark. But on the back it says Electric Cutlery Co NY. I have not seen any others that have both F&L and NY marks. I also thought that the first factory was in NJ and not NY. But maybe there was a NY factory that briefly existed or they bought razors from a razor factory in NY briefly before their factory in NJ was up and running. I really don't know.

View attachment 1082061

View attachment 1082062
View attachment 1082063

1890s Electric Cutlery Co NJ

View attachment 1082065
View attachment 1082068

TO BE Continued........

My grandfather had this same razor in his barber kit. Thanks for posting this story, it helps me feel closer to a man who died 55 years ago. Here is grandfather's razor

 

[stringer bean]

That's beautiful. One of their later ones. I would date it 1905-1920. Very cool that it's a family heirloom, and in such good condition. They are excellently made razors. Thanks for sharing. I'm glad you found my thread.

 

[2bit_collie]

Hi @stringer bean
I really appreciate these detailed articles. I just got my first Electric Cutlery razor. Like your sample with the ornate yellow handle it has the combination of the FL logo along with “New York” and the cloud with lightning bolts.

I had just assumed that it must date to post 1910 when the factory was moved to Walden NY, but it does appear that those later razors with the New York have different logos (with the arrows). How did you date your razor to the 1880s?

I know your original post is a few years old. Did you ever do an article on Little Valley razors? I have a pretty decent collection of those myself and have studied the history a bit, but always interested in learning more!

 

[stringer bean]

Thanks for the kind words. Those ones that say F&L and New York are kind of weird. There's about 25 years of razors with no country of origin 1863-1890 ish. I presume those were all imported from Germany before the country of origin requirements in 1890? I think. I have never found evidence that they had a plant in the US before that. Everything lists them as importers. Then the Fuller Brothers buy the trademarks and set up a factory in New Jersey around 1890-1895. I have never seen an F&L one that says New Jersey. Only the Electric Razor Co. Then they buy the plant in Walden around 1910. I'm unclear if they stopped producing razors in NJ then or not. So there's about 20 years where they weren't using the F&L trademark. And then when they get to Walden and they bring it out of hibernation? Like a throwback jersey. Maybe they still used the F&L trademark from time to time. Hard to say. I will keep buying them when they pop up on eBay to try and solve the mystery.

I never did get around to doing the Little Valley makers. I really should. I got razors from most of them.

Champlin
Case
Korn
Geneva
Ontario
Kinfolks
Union

Etc

 

[2bit_collie]

That’s the challenge with some of this - I’ve worked at the same company for 23 years now. There is already a good bit of stuff that I know that virtually no one else knows about the older models because the knowledge has already been lost. So easy to forget, and even with stuff 20 years ago the records quickly become lost. It’s amazing we know anything at all about events from 100 years ago.

I’ve got a decent (though thin) collection of NY razors, enough that I classify my US razors as NY and other.
Case Bros
W.R. Case
Champlin
Cattaraugus
Korn
Union
Kinfolks
Burrell
all from the Buffalo area
Plus
Robeson
Geneva
Ontario
Which I think of as “further east” (having spent 4 years in Western NY)

I think Korn is my favorite. Doesn’t look like anything special, just seems to shave really well.

 

[2bit_collie]

Another follow-up on this thread. At this point I have 2 Electric Cutlery razors in my possession. They have nearly identical tang markings. Both on the face side have the rolling thunder (which seems to only have been used pre-1900) over the word Electric. One has the FL monogram as well, the other does not (actually there is no room for the monogram on that tang).

On the reverse side both have Electric Cutlery Co written in an arc over two arrows and below that are the words New York. So on the one hand there is the use of the arrows and mention of New York, which seems related to the Walden era, but there is also the cloud and thunderbolts of the earlier era. The one razor also has the alligator scales motif, identical the the razor identified as the newest in the collection. Though for all we know, these might not be original scales. I will note that the alligator scales razor has no washers while the black-scaled razor has quite ornate washers that would seem at home on a 19th Century Sheffield. In particular my alligator-scaled razor looks completely identical to @stringer bean ’s last razor, except for the face side tang having a completely different stamp.

Perhaps @stringer bean has collected a few more Electrics since the last post and has filled in the gaps on knowledge. Another possibility is that the original ”New York” reference was pre-1991 and an indication, not that the razor was made in New York, but that Electric Cutlery was a New York-based company. I certainly have razors in my collection that list the name and location of the seller/distributor. Prior to 1991, it would have been perfectly legal to make a razor in Germany, sell it in New York, but only show New York on the razor. Frankly these two razors in my eyes owe more to Eskilstuna than Solingen in their design.