My first. First of everything.

[Ericfg]

Hello B&B. This my first real post. I collect J.A.Henckels, mostly kitchen knives as I'm a cook by trade, but I wanted to get a Henckels straight razor just to be a complete-ist. I found this on ebay for ~5 bucks:

Good blade but broken scales.
I decided to re-scale it as I do re-handling kitchen knives as a hobby. I have some Purpleheart timber in my collection and as I know it's a hard wood I thought 'why not?' I re-used the original washer and 3 of the 4 brass collars(?) in the resto.

The results were very satisfying.

I still need to finish the scales a bit but overall I'm quite happy, and a bit surprised, with my first attempt. Original wedge re-used on this. I hope it's plastic and not ivory.

Again, pretty happy with the results. I hope you like as well.

No idea about sharpening these. They're sharp enough right now to saw off a few arms hairs but I'm not ready to put this to my throat.

PS. Anybody have any thoughts on the "Zwillingswerk" mark? As opposed to "Twinworks"?
Were these made in Germany exclusively for the the domestic, German, market? There's no Graef & Schmitt(sp?) stamps that would indicate a US distributor.

 

[Tanuki]

Very nice!

If it doesn't have a 'Germany' stamp on the tang, it wasn't made for export to the USA. I have a G&S Henckels, but I think plenty of other Henckels SRs were exported to the US after/without G&S.

 

[Ericfg]

Very nice!

If it doesn't have a 'Germany' stamp on the tang, it wasn't made for export to the USA. I have a G&S Henckels, but I think plenty of other Henckels SRs were exported to the US after/without G&S.

Thanks! From what I've found the Graef & Schmidt company was Henckels' distributor in NYC from like the 1920s to 1943 when the US gov't stepped due to WW2.

 

[Sando]

Nicely done!

 

[Frank Shaves]

Welcome! Nice job! J.A. Henckels made terrific straight razors. Their Friodur brand of stainless steel razors are also excellent.

You will definitely want to get into sharpening (aka honing). There is a lot of good information on the Hones / Honing forum.

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Nice work.

Google (How to make a traditional set of horn scales ... the way I do it.) for an excellent scale making photo tutorial, most all applies for working wood.

Nice work, would like to see some of your knife handles.

 

[2bit_collie]

Hello B&B. This my first real post. I collect J.A.Henckels, mostly kitchen knives as I'm a cook by trade, but I wanted to get a Henckels straight razor just to be a complete-ist. I found this on ebay for ~5 bucks:View attachment 1586642
Good blade but broken scales.
I decided to re-scale it as I do re-handling kitchen knives as a hobby. I have some Purpleheart timber in my collection and as I know it's a hard wood I thought 'why not?' I re-used the original washer and 3 of the 4 brass collars(?) in the resto.View attachment 1586645
The results were very satisfying.View attachment 1586646
I still need to finish the scales a bit but overall I'm quite happy, and a bit surprised, with my first attempt. Original wedge re-used on this. I hope it's plastic and not ivory.
View attachment 1586647
Again, pretty happy with the results. I hope you like as well.
View attachment 1586651
No idea about sharpening these. They're sharp enough right now to saw off a few arms hairs but I'm not ready to put this to my throat.
View attachment 1586653
PS. Anybody have any thoughts on the "Zwillingswerk" mark? As opposed to "Twinworks"?
Were these made in Germany exclusively for the the domestic, German, market? There's no Graef & Schmitt(sp?) stamps that would indicate a US distributor.

Nice job! I just turned a piece of Purple Heart a few weeks ago, a great material to work with and looks great too! Honing razors is similar to honing knives, but also a bit different. The good news is that the whole issue of maintaining a consistent bevel angle is trivial (just keep the spine on the stone the whole time). The challenge is that you need to get to a much finer grit level to avoid irritation during or after the shave. But Henkels made great razors so you really ought to hone this guy up and give it a try. I have one of the Friodur stainless, as well as a carbon steel like this one.

 

[Ericfg]

Nice work, would like to see some of your knife handles.

A Cherry Wa to replace the original handle.