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Proserpine Razor Co

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Courtesy of @Straight up

Proserpine, Queensland, Australia is famous for its gold mining past and while mining may have diminished, it is still capable of producing natural treasures. A small fledgling family run business, S.K.Colling and Co, produces custom razors in Proserpine. Steve Colling has been straight shaving for 20 years and along the way has been restoring and recently manufacturing them.

Steve offers a range of razors ready to buy as well as customs. Some appealing features of his range are exotic inserts on the tang (Mother of pearl, Mammoth), scale materials (wood, acrylic, carbon fibre, G10), various points, spine work, and blade etching. The steel used is the same as that used by Ralf Aust.

The turnaround time for his custom SR's is stunning. Having given the specifications, the razor can be dispatched in under 7 days! I have read about communication issues dealing with custom manufacturers but not in this case. Steve was easy to communicate with and can send update images of the razor as it is made.

The cost of Proserpine Razor Co's straight razors will soon be increasing as he will be exporting some of his stock SR's overseas to a few of the better respected retail outlets in the US and UK.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Some of Steve's work:
This one for @Legion
DSC00498.JPG
This one for @Straight up
S K Colling&Co.jpg
Email is [email protected]

@John_Doe is ordering a classic true full wedge and I am ordering a 6/8 Spanish point full hollow with Australian silver ash timber classic scales.
 
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rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
The steel is Werkstoff 1.2210 solingen steel. Steve says that this is the same steel used by Ralf Aust. Don't know the hardness. I guess that would depend on the heat treatment that Steve puts it through.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
One of the most common questions that is asked about vintage SR's is "does anyone have any idea of when this SR was made?"

PRC straight razors are not yet vintage but they probably will be one day. I have suggested to Steve, the owner, that he stamp the year of manufacture on the reverse side of the shank on his SR's.
 
These razors sound a lot like the semi-custom razors made by Brian Brown of Brown Razor Works. Although he also makes custom razors (or at least used to), I have a couple of his semi-custom razors. He obtains the blanks from Solingen Germany. There is only one forge left in Solingen, so most of the German razormeisters use the same blanks. The steel is hard, but not super-hard like the steel used by Thiers Issard.

It looks like Proserpine razors use spacers at the pivot rather than wedges. Although I prefer the wedges, many makers, including Aust, now use spacers.
 
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