One of the appealing dimensions of shaving with an open razor is the sense of history associated with such objects, and the appreciation of hand craftsmanship that has withered awful much in modern America. There are many things we can never know about the past, those men of old didn't ever think to write down those repetitive tasks which were imbued in their hands like a second nature. One can however, after plumbing the depths of the internet, get brief glimpses into the working lives of those who went before us, and in some cases, stumble upon an incredible trove of information, especially useful to those of us today who would like to revive the techniques of working from an age gone by.
This is as brief a summary I can give, to those interested in restoring razors to authentic finishes, or those who make their own razors, on how things were done at the Geneva Finger Lakes Razor and Cutlery Co. in 1924, gleaned from the pages of "Our Journal", a monthly publication of the Metal Polishers International Union. The article was written by Patrick F. Garvey.
To preface, when I started to make my own razors and knives, I was using all modern abrasive techniques, I am the owner of a 2x72 grinder, and as such, my initial investment was in belts of all grits and types, ceramics, AlOx, 3M Trizact, felt polishing belts, etc. But I was always unhappy with the results. It isn't that modern abrasives don't finish well, aren't uniform or consistent, no, they absolutely excel in all fields. But grit for grit, if one compares a razor made with modern abrasives, and an original condition vintage razor, there is definitely a different look to the old stuff. There is a iridescent, fine grain, "short" quality to the scratches which is impossible to obtain with modern methods. To my eye, these older finishes are much more pleasing and bright to look at, and as such I have been pursuing methods and materials to replicate.
Back to Geneva:
First order of the day is the inital grinding, which takes place after all the heat treating operations have been completed. The heat treat at this particular factory was a traditional hot lead austenizing, the blades are placed, a dozen at a time, into a bath of molten lead and once heated through to the correct temperature are quenched in oil. Geneva Lakes uses a steel of 1.2% carbon for their blades.
The first grinding operation is the faces of the blade, also known as concaving. Depending on the grind, full hollow, half hollw, etc, different diameters of wheels are used, sometimes wheels of multiple diameters on the same blade. As the blade progresses through the various stages of grinding, the workman checks either with a gage shaped to the specific grind, also with a metal ring he wears on his thumb, he presses the edge of the blade onto this ring and watches for the shadow as the metal flexes. The evenness of this flex along the edge of the blade tells him that he has achieved an even grind with the right amount of thickness left.
After this, the "bow" of the tang is ground to shape (the bow being the semi-circular cut-out at the end of the tang where ones pinkie finger rests). This is achieved using an emery wheel of 24" diameter! The wheel profiled to a rounded surface.
Next, the sides and bottom of the tang are ground on a 12" diameter emery wheel.
There are no grits given for these grinding wheels, but after some perusal of various old catalogs from the same time period (Abrasive Company, Philadelphia. American Emery Wheel Work, Rhode Island) some numbers come up. The American Emery Wheel Works has recommendations in the front of their 1920 Catalog for the grinding of razors, concaving specifically, with wheels of an abrasive grain of 60-100, corundum with a silicate bond. Abrasive Company, Philadelphia in their 1919 Catalog recommend abrasive grains made of Borolon (Aluminum Oxide), between 46-100 in a vitrified bond wheel, again, specifically naming razor concaving and grinding.
Once all the surfaces are ground the blade are passed on to another worker who performs what is called roughing in the text, what in Sheffield would be rough glazing. This is performed using felt wheels by the time we get to 1924, before this it would have been wooden wheels that had a leather rim placed around the circumference. In another article in this publication, there is an extensive dissertation on the types of wheels used for glazing and polishing operations as well as their pros and cons. Felt was becoming the most highly favored material due to its ease of maintenance and ability to be balanced quickly and simply. For the rough glazing, the felt wheels, of which again there may be multiple diameters, are dressed with a head of glue and No. 120 Emery. The glue used at this time was an animal based glue, a hot hide glue which was occasionally mixed with a substance called C-Gum. I have been unable to discern what C-Gum is, but when I worked for a large dental instrument maker, I heard old timers talk about a compound that they called simply "C".
To continue, the felt wheels are given multiple coats of glue and emery (between 5 and 7) and are then "turned down" to fit exactly into the various concavities of the razor. We are informed that a blade glazer and polisher will have as many as 18 different wheels to complete these processes. Between every step of the process the blade is cleaned (elsewhere we learn blades are cleaned in Naptha) and then dried in sawdust.
After the use of these rouging, glue based wheels, other felt wheels are used for "Fine Glazing", the same size of emery is used but this time the emery is mixed with oil. A pan of this mixture is placed under the wheel so the operator can smear some of the mixture onto the blade before every application of the wheel. This creates a finer finish than the glue wheels since the emery can "soak" into the felt.
Once all these roughing and fining operations are complete, the blade is cleaned and then goes onto what is called "Blue Coloring". Some of you may be familiar with this term if you have ever seen the excellent documentary on YouTube called "Der Blaupliester" which documents the work of a man who is maybe the last blue polisher in Germany. This is done with wheels coated with glue and "XX Turkish Emery". I have been unable to determine the exact grit of this emery, I looked into the old ANSI abrasive grades but once you get into the very fine grades known as emery flours, they use a system such as 1/0, 2/0, 3/0, etc,not a lettered system at all. Thinking about sensible grit progressions however, imo "XX" emery is likely to be in the 240-320 grit range.
The glue and emery head on the wheel is cracked up, I would imagine with blows from a hammer, and fat (in this instance, lard oil) is rubbed into the head to soften the surface, along with the use of a stone to smooth the wheel down as it runs. There is again, mention of using emery and oil but it seems that this is applied to the glued wheel and not used on a separate felt.
This will be the final stage of polishing unless the blade goes on to be crocus polished.
The crocus polishing some of us may have heard of is the old Sheffield method of using a wooden wheel faced with lead acting as a lap, as well as leather covered wheels coated in crocus of iron oxide.
However, in our case, we are informed that crocus polishing is achieved with the use of a brush wheel, cake lime and "crocus emery".
Brush wheels are basically exactly what they sound like, usually a wooden hub with bristles radiating out from the center. I did a little digging into what bristles were used at the time and it seems that they were made from something called Tampico, what we today would call sisal, which are fibers derived from a type of cactus. Cake Lime was a compound made from Dolomitic Lime (sometimes called Vienna Lime) and tallow fat. Dolomitic Lime is a high magnesia content lime derived from Dolomite, a mineral crystal which is processed with heat and pulverized to create a fine polishing powder. "Crocus emery" is a bit of a contradiction since crocus is a form of iron oxide and emery is a form of aluminum oxide. My theory is that they are simply using an even finer grade of emery. Emery flours in the old ANSI standard start at 320 grit, so I would imagine we are looking at an abrasive for this operation in the 400-600 range which was about the upper limit of how accurately and finely they could grade abrasives at the time.
At this point the blade will be cleaned and inspected for rogue scratches or too dull of a finish. If there are any flaws they are sent back to the appropriate operation. If they move on they are sent for honing.
The honing is quite intriguing. The blades are set into automatic honing machines, going through a total of 3 machines before they hit a stone for the final strokes. In the third honing machine the writer tells us that brushes are used. I can only imagine that these are wheel brushes loaded with a fine abrasive that passes right along the edge of the blade. After this the razor goes to a dual sided hand hone, one rough side one fine side. The razor is layed flat on the hone, lather being used as the lubricant, x-strokes. 6-8 strokes is all we are told is necessary. Interestingly here we learn about what @Slash McCoy calls a "pull stroke". If a wire is formed on the edge the honer lays the razor on the stone and drags the blade in a straight line right off the edge of the stone with no forwards or backwards motion. The razor is always given the "hair test" (HHT?) and if it is satisfactory it is then stropped.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading and I hope you gleaned something useful here. But more importantly, let us appreciate even more the craftsmanship and artistry every time we pick up our razors to shave.
This is as brief a summary I can give, to those interested in restoring razors to authentic finishes, or those who make their own razors, on how things were done at the Geneva Finger Lakes Razor and Cutlery Co. in 1924, gleaned from the pages of "Our Journal", a monthly publication of the Metal Polishers International Union. The article was written by Patrick F. Garvey.
To preface, when I started to make my own razors and knives, I was using all modern abrasive techniques, I am the owner of a 2x72 grinder, and as such, my initial investment was in belts of all grits and types, ceramics, AlOx, 3M Trizact, felt polishing belts, etc. But I was always unhappy with the results. It isn't that modern abrasives don't finish well, aren't uniform or consistent, no, they absolutely excel in all fields. But grit for grit, if one compares a razor made with modern abrasives, and an original condition vintage razor, there is definitely a different look to the old stuff. There is a iridescent, fine grain, "short" quality to the scratches which is impossible to obtain with modern methods. To my eye, these older finishes are much more pleasing and bright to look at, and as such I have been pursuing methods and materials to replicate.
Back to Geneva:
First order of the day is the inital grinding, which takes place after all the heat treating operations have been completed. The heat treat at this particular factory was a traditional hot lead austenizing, the blades are placed, a dozen at a time, into a bath of molten lead and once heated through to the correct temperature are quenched in oil. Geneva Lakes uses a steel of 1.2% carbon for their blades.
The first grinding operation is the faces of the blade, also known as concaving. Depending on the grind, full hollow, half hollw, etc, different diameters of wheels are used, sometimes wheels of multiple diameters on the same blade. As the blade progresses through the various stages of grinding, the workman checks either with a gage shaped to the specific grind, also with a metal ring he wears on his thumb, he presses the edge of the blade onto this ring and watches for the shadow as the metal flexes. The evenness of this flex along the edge of the blade tells him that he has achieved an even grind with the right amount of thickness left.
After this, the "bow" of the tang is ground to shape (the bow being the semi-circular cut-out at the end of the tang where ones pinkie finger rests). This is achieved using an emery wheel of 24" diameter! The wheel profiled to a rounded surface.
Next, the sides and bottom of the tang are ground on a 12" diameter emery wheel.
There are no grits given for these grinding wheels, but after some perusal of various old catalogs from the same time period (Abrasive Company, Philadelphia. American Emery Wheel Work, Rhode Island) some numbers come up. The American Emery Wheel Works has recommendations in the front of their 1920 Catalog for the grinding of razors, concaving specifically, with wheels of an abrasive grain of 60-100, corundum with a silicate bond. Abrasive Company, Philadelphia in their 1919 Catalog recommend abrasive grains made of Borolon (Aluminum Oxide), between 46-100 in a vitrified bond wheel, again, specifically naming razor concaving and grinding.
Once all the surfaces are ground the blade are passed on to another worker who performs what is called roughing in the text, what in Sheffield would be rough glazing. This is performed using felt wheels by the time we get to 1924, before this it would have been wooden wheels that had a leather rim placed around the circumference. In another article in this publication, there is an extensive dissertation on the types of wheels used for glazing and polishing operations as well as their pros and cons. Felt was becoming the most highly favored material due to its ease of maintenance and ability to be balanced quickly and simply. For the rough glazing, the felt wheels, of which again there may be multiple diameters, are dressed with a head of glue and No. 120 Emery. The glue used at this time was an animal based glue, a hot hide glue which was occasionally mixed with a substance called C-Gum. I have been unable to discern what C-Gum is, but when I worked for a large dental instrument maker, I heard old timers talk about a compound that they called simply "C".
To continue, the felt wheels are given multiple coats of glue and emery (between 5 and 7) and are then "turned down" to fit exactly into the various concavities of the razor. We are informed that a blade glazer and polisher will have as many as 18 different wheels to complete these processes. Between every step of the process the blade is cleaned (elsewhere we learn blades are cleaned in Naptha) and then dried in sawdust.
After the use of these rouging, glue based wheels, other felt wheels are used for "Fine Glazing", the same size of emery is used but this time the emery is mixed with oil. A pan of this mixture is placed under the wheel so the operator can smear some of the mixture onto the blade before every application of the wheel. This creates a finer finish than the glue wheels since the emery can "soak" into the felt.
Once all these roughing and fining operations are complete, the blade is cleaned and then goes onto what is called "Blue Coloring". Some of you may be familiar with this term if you have ever seen the excellent documentary on YouTube called "Der Blaupliester" which documents the work of a man who is maybe the last blue polisher in Germany. This is done with wheels coated with glue and "XX Turkish Emery". I have been unable to determine the exact grit of this emery, I looked into the old ANSI abrasive grades but once you get into the very fine grades known as emery flours, they use a system such as 1/0, 2/0, 3/0, etc,not a lettered system at all. Thinking about sensible grit progressions however, imo "XX" emery is likely to be in the 240-320 grit range.
The glue and emery head on the wheel is cracked up, I would imagine with blows from a hammer, and fat (in this instance, lard oil) is rubbed into the head to soften the surface, along with the use of a stone to smooth the wheel down as it runs. There is again, mention of using emery and oil but it seems that this is applied to the glued wheel and not used on a separate felt.
This will be the final stage of polishing unless the blade goes on to be crocus polished.
The crocus polishing some of us may have heard of is the old Sheffield method of using a wooden wheel faced with lead acting as a lap, as well as leather covered wheels coated in crocus of iron oxide.
However, in our case, we are informed that crocus polishing is achieved with the use of a brush wheel, cake lime and "crocus emery".
Brush wheels are basically exactly what they sound like, usually a wooden hub with bristles radiating out from the center. I did a little digging into what bristles were used at the time and it seems that they were made from something called Tampico, what we today would call sisal, which are fibers derived from a type of cactus. Cake Lime was a compound made from Dolomitic Lime (sometimes called Vienna Lime) and tallow fat. Dolomitic Lime is a high magnesia content lime derived from Dolomite, a mineral crystal which is processed with heat and pulverized to create a fine polishing powder. "Crocus emery" is a bit of a contradiction since crocus is a form of iron oxide and emery is a form of aluminum oxide. My theory is that they are simply using an even finer grade of emery. Emery flours in the old ANSI standard start at 320 grit, so I would imagine we are looking at an abrasive for this operation in the 400-600 range which was about the upper limit of how accurately and finely they could grade abrasives at the time.
At this point the blade will be cleaned and inspected for rogue scratches or too dull of a finish. If there are any flaws they are sent back to the appropriate operation. If they move on they are sent for honing.
The honing is quite intriguing. The blades are set into automatic honing machines, going through a total of 3 machines before they hit a stone for the final strokes. In the third honing machine the writer tells us that brushes are used. I can only imagine that these are wheel brushes loaded with a fine abrasive that passes right along the edge of the blade. After this the razor goes to a dual sided hand hone, one rough side one fine side. The razor is layed flat on the hone, lather being used as the lubricant, x-strokes. 6-8 strokes is all we are told is necessary. Interestingly here we learn about what @Slash McCoy calls a "pull stroke". If a wire is formed on the edge the honer lays the razor on the stone and drags the blade in a straight line right off the edge of the stone with no forwards or backwards motion. The razor is always given the "hair test" (HHT?) and if it is satisfactory it is then stropped.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading and I hope you gleaned something useful here. But more importantly, let us appreciate even more the craftsmanship and artistry every time we pick up our razors to shave.