Thoughts on this razor. Authentic tortoise?

[jrward2]

My father is well aware of my razor addiction and sent me this picture today from a place from home. Anyway, this was the picture he sent me. No idea about any names on the tang or even if the blade is in good condition. Assuming it is in good condition, what are your thoughts just from observing the style of the razor. I know its pretty hard to determine just from this crappy photo. But he's going tomorrow and I wanted to give him a some what informed analysis of it.

 

[tomjr]

great set

 

[Greybeard]

It's a gentleman's travel kit. From the style of the razor the set is quite old. Maybe 200 years or thereabouts.
The scales could be tortoise or they might be dyed horn. Hard to tell without better pictures.
More of a collector's item than a daily shaver by today's standards. If you're collecting, it's in decent shape and the price is reasonable, then it's worth getting.

Edited: Meant over 200 years old, not 300.

 

[jrward2]

It's a gentleman's travel kit. From the style of the razor the set is quite old. Maybe 200 years or thereabouts.
The scales could be tortoise or they might be dyed horn. Hard to tell without better pictures.
More of a collector's item than a daily shaver by today's standards. If you're collecting, it's in decent shape and the price is reasonable, then it's worth getting.

Edited: Meant over 200 years old, not 300.

Good to hear. I needed a second opinion to make sure I wasn't going crazy. I saw the stub tail of that razor and immediately thought... this has to be pretty old. Additionally, I don't think I've ever seen a kit like this either. He's calling me in the morning and i'm going step by step on the phone with the inspection of the blade. I'll keep everyone updated on it.

 

[mdunn]

in a fancy case like that its definitely possible.

cant tell from that pic through

 

[mycarver]

+1. When some company goes through all that trouble I'm leaning towards genuine. But I tend to hedge my bets. I'd love to see the items missing. Even so I'd buy it for,,,, well,,, just because. I love the odd ball stuff just as much. It's part of the history of this hobby and just as relevant though often overlooked. If it were complete,, I'd be bribing your Dad.

 

[jrward2]

My dad managed to get the set today. It was in an estate sale and my dad was there bright and early. There was another set I knew was in good condition and I would have loved to have had, but somebody else got to it first unfortunately. Here is the picture from the estate sale website:



Apparently it was a mad dash at the beginning and someone else got to it first. I think the tang is covered in ivory. Hope someone on here got it, it looked like a heck of a set.

I'm not sure how well of a deal this was. When you get excited about a razor it turns into "buy, buy, buy!". But I think it was a good deal especially with the rest of the set. This is a picture I got my dad to take of the tang, pardon his bad cell phone pictures. He assures me that it looks in a lot better condition than the picture shows.


All I can make out is Rodgers & Sons and on the next line London. There is some other words stamped before but it is covered by a little rust and discoloration. I'm tyring to get better pictures... Hopefully. This kind of stamping seems unlikely of Joseph Rodgers and Sons. Was it ever known that they used London in the stamp?

More pictures/information about the blade coming soon

 

[jrward2]

Here is a picture of the blade. There looks to be a fair amount of rust on it. This thing is a near wedge though so maybe I can get past the rust. Here are some more pictures and other picture from the kit. Anyone recognize any of these items.

 

[LegionPrime]

Dunno about the rest, but the pic in the middle looks to be a buttonhook used for un/buttoning shoes. Very cool!

 

[jrward2]

So I've been trying to figure this out for a little while. This entire set is very weird and the stamp on the tang is also weird. I've stumbled upon a lead though.

Antique Medical Instrument Guide. In this book, it list known makers for surgical instruments. It list J. Rodgers & Sons, London. c. 1820. As indexed a few pages before, the "c" stands for cutlery makers. Also looking at pictures and other pages in this directory, a lot of these items in this kit are very similar to some of the medical instruments throughout the book. I'm starting to think that JR&S made razors for a medical kit. Maybe 1820? a year before their first royal warrant.

What do yall think about this information.

 

[Doc226]

Looks like tortoise handles on those instruments.

The blade should clean up to almost new. The chip on the scales can we rounded off and re profiled.