Well that was unexpected.

[johnmrson]

I bought this razor late last week and it turned up today. I bought it because it's a nice piece of Australiana with "Made Expressly for W JNO Baker Ltd, Sydney" deeply engraved into the blade.

When I opened the package and looked at it, I thought it looked like quite a big bade. It didn't look that big in the ebay pictures. Anyway I got out the ruler and it's an 8/8th's. It's a real chopper of a blade.

 

[taffy]

Thats cool to have one of your countryi would like a razor made in wales, one was on the bay last week, watched it but forgot about it (it was a friday night and beer was calling), also there was a lovely welsh razor on the invisable edge, saw that to late as wellhope you enjoy your aussie shave.

 

[RobertH]

Lucky you! It's beautifully aged, hope you enjoy it for many years.

 

[professorchaos]

Those surprises are one of the pleasures of chasing vintage straights. Sometimes you get a good bit more than you expected.

 

[johnmrson]

I honed it up this afternoon. It took quite a while. I'm not sure the razor had ever had an edge on it. It was the bluntest I've ever seen a straight. It now scares the hair off your arm. I'll shave with it tomorrow and see how it is.

 

[Luc]

Nice find John!

 

[DavyRay]

I honed it up this afternoon. It took quite a while. I'm not sure the razor had ever had an edge on it. It was the bluntest I've ever seen a straight. It now scares the hair off your arm. I'll shave with it tomorrow and see how it is.

That fits with the photos, as the spine has no flat spot from honing. That is a unique razor.

 

[Ru4scuba?]

Neat find!

 

[grump]

Looks great, very nice.

 

[thirdeye]

Very cool John, Congrats!

 

[Mark1966]

Hope you don't mind an old thread being resurrected....

My parents know I'm collecting and picked me up this:

Now I know that it is a DE and this is a straight razor thread but the name one the box is the same: W. Jno Baker. So I did some searching around.

It seems that this firm was known as 'the biggest Australian mail-order knife firm of the twentieth century' according to this article here: http://www.auspostalhistory.com/articles/1932.shtml

John, if you are in Sydney the Powerhouse Museum has one of his straight razors - http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=147178 as does the National Museum of Australia in Canberra - http://www.nma.gov.au/collections-search/display?irn=127563.

 

[Ru4scuba?]

Let us know how it shaved John!

 

[johnmrson]

It actually shaves really well. I first honed it when I was just starting out honing and I gave it to Luc to try and he said it was OK but not sharp enough. I shaved with it and found the same. I rehoned it a couple of months after that, once I'd had more experience honing and got another stone to add to the progression and got it nice and sharp. It's tricky trying to shave under your nose with an 8/8 blade but it's a good razor. It gets a regular run in the rotation.

 

[Luc]

That would be a great shaver now!

 

[Ru4scuba?]

What stone did you finish with? I'm thinking about jumping on a different finisher than my Barbers come Christmas and I'm polling different folks on their finishing method.

 

[johnmrson]

What stone did you finish with? I'm thinking about jumping on a different finisher than my Barbers come Christmas and I'm polling different folks on their finishing method.

I use a Chinese 12k. It gives surprisingly smooth finish for what you pay. I give it about 40 laps with slurry and then another 40 laps with just a little clean water. As some stage I'd like to get a Thuringian but it's hard to justify the cost when I'm pretty happy with the finish I get at the moment from a stone that was so cheap.

 

[Ru4scuba?]

I use a Chinese 12k. It gets gives surprisingly smooth finish for what you pay. I give it about 40 laps with slurry and then another 40 laps with just a little clean water. As some stage I'd like to get a Thuringian but it's hard to justify the cost when I'm pretty happy with the finish I get at the moment from a stone that was so cheap.

Hmmm...the way you write about the C12K intrigues me...have you used a coti to finish? If so, how would you compare the two?

 

[schatz]

Hmmm...the way you write about the C12K intrigues me...have you used a coti to finish? If so, how would you compare the two?

The c12k (my old one at least) is a very hard stone that imparts a very smooth finish with little or no feedback. I never used it with slurry. My cotis are considerably more versatile as you can dilute the slurry and vary the pressure. Occassionally, I would hit the c12k after the coti for a bit of extra smoothness. Having recently sold the c12k, I now most often progress up to a Naniwa 12k and then reverse to finsih off on a coticule with water for a few very light laps. I'm also finding that with blades having at least moderate hone wear, the unicot procedure works wonders without going up to the 12k.

 

[johnmrson]

Hmmm...the way you write about the C12K intrigues me...have you used a coti to finish? If so, how would you compare the two?

I've never used a coti to finish so I can't compare. I'm sure a Naniwa 12k is superior to the Chinese stone but the Chinese one is natural stone which some people prefer and it's cheap.