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The online community of knife collectors, A Knife Family Forged in Steel

A collection of straight razors , I guess !

I feel that I have to admit that I am becoming a collector , this may sound strange as I am writing this on i Knife Collector and this is ...well the place for collectors .

I have never really collected anything before , in the past I have always had a pocket knife and sometimes two or maybe three but never anymore than that. I have had knives since I was eight or nine , something like that anyway and I can hardly remember a time when I didn't look in shop windows at knives . When I went on holiday with my parents they would ask if I wanted a "bucket and spade" for playing on the beach but I would end up looking at penknives in shop windows . They were usually rather small and cheap often with the name of the resort on the handle , I am told some people collect these now and I could see a sort of period charm about them . I have seen them for sale in antique centres and sort of recollected owning them as a child . Of course what I really wanted was something more akin to a Bowie Knife but as with all children I knew how far that I could push things and Bowie Knives had to wait till I was a little older , around ten or twelve I think . Strange but I am 63 now and would be arrested if I was found walking around with the sort of knives that I had at twelve years old .

Well now to come back to my confession , three years ago on my sixtieth birthday I ordered my first knife from the States . A GEC Cody Scout in black micarta , model 72 and it ticked all the boxes in a knife for me at that time . It was the sort of knife that I had wanted for years but without having access to a PC I hadn't known that such knives existed . A couple of years before that I got a PC for the first time and just before my sixtieth birthday had discovered on Youtube the videos of how GEC make their knives , I was smitten , these were the sort of knives that made my world revolve and I just had to have one . Sixtieth birthday who could complain , I had not bought anything online at the time and buying that knife felt like a big step and from the States as well !!!!

One knife that was all , I had only ever wanted one good knife . Opinels had been the best knives that I had come up with , good carbon steel , inexpensive so if you lost it then it wasn't a big deal. Losing knives was something that I had to consider as I had lost just about all of them apart from some I had given away and rather a lot that had proven to be pure junk .

Well this GEC was to be my one and only GREAT knife that I would carry from now to dropping off the perch . Rather a lot to choose from though when you look at the number of models produced by GEC , good job I didn't know of the existence of Queen , Case or any other makers . So after a great deal of worry and stress the knife turns up in the UK and... "Happy Birthday"... thanks to the GEC and a little malt whisky it was as well .

I have a few knives now though I expect that most on iKC would think my collection modest . When I had bought just a few knives it began to dawn on me that my sharpening skills were lacking . I could put a bit of an edge on a knife and had done so for years but when you start to buy good quality knives with the intention of using them then it would seem wise to learn some sharpening techniques . So I did , youtube is great for that , I know some poor fools who think that youtube is all about talking cats and have no idea what a fantastic resource it is ! Having learned to sharpen I was returning to the house after putting an edge on a Fallkniven when I tried shaving arm hair , as you do , what a revelation it took that hair off like a razor !... and damn it all I was smitten again !

I could just buy a razor from eBay and try to sharpen it up see how I get on , right yeah course you can , there is a pattern emerging here I think . Just one razor learn how to sharpen it boost my skills etc.

I have eleven working razors and have started to look at different types of razor , things that I didn't know existed until recently . Up until buying a frameback razor it was possible to argue , with less and less conviction admittedly , that I needed one or two extra's in case I didn't have time to sharpen one in a morning and then i would have a spare . However when you start to look at razors from a collectors point of view then it becomes rather difficult to argue that you are not collecting them .

So here I stand , I am at last willing to admit that I am indeed a collector of straight razors .

So the idea of this blog is to give me a place to witter on at length about my new-ish found obsession with cutthroat or straight razors . The other blog I will try to restrict to shaving stuff and this one will I hope be about the way you can build a collection of straight's at little cost . It has to be "at little cost" because I have limited spare cash and was brought up in Lancashire in the fifties when nobody had any spare cash .

So next up a little about the different types of razor to be had on eBay.

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Comment by John Bamford on September 21, 2016 at 12:52: I went around Alnwick Castle today Dale you would have liked that place . The entrance hall was just filled with hundreds of swords knives and flintlock muskets and horse pistols . I have never seen so many powder horns they are arranged in decorative designs all over the place . They wouldn't allow photo's in the castle though so I have nothing to show .

This castle was in lots of movies and TV programmes like Harry Potter and Downton Abbey , They were having broomstick training on the grass in one area , I am too big , fat, for that so we just went on the ghost walk in the cellars . This area is on the border with Scotland so is just full of castles .

I only found two straight razors though , they were both in a local regimental museum in the castle . Whilst your troops in the first war went into battle with one of Mr Gillette's new fangled razors our troops had a straight razor in their equipment .

In Memoriam Comment by D ale on September 21, 2016 at 3:47: !!! ..Wow , John .. !!!

.

Manufactured in the mid 17th century.

Now that is truly a find.

I've a few (very few) manufactured in the 1800's.

I purchased them for the old & therefor rare stamping

.. and ..

for the most part .. not in the best of shape.

To find something that old .. unused .. is truly a find.

.

!!! .. Congrats, my friend .. !!!

.

Enjoy

D ale

Comment by John Bamford on September 21, 2016 at 1:19: I am intending to use that old razor a lot Jan .

Isn't it great to be able to use something from the time of your Civil War .

I wasn't sure about getting it for a while because with it being unused I wasn't sure if it would have a sense of history about it.

If I buy something I intend to use it .

Comment by Jan Carter on September 20, 2016 at 18:59: Oh I am so glad you were able to get one of the hand forged! I have to ask John are you going to use it once?

Comment by John Bamford on September 20, 2016 at 15:06: The second razor of the week is a nice little French number that I hope will be good , but as I am around 250 miles from home I will not know until the end of the week .

Comment by John Bamford on September 20, 2016 at 14:47: Only bought two "new" razors this week . The one below can hardly be called new I guess because it is one of the old ones Malcolm Carpenterfound as new from 1850 !!!

"With the open razors by John and William Ragg, Sheffield each blade is different in some small way. This Napoleon razor is one of the earliest and dates from around 1850 to 1860. It’s heaver than some of the others. Ivory grips. All of course despite their great age are unused. This Napoleon razor has the shaped jimped tang with makers mark. The overall length including the lever is six inches. The cutting edge of the blade three inches. Each of these is unused."

Comment by Jan Carter on September 16, 2016 at 15:21: snazzy set but way too much! I like the frame lock better I think

Comment by John Bamford on September 15, 2016 at 8:35: Now this set of razors doesn't belong to me , and unless I win the lottery it is going to stay that way . It is available on eBay at present for a little over $700 but it is nice and it may be of interest to someone over than me .

As you can see the day's of the week are on the spines of the razor blades , I bet you couldn't buy a packet of razor blades like that in your local store .

Comment by John Bamford on September 15, 2016 at 4:35: I have started a blog on razor sharpening Dale , though I fear it may be a disappointment to you !

In my limited experience the art of sharpening a razor is little different to a knife though the " honemeisters" will tell you different . It comes down to using finer stones , doing careful observation , watching video's on youtube as you cant see from photo's or envisage the techniques from descriptions . Then practice on a cheapish razor , it's no use buying a real piece of junk , but as you can get a razor worth using for $30 on eBay then that would do fine. It's all in getting the feel and working the razor gently . there are so many different stones out there that have subtly different techniques , that mostly I have read about but been unable to try yet .

Belgian Coticules , Japanese Naturals , and the staggering variety of man made stones and pasted strops with diamond or the more traditional pastes . It comes down to , if you don't have loads of money , finding stones with fine enough grit ratings and practice . Course you will never know if you can really sharpe a razor until you try it , catch twenty two again . It is what I found earlier this year when I decided to try to sharpen a razor myself .

Now I can though I am sure there is room for improvement and it feels great . Knives now they are more difficult !! Different angles different things to cut different steel , modern super steel that needs diamond .................

In Memoriam Comment by D ale on September 15, 2016 at 3:24: ... and ...

Am looking forward to your straight razor sharpening guide / example.

While you may not consider yourself an expert

to someone like myself who has never (effectively) sharpened a straight razor

You are .... an expert.