Thread: John Barber 6/8 Wedge

When my friend Mark told me he had an old Sheffield wedge to sell I knew straight away I would say yes. He had me at Sheffield, I admit it. I am a Sheffield-o-phile, and the older they are the better I like them -necrosheffieldia I think it is called.

In any event, this marvellous razor landed (literally) on my front lawn yesterday evening. My first impression was that it is a big old brute of a razor for a 6/8. The shank and tang are seriously hefty and thick, and the grind is very close to a wedge. The blade itself seems slightly longer than usual too - I have not measured it, but during the shave I noticed the extra length.

But I am getting ahead of myself. First thing was to give it a hone - 1.2K Atoma diamond plate, followed by the Norton 4K, then the 8K, then the Shapton 16K, and finally on the Nakayama Asagi. All up about 20 minutes worth of honing. The razor has a slight smile, and did benefit from a rolling X. But it took an edge like you would not believe. Beautiful steel - 3 more minutes on the Asagi and I swear it would have been cleaving atoms. I have grown to expect excellent steel from the old Sheffields, but this is one of the nicest steels I have ever felt on the hone.

Stropping was excellent and precise due to the wider shank and tight pivot pin. That pin is in excellent nick for a razor pushing 200 years old (could have been replaced I guess - I do not know the history of this particular razor).

The shave itself was impressive - the horn scales in combination with the hefty shank and tang create an excellent balance in the hand, giving perfect control; the square point lets you easily get up close and personal with those fiddly areas, and of course we should never forget the Silence of the Wedges.

A nice little touch is the Square and Compasses on the shank.

Overall, a fantastic razor that I feel quite priviledged to possess. I am not sure about the collectability of these - it's old-ish, it has Freemason symbols on it, it is from Sheffield. So I guess it would be reasonably collectable, but that is just a guess. But that is a moot point really, because I will not be letting this go in hurry! :D

More information is available in the SRP Razor Database.

James.

Wow!

Now I want one too :)

Yes! I liked it as well but knew I would never get around to honing that brute! Glad you like it James,

Mark

I have probably had more John Barbers than anyone else here (meaning: 3 :D) and the 3 I had were all longer than the standard not quite 3".

The 2 I have left are both over 3 1/4", and the one I sold :gaah was just as long.

EDIT: Interesting. Smilies don't seem to work here. I'll if that is something I can configure.

Originally Posted by Bruno

EDIT: Interesting. Smilies don't seem to work here. I'll if that is something I can configure.

Judging from the sticky thread in this forum, I should not think smilies to be a necessarily preferred method of communication here. I would like to think of this little section as Robin's Playland, where Oink! is as good as :) and Hmph. is as good as :(

lol

PS I'm glad the little thank button is gone - I wonder if we can remove the rep button as well?

Originally Posted by Bruno

I have probably had more John Barbers than anyone else here (meaning: 3 :D)

I beat you by 1 :)

That's a good article Jimbo! makes me want one too! But i'm gonna settle for my not so much mine but hoglahoo's not so old sheffield that is a fantastic shave haha

Good article though, I really enjoyed reading this one,

- Tam -

Originally Posted by gugi

I beat you by 1 :)

Damn. :)

I have one in my rotation, and one in fairly good shape in my restoration pile.
The one that I sold was a 6/8 NOS that had never been honed. I only asked 40$ for it IIRC.