Thread: Different sort of Wade and Butcher

Rodgers and W&B has so many cool models that aren't that common.

Well, it took some time but now I know that it is NOT a frameback, but a Guard Razor!

The guard-razor goes back to Jean Jacques Perret (1730-1784), a Parisian master cutler. In 1762 he devised a wooden guard to slip over a straight razor to turn it into a sort of plane, with just a bit of the blade protruding. Reason? Safety. Stopped people from cutting their ears off! Other guard-razors like the Plantagenet made by Charles Stewart of Charing Cross, London, and exhibited at the Great Exhibition in 1851 had a guard that was fixed by screwing it onto the spine:





A similar version was made by John Kinloch of Philadelphia in 1864. His patent says: With the guard in place , “… the razor may be used without danger of cutting the face by those who are maimed or wounded, and by those who have to shave themselves in situations and under circumstances which render the operation by an ordinary naked razor both tedious and dangerous.” Perhaps it should be pointed out that he took part in and survived some of the biggest battles of the Civil War, including Gettysburg and Antietam.

in 1877 cutler and importer Michael Price of San Francisco was selling his guard-razor:



Price's razor has the cut-out, which seems to have taken over from the screw-on mounting. This razor, made by Priest & Co. of Oxford Street, c1890, also has the cut-out spine:



I still can't find that A E Berg, though!

Regards,
Neil

Please look here:

Originally Posted by babalou

Please look here:

Notice how different it is from the razor in the OP which is not a frameback. It is, however possible that it was a frameback and was reground - I can't see very well the transition at the shank but on one of the photographs (along with the narrow width esp. toward the tip) it seems like almost that's what happend to it.

Originally Posted by gugi

Notice how different it is from the razor in the OP which is not a frameback. It is, however possible that it was a frameback and was reground - I can't see very well the transition at the shank but on one of the photographs (along with the narrow width esp. toward the tip) it seems like almost that's what happend to it.

I tend to agree - the spine on that razor looks quite roughly ground, all the other guard razors I have seen have had the spines finished to the same degree of excellence as the rest of the razor. The tops of framebacks do tend to be roughly finished, especially the very thin-bladed ones - the back was never intended to be seen in this case.

Regards,
Neil

Thanks babalou and Neil! Nothing like collective knowledge! There is a faint stain on the tang where the brass frame used to be! how wide is that brass? I am going to attempt to make it!
Now I know about this strange Stewart as well. Cool!......get it on....Tom

Tom,
You always seem to find these unusual and exquisite looking blades . Great eye my friend and beautiful W&B.

PS: I don't know much about restores, etc, but you don't think it's an after market restoration project that groove on the spine, do you ?

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Cheers,
Robert