Items by ignatz

A few years back I wrote an article reviewing the then new Silver Wing razor blank forgings using the CarbonSong 135 steel from Thiers-Issard. Well, evidently the factory was very pleased with that little write-up, and I was very happy :w00t: to learn that they wanted me to review yet another new straight razor that they have had in the works. What I’ve been sent to look at and try out is the new 11/16” Grelot Crown Silver Wing. I’m absolutely delighted with this little beauty for a...

Hunting around for old razors at a flea market often turns up a lot of dogs. Most of the time, what you see is what you get, but every once in while you take home a razor that astonishes you, sort of like letting some poor, street mutt follow you home for a handout which then surprises you by not only fetching the morning paper, but bringing it to the table and then pouring your coffee for you. OK, OK, you know I'm exaggerating, but that is the sort of happy surprise that I...

Mardor Antique Frame Safety Razor A French turn-of-the-century frame safety razor The usual weekend lure of the flea market brought me to town this last Friday and as I was snuffling about at one of the stalls I spied this little boxed safety razor set. But this wasn’t a case of love at first sight. I looked it over and started to laugh about it to myself. This just seemed too impossible to believe: a safety razor that used straight razor blades. :biggrin: After a thorough...

Antique Double-Bladed Razor - A middle 1800's razor resurrected. - Our all-too-short, but very sweet, vacation in France having come to an end, my wife and I and motored back towards our home stomping grounds in Belgium, leaving behind the last real sunshine of summer. Choosing to overnight in a little village on the way rather than driving straight through, we parked the car, checked into a small hotel and went strolling the streets for a bit of sight-seeing prior to some fine...

Thiers-Issard - pre-production new steel test razor forging A Christmas gift in July? You must be kidding!? :w00t: But there it was in my hands: a special delivery from Father Christmas. No, not the fabled Father Christmas from the North Pole. I’m talking about a very special French Santa (Père Noël de Rasoirs) who makes his home somewhere down in the industrial regions of the Auvergne in France. The little gift that ended up in my stocking was the latest straight-razor steel blade...

It was another one of those late Saturday afternoons on which I was sauntering through a flea market with an attractive friend, chatting away with her while nosing through old boxes and tables filled with the flotsam and jetsam of emptied-out attics. Some benevolent force must have chosen that moment to smile down upon my search endeavors, for there on the table in front of me was this most curious of razors. As I remember, I sort of looked at it in a confused way (never having seen...

Sometimes we, the wandering masses in the flea markets, get lucky, and it was on one bright Saturday morning about four years ago here in Ghent, Belgium that I happened upon this little gem of a straight razor being sold off by two fellows who were mostly flogging bits of French, Belgian and German army surplus. They had two of these razors there on the bench, of which I purchased this one (the better of the two) in what could be described as just two whiskers short of "mint" condition. I...