Post Your Pics: William Greaves Razors

[joshmpdx]

I originally had this in a different set of scales. The blade set a little deeper then I comfortable with. The scales got passed down to a Hess and made a new set for the Greaves, I think it turned out well

Nice blade! and great first post!

Im not sure i've seen one like that before, i wonder if it was reground.

[MileMarker60]

Nice blade! and great first post!

Im not sure i've seen one like that before, i wonder if it was reground.

Thanks,
I believe it has been reground as I haven't seen many (if any) hollow ground Greaves. The time frame and the grind don't really match but I could be wrong.

If it was reground it was a done very very well. I'll post a pic of just the blade when I get home.

[DogHair]

Thanks,
I believe it has been reground as I haven't seen many (if any) hollow ground Greaves. The time frame and the grind don't really match but I could be wrong.

If it was reground it was a done very very well. I'll post a pic of just the blade when I get home.

I thought they quit producing razors before hollows became common. Has anyone seen a full hollow Greaves?

[Mr. Scruffy]

I have this Greaves in need of restoration work.

[joshmpdx]

I have this Greaves in need of restoration work.

Good looking, and full hollow to boot!

[professorchaos]

I love my Greaves razor

Are those scales Traveler's work?

[professorchaos]

I have this Greaves in need of restoration work.

Not much restoration from what I can see. I wonder if it is a period regrind?

[professorchaos]

I thought they quit producing razors before hollows became common. Has anyone seen a full hollow Greaves?

That was my understanding too.

[spyoly]

Traveler did the restoration and scales work.

[Mr. Scruffy]

Not much restoration from what I can see. I wonder if it is a period regrind?

How would you be able to tell if it is a regrind?

[MileMarker60]

How would you be able to tell if it is a regrind?

Well unless it was a hack job, you won't be able to tell. You just have to match time period with the grind. If they don't match, it was reground.

[DogHair]

I don't have my books handy but W. Greaves & Sons stopped when they moved to the Sheaf Works, in the early 1800s I think. MileMarker's blade doesn't fit. Sheaf works went until the end of the 1800's so I'd say the second hollow is probably original but at the end of their production.

[johnmrson]

Here's mine. It's a fantastic shaver. It always puts a smile on my face when it's turn comes around in the rotation. It's a fraction bigger than 7/8.

[professorchaos]

These pictures are great! Looks like I am going to have to spend some time on my big greaves this weekend.

[azmark]

[blugill]

my two

[professorchaos]

How would you be able to tell if it is a regrind?

Well unless it was a hack job, you won't be able to tell. You just have to match time period with the grind. If they don't match, it was reground.

I don't have my books handy but W. Greaves & Sons stopped when they moved to the Sheaf Works, in the early 1800s I think. MileMarker's blade doesn't fit. Sheaf works went until the end of the 1800's so I'd say the second hollow is probably original but at the end of their production.

What they said!

I don't think it really matters except to know the razor's history. I have a couple that I believe were re-ground some time after production. Excellent razors.

[Antique Hoosier]

William Greaves & Sons

When the Greaves family built Sheaf Works in 1823, it was the first sign that great changes were underway in the Sheffield cutlery trade. The main block of Sheaf Works (still standing in Maltravers Street near the Wicker) was the centrepiece of the first large-scale factory in the town. Sheffielders had seen nothing like it, when the firm erected a £50,000 building in which ‘one grand end was kept in view, namely that of centralizing on the spot all the various processes through which the iron must pass... until fashioned into razor, penknife or other article of use’ (Hunter, 1875). Contemporary accounts described how the firm converted and melted steel at one end of the factory; at the other, tools and knives were dispatched around the world. It was probably not quite as self-contained as these descriptions imply, but there was no doubting the novel size of the factory.
Greaves’ had been active since at least the late eighteenth century. Unconfirmed reports state that the business began in Burgess Street in 1775 (where William Greaves, ‘cutler’, was listed in 1787). According to another source, William Greaves had a ‘bit of a trade in Cheney Square’ [St Paul’s Church], and frequented a public house in Mulberry Street (Sheffield Independent, 25 January 1873). He then relocated to premises in Hollis Croft (later occupied by Joseph Elliot, qv). By 1817, William Greaves had moved to Division Street and had brought his sons – Edward and Richard – into the business. By the early 1820s, Edward and Richard had become the driving force in the foundation of Sheaf Works. Richard is credited by Joseph Hunter (1875) as the key architect of the scheme.

Greaves’s main market was the USA. By 1849, William Greaves & Sons was listed as ‘American merchants’, selling table knives, razors, files, edge tools, railway springs, and steel. Besides large quantities of table cutlery, the company made many Bowie knives. The firm had a New York office in Pearl Street, Manhattan. America made William Greaves possibly the wealthiest manufacturer in Sheffield at that time. When he died on 13 May 1830, aged 78, he apparently left his daughters £30,000 each.

Richard and Edward Greaves inherited the concern and recruited new directors. These included Thomas Blake (qv), who had married a daughter of William Greaves; John Fawcett (d. 8 January 1848, aged 52); and John Bower Brown. The latter had been born in about 1801 and had served his apprenticeship at the company. Brown later married Mary Ann, the youngest daughter of William Greaves. He was also related to John Fawcett and William Fawcett, a partner in James Dixon (qv). Richard Greaves died at Shire House on 26 April 1835. When Edward Greaves died on 6 October 1846, aged 68 (and was buried in Ecclesall), the Greaves’s interest in the company ended. John Bower Brown then became head of the firm. Additional partners in the 1840s included Wilford Mettam (d. 6 June 1851, aged 38), Benjamin James Eyre (qv), and William Taylor (d. 22 June 1862, aged 54).

In 1850, John B. Brown retired and took up law. He lived at Woodthorpe Hall, near Richmond, and died in Southport on 21 August 1876, aged 75. He left £60,000. In 1850, William Greaves & Sons was dissolved, the stock and machinery auctioned, and the remaining partners went their separate ways. B. J. Eyre launched his own company, using part of Sheaf Works. The steel and tool side of Sheaf Works was taken over by Thomas Turton & Sons, which thereafter owned and used the Greaves & Sons’ mark. Turton’s was later bought by Frederick T. Mappin (qv). By the 1990s, the main block of Sheaf Works had become derelict; by 2007 it had been refurbished as Sheaf Quay – a pub complex...

[Harvitz81]

Thanks for the history lessen Mike!

I really need to get my 3 personal Greaves restored and in this thread. Give me a couple months.

[DogHair]

Thanks for the history lessen Mike!

I agree! Excellent post. I'd say my Greaves are probably my favorite vintage razors.