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Knife World Publications, PO Box 3395, Knoxville, TN 37927
Vol. 38 No. 5 May 2012
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LOUISIANA,
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PERMIT 11
www.knifeworld.com
Raising Kane
The Historic
Cutleries of
Kane, PA
by David L. Anthony
Those of us with a passion for collecting vintage
cutlery occasionally come
across a quality pocketknife or straight razor
with a tang stamp ending
in “Kane, Pa.” This in itself
is a rare treat, and reason
enough to post a photo on
our favorite knife forums
and justifiably brag about
our latest acquisition.
Personally speaking, I
tend to look far beyond the
knife itself. I like to ponder
the who, what and where
of the knife and that often
leads me to new and exciting discoveries. Having
lived not far from Kane,
Pennsylvania as a youngster, I wanted to learn a little more about the cutlery
history of this rural community in McKean County.
Famous for the abundant
black cherry forest and
many oil and gas wells in
its surroundings, it is
unfortunate that the community is losing its connection with its rich cutlery
history.
It is nearly impossible to
singularly discuss Kane
without mentioning some
of the other nearby communities that also harbored cutlery firms. It has
Continued on page 5
This sleeveboard pen knife with jigged bone scales bears the very rare mark of Kane,
Pennsylvania’s John D. Case Co. A closeup of the tang stamp can be found on page 5.
Straight Razors: Old is New Again
by Stephen Garger
My father emigrated
from Hungary in his early
teens with little formal
education, a huge capacity
for hard work, and a real
“knack” for the application
of common sense. I remember how delighted he was
when stainless doubleedged blades replaced the
blue-blades, something he
shared while I was watching him shave back in the
1950s. “These stainless
blades last long, but they
tell you to replace them
every week so they can
make money,” he said while
laughing. “You should be
smart enough to know
when to replace razor
blades without being told.”
My common sense gene
kicked in one morning
while shaving. I’d been
doing a slow burn since the
new millennium about
spending three to four
bucks a pop for multi-bladed razor cartridges. When
it finally penetrated my
skull that the company was
putting a little color strip
on those cartridges to alert
the user when it’s “time to
replace” them, I thought of
my dad’s words and just
started laughing. I also
determined to find an alternative.
A little research and I
came up with a fine, $30
stainless Merkur brand
double-edged safety razor
Continued on page 20
Custom made razors by Robert Williams,
photo by SharpByCoop.
Page 20
Knife World
May 2012
Continued from page 1
made in Germany. For
another twenty bucks I
picked up a variety pack of
one hundred (!) blades,
enough for about five years
given my beard. A boar
bristle brush, shaving soap
with a mug, and I was set.
After a week of practice
(with a nick here-andthere) re-learning how to
let the weight of the shaver
do most of the work, I was
getting a better shave than
with the new plastic gizmos
and their pricey blade contraptions.
With my new interest in
shaving, it was only a matter of time until, as a knife
fan with a serious thing for
blades; I would begin to
wonder about straight
razors. I’d always been
aware of them and know
there are collectors that
focus on the vintage editions. However, except for
the barber using a straight
razor to clean up the back
of the neck, I had no experience with them, and decided some investigation was
in order.
Around the turn of the
20th Century, an American
businessman named King
Three handcrafted straight razors by Max Sprecher of Las Vegas. At top, 15/16”
wide “Spanish Point,” quarter hollow ground, with extra long tail and scales of
blue paua shell laminate. Middle razor is a wedge ground 13/16” “Humpback”
handled in faux ivory G10 fiberglass. At bottom is another “Humpback” in a 7/8”
width, quarter hollow ground, with carbon fiber scales.
Great eastern Cutlery
Great Eastern Cutlery
701 East Spring Street
Unit 10 Building 2
Titusville, PA. 16354
(814)-827-3411
An American Manufacturer of Vintage Cutlery Products
www.greateasterncutlery.net
Camp Gillette invented a
safe razor with a cheap and
disposable blade. Long history made short, the
Gillette
Safety
Razor
Company was born and
production begun in Boston
during 1903. “Straight
razors were used primarily
up until World War I; when
the soldiers were issued
Gillette Safety Razors, and
then there came to be less
and less work for the barbers and Gillette took over.”
I was talking with Max
Sprecher, a straight razor
maker, restorer, collector
and purveyor. “Few companies
produced
them
[straight razors] through
the 1970s and 1980s, but
now you have nostalgia,”
said Sprecher. “I think the
major point for people currently going back to the
double edge is those disposables have become so
expensive, students can’t
afford them, and you get a
better shave with a double
edge.”
With the resurgence of
the double-edge, interest in
the straight razor has also
grown. “I think people want
to make a difference – makContinued on page 21
May 2012
Knife World
Page 21
An especially curvaceous humpback style razor by
Robert Williams with ladder pattern damascus
blade and pre-ban ivory scales.
ing a little effort to ‘go
green’ is one aspect of the
interest,” Sprecher theorized. “Using shaving soap
instead of the canned goop,
and going back to the old
school of straight razor
shaving is a way to do
that.” While Sprecher sees
a growing market for
straight razors, he noted
that “they will never take
over and push Gillette from
the throne.”
I mentioned that several
knifemakers are also producing
an
occasional
straight razor. “A few knifemakers do it since the basis
is pretty much the same in
terms of grinding, but I see
too much of a knife in the
razor.”
said
Sprecher.
“When you want to make
something, use it – and
many knifemakers have no
idea what it is to shave
with a straight razor, so
they make one without
understanding the balance
and feel.” I opined that the
custom straight razors by
knifemakers
I’d
seen
looked good and Sprecher
agreed: “There are not any
flaws in the finished product, but the whole razor has
Continued on page 22
Some beautiful amboyna burl was chosen by
Williams for this traditional 6/8 (i.e. 3/4” wide)
“Barber Special” with high carbon steel blade.
Another razor by Williams, this one a classic English
style 8/8 (1” wide) “Barber Special” with stag scales
and high carbon steel blade.
Connecticut razor maker Robert Williams crafted this 11/16” razor with a modified Spanish point, a half hollow grind, and a stippled, fire-blued spine. The ergo
grip handle scales are laminate mother of pearl. SharpByCoop photo.
Page 22
Knife World
May 2012
Continued from page 21
(Above) Buffalo horn scales adorn this quarter hollow ground 8/8 razor by Williams,
with “cowcatcher” point and nugget-pattern spine. A 6.5mm ruby is set in the tang.
SharpByCoop photo. (Below) Top of the line 5/8 extra hollow ground “singing" blade”
razor by Dovo with gold wash and 40,000 year old Siberian mammoth ivory scales.
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something that is off –
weight, balance, length of
tang, edge, proportions – it
just feels awkward in the
hand.”
Sprecher admits to
knowing very little about
making knives. “I’m a
razorsmith and you’ll never
hear me talk about knives,”
he says. “It’s not about
knife makers as competition – the more the merrier
– but you have to be honest
with your customers in that
something may appear
nice, but the question
remains ‘Is it functional?” I
asked Sprecher to name
some of the razorsmiths he
knows of. “Alex Jacques
and
myself;
Robert
Williams, Joe Chandler
(who was a knife maker
with a good reputation for
his straight razors before
the whole hype began),
Charlie Lewis, and Mastro
Levi (an Italian) are known
for the straight razors,” he
responded
immediately.
“You have to pay your dues
and build a name for yourself in the straight razor
circle since a name in the
knife industry is completely different from being
known in the straight razor
industry.” Sprecher works
out of Las Vegas, Nevada
and his customs begin
around $500. Note that just
as with custom knives,
prices for custom razors are
determined by features like
scale material and file work
for example, and can go
into the $1000+ range for a
damascus blade with ivory
scales.
“I started out making
knives, but just really took
a liking to straight razors,”
related Connecticut razorsmith Robert Williams. “To
me, they’re a very practical
tool you use every day (I
don’t have many knives I
use daily) and there was
just something about that
‘every day’ use.” I asked
Williams to describe some
of the differences between
knife and razor making. “If
you don’t get a straight
razor right it just won’t
shave you well, where a
knife will cut anyway,” he
began. “Any defect in the
edge will be noticed when
you stick it to your face so
you need a top notch steel
and tempering process. The
piece has to take an
extremely fine edge and be
durable enough to hold it –
but especially take it and a
lot of steel won’t do that.”
Williams has a strong
preference for carbon steel.
“Carbon steel, 1095 and O1
both work but it’s the heat
treat that makes all the difference to get the finest
matrix you can get,” he
said. “I’ve never used a
stainless that will take as
good an edge as high carbon steel.” Another difference between the knife and
razor
is
toughness.
“Toughness is not what
you’re looking for, it’s just
not a quality a straight
razor needs to have so
there no point compromising the edge for the sake of
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Continued from page 22
toughness,”
noted
Williams. “If you drop a
straight razor it may chip
and break… it is a fine
blade with a severe and
acute angle and a knife
that acute would have a
weak edge, so a knife needs
to be more obtuse.” Per
Williams, razors also present special difficulties in
the grinding process. “In
order to get the best
results, in my opinion, you
have to do the serious
grinding after the heat
treatment,” he said. “The
thin blade takes the heat
quickly so the grinding
process is challenging.”
I asked Williams about
getting started in razor
making. “You have to focus
on razors since the tempering, grinding, and heat
treat are all different from
knifemaking, it’s a different
tool,” he said. “There’s zero
room for error – all hollow
grinding, the spine and
edge have to be perfect and
a mirror polish is painstaking.” When he began,
Williams collected and
examined about four or five
hundred razors. “You want
to truly understand what
you’re making,” he said.
“They can run from 4/8”
[‘razor speak’ for 1/2”] to 11/2” from edge to spine and
2-1/4” to 3” in length and
tangs can take many differ-
Knife World
ent configurations – all
have particular characteristics and all shave fine.”
Like Sprecher, Williams
has been shaving with a
straight razor for some
time. “A lot of people,
including knifemakers, are
afraid to shave with a
straight razor – there’s
some psychological fear
about putting a straight
razor on your face and
shaving with it,” he said
chuckling. “The people who
fear that will be the same
ones who test their knives
on their arm.” Williams
just went full time into
straight razor making and
his pieces start at $395.
As I’ve been praising
myself on the home-front
for the economic gains
derived from owning a safety razor and my stash of
100 blades at 20-cents
each, I got a little worried.
The prospect of spending
upwards of $400 for a shaving implement would likely
violate, to steal a phrase
from the U.S. Constitution,
“domestic tranquility” on
the home front! I was
explaining this to Carl
Heimerdinger of Louisville,
Kentucky’s Heimerdinger
Cutlery Company. The
business has been around
since 1861 with Carl being
the 5th generation to take
over the company.
“It does come down to
economics since you’re
investing not only in a
straight razor, but the
leather strop while probably also purchasing a hone
to maintain the blade and
then a good badger brush
along with soap,” said
Heimerdinger. “On the
other side, you’re not paying a lot for cartridges,
which can offset the initial
cost.” And just how much
should a person expect to
lay out for a decent, factory
produced model? “If you
pay under a hundred dollars for a brand new
straight razor, it’s not
worth the money because
the quality is not there,”
stressed Heimerdinger.
Heimerdinger’s sells the
Dovo Brand, which is made
in Germany [Boker and the
French Company, ThiersIssard
also
produce
straight
razors].
Interestingly, Merkur safety razors are a subsidiary
of, and manufactured in
the Dovo factory. Further,
according to Heimerdinger,
Merkur is the only part of
the factory that runs full
time to keep up with the
demand. In the past four to
five years, Heimerdinger
has had to expand the part
of the sales store dealing
with shaving products to
accommodate
customer
requests for old-fashioned
safety and straight razors.
Full hollow ground 6/8
razor by Dovo with fancy
decorative ground spine
and handles of African
blackwood. A traditional
tool with modern styling.
Page 23
“Straight razors are kind of
a specialized part of that
enthusiasm,” he noted.
“People approach them
carefully and we sell far
more of the safety razors.”
In terms of the craftsmanship involved in Dovo
straight
razors,
Heimerdinger emphasized
it is just fine. “They’re all
handmade and this year
they [Dovo] hired a new
craftsman in Germany –
which is unheard of since
usually you build a
machine,” he said. “Each of
the straight razors is different and needs a different
amount of grinding and
polishing and its all handwork.” Heimerdinger continued: “Dovo provides a
couple of different grinds,
some half hollow, some are
full hollow ground and the
latter are the thinnest, the
Jaguar [automobile] so to
speak, of the straight
razors. The thinner the
edge, the closer the cut.”
Those thin razors cost up
toward $200 with the regular Dovo retailing in the
$130-$150 range, unless
there’s a special handle
involved. Dovo also produces some straight razors,
with less expensive handles, for the Colonel Conk
brand. Heimerdinger recommends a YouTube video
by Dovo that has just come
out in an English version.
The good news is that,
according to Heimerdinger,
the lower end razor is not
going to diminish the experience a great deal. “The
whole shaving experience
is a men’s luxury thing and
the straight razor falls into
that experience,” he concluded. In terms of the
learning curve, according to
Sprecher, expect to take up
to six months to become
accustomed while underscoring that “It’s still the
ultimate
shave.”
The
clincher for me was something Williams pointed out:
“You end up using the same
blade to shave year-afteryear and over that time
learn to put the edge on it
that fits your face and
beard the best.”
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Heimerdinger
Cutlery,
4207
Shelbyville
Rd.,
Louisville, KY 40207;
phone 502-897-9552 or
online at www.heimerd
ingercutlery.com
Max Sprecher, phone 702982-1322 or online at
www.madaspenhome.com
Robert Williams, 3144
Broadbridge
Ave.,
Stratford, CT 06614; phone
203-979-0803 or online at
customstraightrazors.com
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