I figured I would make a thread dedicated to the sharing of one's family jewels. I'd like to keep this streamlined and as chatter free as possible. (I know, trust Ryan to make a weird thread). Most people who have a treasured shaving heirloom or three have already posted them here in the forums, so I thought it would be nice to post one or two pictures, who the item or items originally belonged to, and a link to the original discussion thread. http://theshaveden.com/forums/threads/a-cordovan-shell-strop-and-my-grandfathers-legacy.29359/ The strop was my Grandfather's when he was working as a barber. The razor is mine (formerly a Gemstar Customs restore).
nice strop.. ill show you my family jewels, just not in public. unfortunately i dont have any of my grandfathers gear, but the memory is there. take care of that strop.
Here is my FIL's shaving mug. The little razor, was the toy razor my husband "play-shaved" with, as a boy.
I have several watches from my Grandfather, and some jewellery of his that have been passed down to me. Unfortunately I can't take pics since they're all in my safe deposit box at the bank - you can guess how important that stuff is to me.
According to the note Grammy gave me with this mug, it was bought 2nd hand by my great grandfather in Three Rivers Quebec in 1886 when he was in boarding school. He had 7 sons to go with the six daughters, so I don't know how she got it instead of one of her brothers. It holds a 2.5 oz puck.
Here's the only two I have, both belonged to my father in law. 1960 (F1) Fat Boy and 1980 (A1) Trac II.
One of my maternal grandfather's straights. A 4/8 Weyer's Special from St. Joseph, MO. My mom says he had another, but she has not found it yet. I also have his hones (a grey stone of an indeterminate grit that I use only if the other hone doesn't get the job done), and a Blish Mize & Sillman Mohwak branded barber hone. My grandpa died in 1972 and had switched to a Gillette SuperSpeed (see my avatar for a look at that---I don't have a bigger picture of it) some years before he died. Amazingly, the straight pictured above was shave-sharp after about 10 passes on the barber hone! Here is that same grandfather's 1954 Super Speed (40's style). This was also the first DE I ever used (the pipe is an el-cheapo that I used when I took the picture to use as an avatar).
My father shaves with a synthetic brush and Gillette Fusion and has lost all his old razors to time. It almost seems worthwhile to switch to a straight just to create that truly treasured family heirloom.
Here are my heirlooms, and what started me on this "classic shaving" trip. Given to me by my wife (then fianceé) about two years ago. They were her grand-father's. My go-to razor, and thanks to this forum I now know it's a 1930s-ish Gillette NEW An Auto-Strop Valet single edge And finally an Ever-Ready single edge I'll try to get some better pictures when I can.
Here are before and after pictures of my grandfather's straight. The restoration is done by Zephyr. My grandfather died in 1984, so it has not been used for over 28 years. About time it got in to action again
