I Received this razor yesterday, and it had the tiniest chip, with the tiniest crack, on the edge. I thought, "Great, chalk another one up to a cheap Ebay find". I decided to use my #3000 stone and kill the edge, several times, and re-bevel the edge, softly. I taped the spine, and went to work. An hour later, I could neither see, nor feel the nick, or evidence of the crack(it was tiny). I forgot to add, I used 0000 steel wool to take off any surface rust, and buff it out a little. I don't highly polish yet, because I'm either too lazy, or maybe I like some imperfections. They add character, I think. Basically, all I did was take the original bevel off, and put a whole new one on. If I had better, and wider varieties of stones, it would have gone faster. I finished it up, on the #8000(I want a #12000 too) stone. Then stropped it about 60 times on the linen, and approx 80 times on the leather. The front 1/8th inch could use a little more stone work, but since this is what slices me most of the time, I left it alone. I was going to work on it tomorrow, and had it out, while I was about to shave with a Wade and Butcher(already very very sharp), not honed by me. I grabbed the Torrey, and the first stroke was smooth. Well, crap, its so dull it didnt even pull a little. I rubbed my cheek, and all the hair was gone. Hey, maybe its sharper than I thought. I completed a two pass almost butter smooth shave. Excellent results. And, it passed the wife test(soft hands rubbing all over the face). Almost BBS. One more pass and it would have been. Long story short, does anyone know anything about this razor? When it was produced? What kind of steel was used?
"The J.R. Torrey Co", Worcester, Massachusetts existed 1858 - 1963. The Joseph R.Torrey Razor Company was founded in 1858 to make razor strops, and to sell straight razors. In 1880, they started manufacturing razors. The razors they had dealt in prior to this were inported from Sweden and England. By Caren Chesler "Why Wealth Disappears": The J.R. Torrey Razor company manufactured straight razors from about 1850 to the end of World War I. It initially imported high-carbon steel razors from Sweden, but by the 1870s, Worcester, Mass., where the company was based, had become a steel manufacturing center, and J.R. Torrey Razor was one of its most prominent firms. The company’s success made the Torrey family one of the wealthiest in Worcester. They were the first to own an automobile and one of the first to have a telephone—though they soon removed it because the only other person in town with a phone was the butcher. After the war, however, America’s love affair with straight razors began to wane as many people switched to safety razors. Joseph Torrey, the second generation of Torrey’s to lead the firm, couldn’t transform the company to make cheap disposable blades. He was also too preoccupied with flying—he held the fifth private flying license ever issued in the U.S.—speculating in the stock market and other escapades to manage the company. By the time he died in the early 1960s, his sister, Marion, had to rent out rooms in her house to students to make ends meet. “It was a real rags to riches to rags story,” says Matthew Erskine, an estate attorney in Worcester. Joe Torrey erroneously thought straight razors would continue to do well, Erskine said, even though other companies were phasing them out and manufacturing other cutting instruments. “Joe was the CEO and controlled the stock, and he genuinely thought straight razors weren’t going to go away. But what do you do if a family member who is next in the succession is not doing a good job? How do you evaluate them objectively? That’s always an issue,” he says..
Based on your photos, and viewing it on my phone, they look like Bakelite scales. If so, then it is not older than 1907 and, as Bakelite use declined significantly at the outset of WWII, it's probably no newer than 1941. I do not have a Torrey razor, but I was interested on purchasing one a couple of months back. All my research on these razors indicated that they are great razors. Enjoy it!
