JJ Saville & Co were steel manufacturers of Sheffield, England, and were quite a force to be reckoned with back in the day.
John James Saville is said to have started in business in his own right in 1876 at Wicker Lane, Sheffield, and a newspaper advertisement dated Sep 1876 confirms J J Saville and Co at 20 Wicker Lane, appointed agent for a Prussian manufacturer of corkscrews, scissors and pen knives. His obituary shows that he had worked as a travelling salesman in Germany before starting on his own. We will see that Germany was an important market for J J Saville, indeed their business was largely focussed on export rather than home trade. The Triumph trademark was taken up by the company in 1901, and used it extensively for exports around the globe. The company seems to have been on the forefront of steelmaking, producing a number of products and special steels developed for speciffic applications. You can read some more on the company should you be interested right here.
These razors are clean and in good original vintage condition. Each razor weighs 27 grams, the blade height is 15/32 ths, or around 12 mm high, it has a cutting edge of 70 mm with a round point presenting a good looking blade. Both half hollow razors are shave ready. The bevels on the razors are pretty good, with no wear on the spine, we used one layer of tape on the spine when we sharpened it up. The razor has a spine thickness of 3 mm and presents a sharpened cutting angle of 14 degrees.
The razors comes in their original case which is in great condition. I am not a fan of small and dainty razors, so these are not my cup of tea, but they did shave well. I like heavier razors with a bit of momentum as lighter razors could get hung up on my stubble, I'd suggest this set for guys with lighter beard. One thing I do like about smaller blades is that they seem to work very well in my neck, and they make short work with stubble at the base of my neck that takes a bit of time to get off with wider blades, maybe because of the easier positioning of the blade? This is a very nice set for the collector also, seven day sets seem to be abound in larger numbers than twin sets, and the good condition of these makes them even more of a score!
*Vintage razors are priced according to model and availability, time spent cleaning and reconditioning and time/level of honing. Please enquire if you need additional work done to this set prior to purchase. All straight razors will require a stropping on a leather strop before every use. Pics are unedited (detail) and provide a true image of the condition of the razor.