Coupe-Choux

Coupe-choux is a French term for a straight razor that literally means ‘cabbage cutter’. With their being called ‘cut-throat’ razors in English, it’s not hard to see why people might be hesitant to use them: one could say they have something of an image problem. My oldest razor, shown above, is a French-made cabbage cutter. While I consider it to be the oldest, that isn’t an assertion I can prove, as old razors are often difficult to date with any accuracy – but some of its characteristics tend to suggest an origin in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Most notably, it has no tail. When dealing with English razors, an absent or very rudimentary ‘stub’ tail would be consistent with a date of manufacture in the late 18th or very early 19th centuries. In France, however, tailless razors were still apparently made and sold throughout the 19th century, where they were known as rasoirs de perruquier. While perruquier means ‘wigmaker’, it was also used as a synonym for ‘barber’, so these would typically have been intended for shaving others, rather than for shaving oneself.

The variable width of the blade (a ‘wedge’, a little over ¾" at its widest), the convex ‘smiling’ curvature of its edge, and the relatively indistinct transition between the blade and the tang would, based on what I’ve read, collectively argue for an earlier 19th-century origin moreso than a later one. Stamped on the tang is the text MARTIN A MARSEILLE and a symbol comprising a cross and a circle. The likelihood is that Martin was a retailer, rather than the manufacturer. The scales are made of horn, with a white ‘spacer’ separating them which I’d guess is a chip of bone.

I spent something in the region of £40 acquiring it via ebay, with a little more outlay needed to get it sent off for honing into shave readiness. It’s a great pleasure to still be able to use an an item that is likely to be over 150 years old, and quite possibly 200 years old. It still shaves very well indeed.