J. F. Licot Narum - anyone knows this Belgian company?

[jollo74]

Hi all,
I've gotten lucky and recently bought a beautiful 7/8 slightly hollow-ground razor with barber's notch. It did have some rust but nothing near the edge and it cleaned up quite nicely. I've only cleaned up the rust as I don't mind an old razor showing its age. In fact I quite like it that way ... It was easy enough to sharpen by dulicot, a straight HHT 3 off the stone. This improved to a respectable HHT 4 after linnen/leather .

Pictures are underway, hopefully the weather will allow taking some decent pictures later today ...

Anyhow, I've never heard about the manufacturer "J. F. Licot Namur" before. Some googling brought up it may be a Belgian company but really not alot could be found.

Then I thought that maybe my new friends at coticule.be can help me with some further information about my old Belgian madame... Can you ?

Cheers
Jörg

 

[Bart]

I don't know the particular manufacturer. Probably Wim (member Decraew) knows more, as he has a special interest in Belgian razor brands.
I can tell you that Namur is the name of a well-known city in the Southern, French speaking part of the country.
I've run a Google search for "couteaux Licot Namur" and found the following excerpt form an old book about knife manufacturing.

The text is in French. If you need translation, just let me know.

Best regards,
Bart.

La Coutellerie (Belge du XIXe siècle

La Belgique possède actuellement plusieurs centres de fabrication pour la coutel-
lerie; ce sont : Namur, Gembloux, Lierre et Aerschot.

Namur est une ville forte placée dans une très belle situation à l'embouchure
de la Sambre et de la Meuse; c'est le chef-lieu de la province du même nom; sa
population est de 32 200 habitants.

L'industrie de la coutellerie a beaucoup diminué à Namur; vers le milieu du
XIXe siècle on y comptait encore plusieurs fabricants, entre autres Joseph-Pierre
Monnoyer qui a exposé à Londres en 1851 et en 1862 et à Paris en 1855; Joseph
Boland qui a pris part à l'Exposition de Paris en 1889; Levaux, Bequet, Saintraint,
Lesire, Laderer, etc.

Une seule fabrique la représente actuellement, c'est celle qui a été fondée en 1770
par Jean François Licot et qui est devenue la maison Masset Licot et dont la raison
sociale est aujourd'hui Charlier frères.

Cette maison s'est acquis une réputation méritée par la qualité de ses produits.
En 1856, S. M. Léopold Ier visita la fabrique de J. F. Licot et lui accorda le titre de
Manufacture Royale ; elle a figuré à l'Exposition de Paris en 1867.

DT Lardner. — Manuel complet du travail des métaux. — Tome II, page 9.

Source: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Sciences et techniques, 4-V-4375 (6)

 

[decraew]

I have come across this brand a few times before, although I've never seen one in such a good condition (so I'm eagerly awaiting those pictures ).

Most of the razors you find with Belgian towns/brands/names on them are simply Solingen blades but made for the Belgian market. There are however, a few brands that (inasfar as I have been able to ascertain) were actually made in Belgium. Licot (from Namur) is one of them, Pierard Lefebvre (from Gembloux) is another. I'm the lucky owner of a Lefebvre and I can tell you it's a fantastic razor. So I hope for your Licot the same thing! From what I've seen so far these razors seem to have been made under the motto "We're a small country but we sure as hell can make bloody huge razors".

Oh, and if ever there comes a time that you either want to trade or sell this razor, please contact me ! Note that I'll be in vacation as of this weekend though, so you'll have to hurry

 

[jollo74]

@Bart
Thanks for digging this out for me . I don't speak any French but Google was so kind to translate it for me .

I have come across this brand a few times before, although I've never seen one in such a good condition (so I'm eagerly awaiting those pictures ).

OK, still dark and raining outside so here are some crappy indoor pictures:

...
From what I've seen so far these razors seem to have been made under the motto "We're a small country but we sure as hell can make bloody huge razors".
...

Oh yes lol: , here's a comparison to a standard 5/8 Solingen razor:

Oh, and if ever there comes a time that you either want to trade or sell this razor, please contact me ! Note that I'll be in vacation as of this weekend though, so you'll have to hurry

So far I'm a very happy bunny so don't get your hopes too high ... But seriously, thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge about Belgian razors.

Cheers
Jörg

 

[jasp]

Most of the razors you find with Belgian towns/brands/names on them are simply Solingen blades but made for the Belgian market. There are however, a few brands that (inasfar as I have been able to ascertain) were actually made in Belgium.

Ah yes, I have two old razors belonging to my great grandfather and his father. Both are stamped with "Ch Suy, Louvain" and "Garanti" followed by a number. One of the cases says "Märke in Qualität" and "The Bastei". So I've always suspected it to be german imports, stamped with the store's name. The logo on the razors is the head of a chinese man, I've seen a similar looking logo on a razor from Solingen.

Just thought I'd throw this in here