http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...d=290990525674
What is the chance this is authentic?
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http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...d=290990525674
What is the chance this is authentic?
Chances,,,my amatuer vote is ,,,slim to none.
I just can't see the original owner marking it with a date. I can see someone putting their name on an item of theirs, but I think that a person back then would have done a better job than scratching it on ,,, maybe he would have stamped it. No mark on the tang, even if homemade , I would have marked it. A grinder has been used on it for sure.
Definitely not authentic to the date marked. Some kind of home-made razor. Someone just scratched the date into the scales.
It seems to me that the geometry is wrong for a razor from that date. Also the inscription is all very shallow. I'd think that it should have uneven wear to it. It appears to have no wear to the inscription.
I believe that I saw a similar one at Mt Vernon. It belonged to George. The scale had been replaced twice and the blade once!
One of the beautiful aspect of brass its the fact that it ages beautifully, all on its own. Like Rez dog mentioned and what i saw is that the inscription is clean without any aging to it (blackening inside the grooves of the writing).
Attachment 143411
On the picture below from a musical brass instrument you can really see the aging on the inscription.
Attachment 143412
Science Guy assumption of a homemade razor sounds good to me, but im affraid somebody will pay dearly for this razor when in reality its only worth its weight in brass........
It seems it pas either peened on the bottom with the knurled jaws of a vise, or was struck by a hammer with a knurled face.
I wonder if those things were around in 1760?