Antique blade?

My girlfriend works at an antique store and she saw a straight razor blade. So she brought it home for me. It doesn't have a handle, and I'm thinking it might be in the wrong box.

The box says on it: "Shapleigh Hdw. Co. St Louis USA" "No 4. Diamond Edge"

The blade says "Our very best" "OVB" on one side, and on the other "Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co." "Made in Germany" "1674"

Just curious if anyone knows anything about this razor and what the handle might have been, or if the box is the correct one or not?

The blade doesn't have any rust on it and seems fairly sharp.

I asked my girlfriend to ask the dealer if it was the original box and if he still had the handle or if he had any other razors, but she won't get back into the shop until next weekend so I figured I'd ask here.

Shapleigh's are good. Send it out to one of the restorers around here to get new scales put on.

Heres a picture:
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/6746/razorzl6.jpg

HIBBARD, SPENCER, BARTLETT & CO
Chicago, Illinois
Trademarks used include: "OVB", "Our Very Best", "HibSpeBar", and "ReyONoc"
Now known as True Value Hardware
ca. 1855 - 1960

This info came from here http://www.uniclectica.com/misc/manuf.html

I would guess that the box and razor do not go
together. As far as the scales go it's hard to tell
but probably celluoid.

The razor was probably made under contract by
this German company. The 1674 date may have
been when this company started out in the
cutlery business.


Terry

Those are good razors. The last one I honed (and it looked the same as this one) was HARD! It took forever to get a decent edge on it. I had wrecked the edge while restoring it, and it took several hours to get it back. No lie.

(removed =))

I've decided it's going to be too much for me to restore and get new scales for this. The dealer at the shop will sell the blade to me for $12. If anyone is interested in it I could ship it to you. Just let me know before Sunday.