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Help dating my first Royal Keen Kutter
Hello there ... first post :) I recently began trying to become knowledgable about collectible things a person would see at estate sales (to either collect them or resell them, etc), and I got my first straight razor the other day. It looked old, interesting, and a good starting point.
I was told it had a genuine ebony handle. It's stamped (see pic) "The Celebrated Royal Keen Kutter Razor" on the blade, and the "tang" is stamped "Germany 419 W" on one side, "Simmons HDW Co. INC. ST LOUIS , MO" on the other.
Trying to date it hasn't been as easy as I thought. I think it's pre 1940, before Shapleigh ? And since it doesn't have the wedge logo, I think it's pre 1904 (based on Heuring's info). EC Simmons changed to Simmons Hardware in 1874 ... thus I would date it between 1874 and 1904.
If all of this info is correct, is my dating a decent dating ? Or can anyone help ? I'm going to try and resell this first one, and want to be able to nail it down better. I took it to my local barber, and he thinks it's real ebony as well.
Any help is greatly appreciated :) And I'm not sure how fast threads get responded to here ... but if I begin selling it on ebay or some such, and it's a conflict to post about it, I totally understand, no worries. I still need to learn about them however, so thanks to anyone who can help :)