Thread: SRP Help needed to Identify Awesome find!

Hi All,

So i took my little sisters shopping on the weekend at a local place we have called the Mill Market. Basically a massive flea market or thrift store i guess you would call it. The difference is people have stalls and aren't there. You pick stuff, it has a number attached to it and pay at the counter.

Anyway, i knew there must be 1 or 2 straight razors in this place, there's literally hundreds of stalls.

My god did i find a jackpot though. Here's the 6 that i bought, there was more but i decided to leave them for another day! Oh yeah $110 Aussie dollars for the lot, pretty good i think.



It's a bit of a Bengall fest! We have from the right 5 Bengall's A BIG OL 8/8, maybe closer to 7/8 now at the heel end. Then two 6/8, a 5/8 with maybe ivory handle (i'm not sure how to tell) and a little a little 4/8.

The last razor however i have no idea about. It had shocking rust and what looked to be layers of muck on it but i loved the shape! Here it is:



Im not sure why they have posted upside down but you get the point i think. Very nice shape, i think once a 6/8 but now closer to 5/8, curved spine, what i think is referred to as either a French or Irish profile? One stabilizer on either side and the most notable feature i think is the fact that both sides of the spine are beveled about 30mm back from the point. Going to be interesting to hone! Oh and its about as near a wedge as a near wedge could be. The tiniest deviation in.

As you can see the damage is pretty bad but i really liked the shape and so i bought it. I thought it must have been a single make or maybe just an old back yard job as i couldn't see any signs of stamping or branding. That's not saying much however as it was in such bad shape!

So tonight i gave it a VERY quick clean up with a little rough sandpaper and then some buffing with the dremel and AutoSol. Then i of course see the very fine imprints of a stamp, so maybe this could be a good quality blade just left to slowly die in a flea market in Geelong Australia?

Here it is, i can only make out a couple of definite letters and numbers but i have drawn out what i think it says:



I know the first two pics are useless, i'm working with an Iphone here so forgive me. The first shows the shape of the writing. Curved top row, straight middle, then the bottom i think is 4 numbers i cant see any more. I assume the middle number is 1 but i just cant tell.

Anyway that's about as far as i have gotten. Any help you guys could give me would be awesome!

And because i know you want them here's some close ups of the others i found.

Great find sir i wish i had luck like that but everyone one around here is on the hunt for those beauties

I have seen spine cutouts like that before,


http://straightrazorpalace.com/custo...n-micarta.html


and here are some tricks on honing them

http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...ne-cutout.html

Any clue as to why the spine is cut out??

Cheers Everyone!

@gssixgun Thanks for the notes on Honing. When i get to this point i will show you more. I'm pretty sure i have found what the Razor is, a Joseph Smith and Sons Celebrates Razor 3415. They were apparently in business from 1830 to 1860, meaning this razor is around 150 years old! Heres a pic of a restord version in better shape but you can see how the markings match.