What is this mark?

[Mauri]

Hallo gents!
Sorry for being away so long... you know, the things that happen in life...
A friend of mine just found this old blade... I am sure I have already seen this symbol, but I just don't remember where or when... can somebody help?
Thanks a lot!

[bouschie]

Looks like a spur.

[Hirlau]

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,gotta be some Texan in you bouschie

[bouschie]

Born and raised in New York City! But I was country when country wasn't cool! Wore cowboy hat and western boots in highschool.

[rhensley]

Born and raised in New York City! But I was country when country wasn't cool! Wore cowboy hat and western boots in highschool.

Now just how country are you. Where do you get your SALSA. Now if you want to talk about country well I was born at home next to the Forked Deer river and was the last baby ole Doc. Crafton delivered at home. I'm so country My mother had to tie cole oil rags around my ankles to keep the cut worms from getting me.(that's a worm that feeds on tomato plants for those that don't know. they will wrap around the bottom of the plant and eat until the plant falls). I remember laying in the floor and listening to the radio . there wasn't 3 TV's in a 10 radius from my home . I wish I could go back to those days. We had real fun.

[Iceni]

Absolute spam but I just had to scratch an itch.

[Geezer]

I have read that after the Priestley research of the elements, the symbols were used as advertising of some fancy element alloyed into the steel.
And I have seen some similar symbols as trademarks.
So...nice old blade!!
~Richard

[Voidmonster]

A lot of razors in this shape have been turning up lately.

The mark is pretty typical of very early (for razors!) cutler's marks.

Some examples from Sheffield in the 16th century:



I've been digging really hard into research on these, but so far I haven't turned up much. I've found a pair of razors with blades in that style (odd spike-tang, hatchet-like blade, cutler's mark in the middle-top). They were made for a duke of Pomerania in the early 17th century.



It's not a perfect match, but it is close enough that I suspect all of these razors were made in Northeastern Germany in the 16th-17th century. However, I'm still digging!

[WW243]

Kershaw knives - Classic Pocketknives
For generations, the Consigli family has been leveraging its passion and expertise to produce high-quality traditional Tuscan pocketknives and cutlery, using the same forging techniques that the master knifemakers of Scarperia have been refining since the 14th century.

[Neil Miller]

An odd looking thing to be sure - wish there was a size reference as it doesn't even look much like a razor.

I have gone through the 1787 Sheffield Directory, but although there are a lot of marks like Zak posted, there isn't really anything like this one.

I have seen that mark before, though - almost sure of it. Smaller, and on a razor tang. It is most likely a symbol for a spur with a spiked roundel as noted above, and there are a lot of marks like it on early french razors, say late 1700s to early 1800s. If it was french the tang-like spike/tail seems a bit odd, as the razors from that time usually have no tail, but if it was a knife or some other form of edged implement that might explain it.

Maybe Martin would know better - he is pretty clued-up on these old continental marks.

Regards,
Neil