Thread: Unknown Razor Made in Korea, not the usual DPRK Razor, Please help to Identify!

Got this more or less unknown korean Razor today and im wondering if its south or north korean and when it was build?
The Marking "Made in Korea" makes me wonder from wich of both Koreas it comes as i know only the "Made in DPRK" Razors as made in North Korea, could it be possible that this Razor was build after WW2 but before the Korean War?
The Size is about 6/8" with ~1/2 hollow grind, the Scales are Ebonite and the TM with the Cat is not identical with the Made in DPRK Razors, it has some othe symbols at the left side. I added an drawing if anyone is avaible to read korean Writings.

It's a cat brand razor made in the kil - ju February 26th factory area of North korea. I have no idea why the date is part of the name. It's in the northeastern area of North korea. I couldn't give a date but I saw one once and really wanted it but the seller asked too much and I had too little. They are apparently good shavers and famous in North korea for having outstanding blades. No in comparison with other blades I don't know how they would stack up having never used one.

Let us know how it shaves and if you ever want to part with it I would be very interested.

I believe the writing says kilju cat

Thank you, that helps a lot!! :-)
Kilju is a County in North Eastern North Korea, maybe the Place where the Factory is located?

I got an Info in the german Gut-Rasiert.de Forum for the right side of the Cat TM, it seems as it means "For Daily Use"
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Thats right. When I first was looking for some info on the one I was trying to buy, I read a post on another forum about an American Intel officer that got one during a wonderful stay at a North Korean prison camp. He ended up on the wrong side of the Berlin wall and after a couple of turn overs he ended up in North Korea. They gave him one to shave with. I think they were hoping he would shave his jugular with it but after he was released he kept the razor.

Thank you for this interesting story, a sad story in my opinion as it tells about really hard times, good that he survived.

Sharpened the Razor a few Minutes ago, it was easier to sharpen than the othe DPRK Razors, the Steel seems not so hard and
it took only 1/2 Hour to get a good HT Sharpness, im sure it will be not the Best Looking but a good Shaver, i will post a lil Review after my first Shave with it.

Very cool razor from the wrong side of the tracks. LOL.

I know, writing a review after only one shave is allways a bit risky, cause some inner merits can still be hidden in the Razor.
But after the first shave yesterday i think there are some things i can say about this more or less rare north korean Razor (especially in comparison to the more usual type of the Kil-Ju Razors).

The Razor was very good and easy to sharpen, my Naniwa SuperStone 800 (my Bevel Setter) had no Problems, also the Bevel was more or less straight and small, no comparison to Razors like the GD66. IMO the Steel of the shown Razor is a bit softer than the Steel of the other North Korean Razors with the fancy Scales, but the Result after sharpening (Naniwa SuSt 800, Coticule, Vintage hard grey-green Thuringian, Pierre Lorraine Rouge, Denim, fatty Leather, Juchten Leather) was nearly the same like with the other DPRK Razor, a very sharp edge with no Problems in doing a fine HHT.

Shaving started good with a quit and light scratchy noise cutting the 2-Day Beard without any problems and very close to the Skin. So i had no problems with the Performance of the Blade, it was a shave close to a BBS but with one major difference to the more fancy looking DPRK Razors. The plump form of the Razor makes it a bit uncomfortable to handle, the Scales of soft Ebonite doesnt balance the Blade well and the Pinning near to end of the Scales admits not very much room for the fingers to use the Scales for stabilizing the move of the Blade (Hard to describe for a non-native english speaker, please ask if it causes some missunderstandings).
The long Tang in Combination with the long tail make the more fancier DPRK Razors aesier to handle IMO, the old one that is shown in this thread is more difficult and possibly made for smaller hands than mine, its a good shaver but i dont know if we become really friends.

Here is my D.P.R.K razor...Does not have a kitty but a different symbol,looks to be a bowl with flames,next to 164,opposite side has MADE IN D.P.R.K. Its a very good shaver and the edge is uniform,it centers perfectly in the rubber (plastic?) scales.