This one has been on eBay forever. The Buy It Now is US $425. Does anyone have any info about it? I won't be buying it regardless, but I'm wondering if its authentic.
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This one has been on eBay forever. The Buy It Now is US $425. Does anyone have any info about it? I won't be buying it regardless, but I'm wondering if its authentic.
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I going out on a limb here, and don't know for sure. But I'm going to guess these are 100% reproduction, in a similar vein as the "Ancient Chinese" and "Ancient Roman" straight razors one finds on eBay.Quote:
Originally Posted by puketui41
Or I'm completely wrong and it's a cool archeological find :D.
There is a reason it has been on ebay forever. Would that be because it is a worthless piece of rusty steel?
I doubt it - don't think most of the chinese ones are reproduction, they are very typical of asian shaving blades. I think there's just so many of them and they are sometimes maybe exaggerated as to their age.Quote:
Originally Posted by entropy1049
This one on ebay looks legitimate to me (without much experience in that era admittedly). I imagine it's just high enough of a price to deter most, it would be a very specialized collector piece.
Personally to say its a 1600's razor is one thing, but to say its 1600's razor from Peter the great soldiers, that's a totally different thing. No provenance no sale.
Oh and by the way, i was at a flea market and this guy had a bucket full of these Chinese razors, different size blade look old but not as advertise for sure.
That's what I'm trying to establish.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kees
I have no idea whether this is authentic or not....but a couple of thoughts here, and anyone who has been in the ebay market for razors (or antiques in general) knows this....
First things first, as mentioned above, no provenance, no sale for legit antiques. That aside, I'll go one step further.
Just because it is old, does not mean it has any value whatsoever. In this case, its age potentially is one thing, but given it is a tool, as we can see in this condition, it has lost all of its utility. Assuming it has value in good condition, as we know in the razor market at large....rust is a bad thing....lol. I would be inclined to think if it were authentic and in some form of serviceable condition it could command such a price....but as it sits now....it looks like something for the recycling heap.
Like Martin103 said - can he establish the provenance? That's everything.
Sandycrack
You'd have to be able to find a record of the touch marks somewhere to be sure. Personally I don't care who used it, but if it is indeed that old I'd be interested just from the age aspect.
During the reign of tsar Peter the average Russian soldier was very poor, mostly unshaved and didn't have too long a life span in the seemingly never ending war against the better equipped and far better trained Swedish army. Eventually tsar Peter won the war after in 1721 after 21 years of very brutal and devastating war. It was the end of the Swedish empire and Russia's entry as a mayor European player.
The razors of the soldiers in the Russian army were made it their home villages by the local blacksmith. The razors didn't differ from any other razors and standard army razors were not to be issued for at least 150 years.
In short the corroded piece of junk can be just about anything, but it's definitely NOT a Russian army razor from the reign of tsar Peter.
It's basically just a rusty piece of steel. Whether it is what the seller claims or not would be irrelevant to me because it's lost it's functionality. I don't collect razors to look at, I collect them to use. I might give him $20 for it as a novelty value but that would be it.
After doing some extensive research I ended up getting this one. More to follow, but I'm quite sure it is a shaving razor, and I think it is of south German origin, or a region in the area. [I don't believe the bit on the soldier's razor or whatever - apparently it was owned by a family that fled Russia after the revolution. There's some backstory there but I don't know what it is.] The blade is definitely hollow ground, and the spine tapers with the width just like a modern razor does. There seems to be a lot of good steel left under a layer of iron oxide, so I intend to hone it (leaving the major chips in place).
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Nice, how did you remove the rust?
A long time spent on the hones with about 3 layers of tape at the spine. As for the rest of the blade surface, just steel wool and polish (any shininess there is coming mostly from the polished oxide coating rather than actual steel).Quote:
Originally Posted by Euclid440
Here is a small compilation of some 16-17th century depictions and surviving items. At least in the 16th century, Walther Ryff writes that depicted razors could be used either for removing hair, or for surgical cutting, so it seems that they may have been double duty.
Attachment 247684
In comparison to one of the Kunstschrank razors from Augsburg region in the early 1600s, the resemblance is pretty striking:
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