Thread: Simmons Hardware Razor

I picked up a Simmons Hardware razor. On the blade it is engraved Hamburg Ground. It is marked Simmons Hardware Co. Germany. There is a image of a stag that looks like it is painted on the handle. A little spot rust and very sharp blade. Do you think it is worth keeping and turning it into a usable razor? I haven't seen a Simmons with "Hamburg Ground" on it.

Originally Posted by techalum

I picked up a Simmons Hardware razor. On the blade it is engraved Hamburg Ground. It is marked Simmons Hardware Co. Germany. There is a image of a stag that looks like it is painted on the handle. A little spot rust and very sharp blade. Do you think it is worth keeping and turning it into a usable razor? I haven't seen a Simmons with "Hamburg Ground" on it.

The edge looks pretty rough from these photos. It appears you're going to have to remove a lot of it to get at good metal, and by the time you do, you may not have much razor left.

There's a lot of deep pitting going on at the toe and the heel. The fact that portions of the edge are actually disappearing from corrosion in these two areas generally indicate there's not a lot of metal left to work with.

How much working blade width you have left will be determined by how far up the razor you have to take the edge to get to good metal in these two areas. It looks like that could well be about up to the bottom of the lettering. Hopefully long before this happens you'd abandon the project as a lost cause as you'll be left with like a 2/8's straight with shot geometry that may not even take a shaving edge anyway.

Heck, give it a shot, and see how it goes. Just don't get lured into the rabbit hole unless you're doing it as an learning exercise .


As far as the engraving goes, a lot of these old hardware store straights were made by the big manufacturers (Boker, Puma, Dorko, etc.) and sold without branding, offering smaller retailers a chance to place their own branding and purchase bulk lots at significantly discounted prices as they were not "Brand Name" razors (though they were indeed made by "Brand Name" manufacturers).

So not terribly surprising yours has the Hamburg Ground engraving.