Thread: Early Razors and Dating them.....or not

Originally Posted by AntiqueHoosier

The Ghost of Judge Lummus called....he wants his collection back!

Of the razors pictured, only the Hives belonged to him!

(I think I only have two others)

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

Of the razors pictured, only the Hives belonged to him!

(I think I only have two others)

I've owned a fair amount of (presumed to be based on the markings) Lummus collection razors, and shamefully maybe only one or two still around in boxes somewhere, unseen for years now.

Well that was easy, first razor I pulled out the closest box haha! This one doesnt belong here however, Steer & Webster brass frameback. Back in the box with ya!

Originally Posted by silverloaf

Well that was easy, first razor I pulled out the closest box haha! This one doesnt belong here however, Steer & Webster brass frameback. Back in the box with ya!

Cool! Never seen one from the manufacturer, and I really like that style frameback.

The ones I've got, the dots were painted different colors. I keep intending to get in touch with Doyle to see if he has any idea what the system was.

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

Cool! Never seen one from the manufacturer, and I really like that style frameback.

The ones I've got, the dots were painted different colors. I keep intending to get in touch with Doyle to see if he has any idea what the system was.

All mine were painted red, this is the only one unpainted that I've owned

And of course you had to show the Hives! I was actually planning to do a post this week highlighting these by themselves but I'll go ahead and show em here, they belong! Top Hives I've had longer than any other razor in my possession I believe, one of my all time favorites and got me started in my search for more Hives Razors. To date the only other Hives I've been fortunate enough to acquire is the one on the bottom which I picked up in 2016.

Originally Posted by silverloaf

And of course you had to show the Hives! I was actually planning to do a post this week highlighting these by themselves but I'll go ahead and show em here, they belong! Top Hives I've had longer than any other razor in my possession I believe, one of my all time favorites and got me started in my search for more Hives Razors. To date the only other Hives I've been fortunate enough to acquire is the one on the bottom which I picked up in 2016.

Very cool!

The top one is more or less the same grind as the Wade I was comparing to Elliots, and the bottom one is a slightly larger version of the William Teal.

Another really curious thing that ScienceGuy noticed about these -- when they have wedges, the older ones tend to have three holes in a cloverleaf pattern around the central hole the pin goes through. They're much bigger holes, and always smaller on one side than the other. I have to assume because they all used a similar mold for the pewter. There's zero explanation anywhere I've looked -- not that there's much in the way of actual method and technique to be found for earlier razors to begin with.

This one belongs here..... My favorite Wostenholm of all time. These scales are just magnificent! So simple but the shaping done by the hurried craftsman belie a greater sense of aesthetic than these crude scales would seem to reveal at first glance. Absolutely love this razor and it holds the distinction for me of being the only raor that makes me feel this way because of the scales more so than the blade.

Very interesting post Zak, just goes to show you how difficult it can be to date these old razors, without provenance lot of guessing.

Originally Posted by Martin103

Very interesting post Zak, just goes to show you how difficult it can be to date these old razors, without provenance lot of guessing.

The only thing we can really do is to keep testing our guesses! Poke'em with sharp sticks at every opportunity!

So much of this stuff requires guessing!

If it weren't for all the archives of old newspapers, I don't know what we'd do. Finding dates for ambiguous search terms would take days with microfilm.