Thread: Great Grandads razor

Originally Posted by Voicelord

Thank you all who have chimed in so far. Bindley Hardware co. Was a manufacturer in Pittsburgh, about 20 miles from where my Great Grandfather lived. So from what has been said so far, the blade was made in Germany and then sent out, where the scales were then put on and resoled locally?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bind...mpany_Building

There you have it! Bindley ordered razors from Altoff with his name upon them to sell.
Altoff had them sent in from Germany.

Seems your Grandad lined-up to buy one.

Pretty cool!

There is one option that hasn't been mentioned yet. The box may not go with the razor.

It is a nice heirloom to have. Get it professionally cleaned up.

Originally Posted by criswilson10

There is one option that hasn't been mentioned yet. The box may not go with the razor.

It is a nice heirloom to have. Get it professionally cleaned up.

AHA! Good work. I did not read that......Went and looked. The right-half box is from a Geneva Cutlery razor. The left-half is from yet another razor! Neither go with this blade, I think.

Might be likely that the German maker delivered directly to Bindley and will be impossible to identify.

Typical German made hardware store razor!

So cool to have your great granfather's razor!

The box! Ahhhh yes. I emailed Alex at Strazors.com and he confirmed that the box is not native. I suppose I should've guessed that. So I can take it that a 'typical German made hardware store razor.' ,is it good to great razor from what I'm hearing. Based on his life my dad is fairly sure that the razor was bought around the time of the beginning of the first world war circa 1915! Instead of professional restoration I plan on reading the forums but also purchasing a double-sided Whetstone and 'eraser' just to get some of the slightly more nefarious spots off of it.

It looks ok in your pictures, and I would not do much with it if it were mine. You will be amazed as to how nicely you can clean a razor with WD-40 and 0000 steel wool and some elbow grease. It is also a non aggressive method that will not damage your priceless heirloom.