Thread: A tiny history question.

First, I am a history teacher, so this question has been bothering me a bit. Secondly, I love World War One and straight razors, so this has been bothering me even more.
I see so many razors that are on auction as "World War One Army razor", but I dont know that any country involved in the conflict ever issued razors to the soldiers. I could be very wrong. Is there an actual governmental issue razor for the armed forces of any of the combatant nations? I am 100% sure that you guys know the answer.

And are the Torrey blades with the US and arrow military issued exclusively?

Check Strazors.com
They have info on qutie a few razors

Very familiar with Strazors, but with all of the blades marked "Army" and "Navy", there is no way that they are all military issue. Kind of like saying a Wade and Butcher "Washington" razor was made for George Washington.

The only info I have is some are clearly marked. There have been several manufactures that had Army and Navy models and USMC. For WW1 the UK gathered razor, from donations and hot stamped them with letters and number. I’m at work until the 24th so I cannot show an example of those but I bet there are others that can.

My grandfather had a "shave kit" which was originally issued to him
by the U.S. Army in WW1. It contained a DE razor, not a straight.

As I recall, it looked something like this:
Great War Militaria

Yeah Gillette got a DE contract to supply them, I think.

I thought it was common knowledge DEs were issued by the U.S military during WWl.

We know the DE's,but I am asking about the others. Trying to get a definitive answer from the experts. You know the web is full of bad info.

There was a newspaper appeal here in the UK around 1915 for any spare or old razors (straights) and they would be sent to the Sheffield Cutlery firms for refurbishing. Then sent out to the troops. The razors were usually fitted with Blonde Horn scales many with a small very feint W^D on the middle of one scale. The Soldiers number was also often branded on the scale. Thousands of razors were collected.
I've been looking for a link to back this up (a photo of a letter is around somewhere on the net).
Before 1916 a Soldier was required to grow a mustache, this rule was relaxed in 1916 and clean shaven was the norm, probably to allow a better fit of the gas masks.
One of the razors in my collection with the W^D mark on the scale, the razor made by John C Cockhill, Sheffield.