Thread: I know what it looks like, but I am not sure.

We know the logo, but I dont know if this was really a thing. The razor is on craigslist out of Baltimore Md. Its not mine, and its in bad shape anyway. So is it a WW2 thing or no? I have seen other logos, but never a Totenkopf division. Lots of fake nazi stuff out there.

I have seen a number of these in various permutations pass through auction sites. My best guess is that they are modern (even back to the late 20th c) fakes meant to appeal to the nazi / knife collectors.

I don't know! But I will say that after looking at a few thousand pics of razors, I've not seen any vintage with a skull on it. The skull is a new kind of marking. Not something that was done years ago. If you ran across a skull marking in the early 1900's or 1800's, it was to tell you something important. Not as an eye catcher of coolness. Now I could be wrong on this, but its what comes to mind.

I think that's pretty undoubtedly an SS totenkopf. Here's an example of what I was talking about, these show up with some regularity: https://www.proxibid.com/aspr/German...ne%3D#topoflot

It's pretty obviously an old beater blade that was buffed, had the maker's mark ground off, then was re-etched and had kind of crappy scales made with an inlay.

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

I think that's pretty undoubtedly an SS totenkopf. Here's an example of what I was talking about, these show up with some regularity: https://www.proxibid.com/aspr/German...ne%3D#topoflot

It's pretty obviously an old beater blade that was buffed, had the maker's mark ground off, then was re-etched and had kind of crappy scales made with an inlay.

I'll preface this by saying that I know *nothing* about such razors, but...

Why would the eagle insignia be oriented that way on the scales? Would it not make more sense to have it inverted to that is is pointed the right way when the razor is closed?

As I said, I know nothing. Just struck me as odd.

IMHO: real vintage German razor, faked up nazi connection. These things are probably relatively easy to sell for inflated prices to their target market.

The insignia is pretty trivially easy to copy in pewter or pot metal, then you just heat it up a little bit and press it into the vulcanized rubber scales. Most of the ones I've seen have obvious scorch marks around the inlay (for whichever division of nazis its supposedly made for, I've seen maybe as many as three different ones).

If you could see the tang stamp clearly, most of the time the razors that were used to make these fakes were produced around the turn of the century. Every now and then I see one that's at least a plausible manufacturer and time.

I would need to see primary source documentary evidence of specs and orders placed to believe there were any razors remotely like this even made.