Thread: A few questions about razors

First and foremost, references like Uniclectica and Goins are sadly very, very badly out of date and filled with inaccuracies, and the tail-style chart is also a poor indicator. In practice, there were not a clean progression of styles.

The topic of razor manufacturers in the 19th century is vast, so generalized resources like those are at best pointing in a general direction.

Joseph Elliot is an especially tricky one to pin down.

Henry Lummus was basing his dates on extant directory listings, but in fact the company had been producing cutlery for two decades before their first listing. In fact the C(Maltese cross)C trademark was granted in 1805.

Stylistically, things are challenging because Joseph Elliot's wares were not made in a single factory, but at workbenches and wheels scattered through the facilities of several other manufacturers. On top of that, any given razor was only made for the name on the stamp, not necessarily by their workmen.

All that said, some of the stylistic elements of your razor point to a general timeframe of 1860's to 1890's: The filecut pseudo-jimps along the top of the tang, the machine-made stamp rather than hand-struck mark.

In other manufacturers, a phrase like 'Best Silver Steel' could be useful, as that was a fad that died out around the general time of the Bessemer steel process, but the Elliots apparently loved it and never stopped.

I wish I could give you a better, more objective measure of the date.

The scales are plausibly original.

As for the other razor -- that's an entirely new one on me! I assume it has no marks on the reverse side of the tang?