Thread: Dating Wostenholm Sheffield Razor

I've seen tons of threads asking if anyone can pinpoint a date for a particular razor, but I've been through all of them and I haven't gotten any answers, so I figured I would put it to the council.



I picked up this razor in an Alabama pawn shop ten years ago for $8. Cleaned it up, took off all the rust I could, sharpened it, and honed it. I've never bought a razor since.

No one has ever been able to get me a good estimate on the age of this particular razor, though. It has the barber's notch at the tip, as shown, and it has a very artistic etching on the face that says "BEGIN THE DAY WELL". The stamp on the tang says "G WOSTENHOLM&SON" with "I*XL SHEFFIELD ENG" beneath. There are no markings anywhere else.

I know that the Wostenholm company changed their branding over the years and so you can often determine the age of a razor based on whether it says "G" or "GEO" or "GEORGE" or whether it says "Washington Works" or some other factory. However, I haven't been able to get any idea what this combination of stamps/markings signifies. I've read in some places that this type of etching was most popular in the 1860s but I've also seen razors dated later with etchings. I've seen people say anything with "ENG" has to be after the Tariff Act in 1891 but I've seen others say that Wostenholm stamped their razors with "SHEFFIELD ENG" even before the Act for branding purposes.

Does anyone have any clues or ideas about how old this razor might be?

If it has England on it I would put it after 1890 to early 1900's.

Welcome to SRP. It might help to see the whole razor.