Thread: Please Help me I.D. This Razor

I don't know if the "E" is backwards. The left side of the letter could just be lost in the cross hatching.

Originally Posted by Monty

I don't know if the "E" is backwards. The left side of the letter could just be lost in the cross hatching.

In the second picture, the "RN" are viewed as upside down. The "E" is the right most letter and is backwards/facing incorrectly to the upside down "RN".

Chris L

Chris, you're right. How interesting!

I agree, it's interesting. I would guess the cross hatching was done at the factory. It seems too coincidental that a defectively stamped razor would be sold by ERN and then some buyer of the razor would take the time to add the cross hatching. So, what I find interesting is whether that cross hatching was filed manually hatch line by hatch line or was is a single die/stamp? If it was done by hand with a file, why in the name of anything would a company waste even a relatively small amount of time to cross hatch a production razor? I find that curious.

Chris L

i just wanna know what year the razor was made in or around what year it was my grandfathers, and my mother passed it to me when i asked a few weeks back if my father had any straights laying around...she said she has more but has to look for them! i hope i hope she has more! also i've been looking on some web pages and there is not much info that i can find on this company...where would you recommend looking for the info?? thanks for all the input about this razor that means so much to me!

There is some interesting information about the history of the company here
ERN Solingen Navy Knife - British Blades :: Custom Knife Making
-- but who knows how reliable it is? It sounds like the C.F. Ern company was founded in 1873 and also that the eagle and snake was one of its earliest trademarks. If you haven't done so already, take a look at the SRP Wiki entry on C.F. Ern. The trademarks are pictured there along with a link to a German website that unfortunatley does not translate very well with the Google translation tool.

I really don't think the razor is a factory reject. I think the "E" in Ern is properly oriented to the other letters. If you look at the picture, you see right-angles in the upper right and lower right corners of the lettering as we are facing it. There would only be right angles there if that were the leading edge of the E. The cross hatch marks would not form right angles with the stamped E. The middle bar of the E does look short, but I think that's because one of the cross-hatch marks is cut deeper than the stamp. I think the cross-hatching was added post manufacture.

thanks, i shaved with it the other day and the shave was great, (Icedog) really led me in the right direction learning to sharpen, polish, and shave for that fact, it was a real pleasure to finally use the razor, and i think your right i looked at the stamp again and the E is the right way, not backwards! i did right before your post find in the archives about the company and tryed to look at the germany web page it seemed to much like work at this hour to go futher,,,in the archives the logs and stamps used are not any that are on the razor i have unless there where more...it looks like a very early eagle before someones art got better..but who am i to know such things! also the serpent or snake is a single line, instead of a body of a snake if that makes any sense! thanks again! i wish there where an archive with all makes and models for us to see..it would be kuhl to know what it was already!