Thread: Mystery Razor: Looking for an identity

Hi All,

I found this recently. I liked the blade shape and it was inexpensive due to a chip in the blade. I figured that I could use it to work on my restoration/honing technique, so bought it.

However, it either has no manufacturer stamp due to being rubbed/polished/honed off, or there never was one. I'm leaning toward the latter as it doesn't seem to have a huge amount of hone wear, but maybe it was just covered up well. It is an 11/16 blade and is hollow-ground (maybe 1/2 hollow?).

The two attached photos attached show the shape of the blade and you can see the jimps on the top. You can see the scales too, but I don't have any idea whether they are original.

Any help identifying it would be great. I'm sorry for the poor quality photos but don't have anything but a cell phone to use. I'll try to take a couple of others if they would be helpful.

Best,

Alan

That is a reasonably common blade and tang shape. Unfortunately this doesn't help you identify the maker, but fortunately (since you like it) it's a shape you can acquire more and varied examples of from ebay. It's one of my favorites as well, which is why I have several varied examples myself :-)

I see. Well, is this particular blade/tang style more prominent in a certain era? Are we talking 1900's? And if so, which decades? Also, is it possible to narrow it down to a particular country?

Best,

Alan

That exact combination of blade and tang shapes would indicate late 1800's. But there were other similar shapes made through the mid 1900's. It depends on which specific features you're talking about on the razor, whether it's all of them or just one thing in particular that grabs you. That particular razor has a round tip, sway back, simplex grind without reinforcing shoulder ribs, a thumb notch, a second deep notch in front of the thumbnotch, and a medium length tail. All of these were fairly common around 1885-1900. Before that the round tip wasn't terribly common, and tails tended to be a bit shorter. After that the swayback shape and the shoulderless simplex grind gradually went out of style in favor of the straight back and double-hollow grind with double ribs on the shoulder. Vintage brands to look for with the styling of your razor include Torrey, Henry Sears, and Waterville (USA) as well as Engstrom, Tornblum, and Heljestrand (Sweden), and if you're also fond of the scales then those are more common on the American manufactures. But various elements of this razor's style are still in production. Check out the Dovo Bismark at Classic Shaving, it has a round tip, shoulderless grind, and thumb notch, but not the extra notch in between nor the sway back. Or the Hart razor, also at Classic, which does have the swayback and shoulderless grind, but not the thumbnotch.

I had a carved bone scaled clauss with some of these elements, but it's definitely different razor. Here are pictures of the razor and the grind