I picked up this Gens/Bartmann franken razor on ebay for a nice price. Anyone know the history of these things? I think I've seen them for sale retail in the past.



The blade is 15/16s, has a gold etching saying bartmann high class. The tang is engraved "solingen germany" on one side of the tang, and there is no inscription on the other side of the tang. And the scales are nice sturdy GENS scales.

Are these formerly ground bartmann blades (though the fact that only the gold etching on the blade itself says bartmann makes me suspicious of that), or are these old blanks ground and gold etched by someone like Herr Wacker and put in nice Gens scales.

Feels great in the hand - can't wait to try it.