Thread: Historical razor examples and depictions

As some of you might know I have been doing a fair amount of research of late on 16th century barber-surgeons. While much of the information I can find is medical related and not so much on the barber side I have found some woodcuts and such that depict razors in various uses. I figured there were probably others out there who might find this interesting so here they are.

Southwest German, c. 1450
paper, woodcut, watercolor and gouache, silver leaf and gold leaf editions


approximately 1568. You can see a razor on the back shelf under the scissors and spoon. It is obviously not to scale. Possibly the strap above it is a strop of some sort


The second image below has the razor sitting on what might be a paddle strop of sorts too.