A friend took note of my interest in str8 blades, and gave me what he thought was a strange antique razor - not like any form of razor I'd seen. He described it's discovery by his Grandfather (or greatgrandfather), from opening a military duffle bag that contained old, tarnished rifle cartridges in 45-70 cal., adopted by the military in 1884. He said it was from the Phillippine war. 'Looking up the dates of the cartridge adoption and the dates of the Phillippine war, the dates support the origin from the conflict, but another collector guide indicates: " p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } These two old razors, pictured fully opened, are probably of Chinese origin in the 1700s, per-haps earlier. There is no brand or stamping evident.
The photos are from the collector guide. The razor given me appears identical to the upper right of the two. The dark shading immediately below the spine shows the how the spine flares very wide - about 1/4" at the toe end, tapering to blade width at the heel by the hinge. 'Very crude looking. 'Hard to imagine trying to shave w/ one of these.
