Wosty Frameback anomaly, need opinions
I am fairly new to the straight razor world, I still haven't used one yet (soon...soon), but I have already developed RAD. Since I cannot compare shaves yet my two favorite razors are chosen purely by looks. They are my ERN Craftsman and my Wostenholm & Son Frameback (the IXL improved swiss) that is the topic of this thread (not truly a frameback I suppose, but it has that look). Upon receipt and inspection I have some concerns about the originality and integrity of this Wosty that I purchased on the Bay. I have searched for hours for a picture of another razor like mine to put my mind at ease but to no avail, so I am posting my concerns to the experts here.
The grind of this razor seems odd and does not seem to match the other Wosty Framebacks I have seen (pictures of). It looks as though the blade was a piece of one thickness that was ground thinner from the bottom to halfway up the blade. The grinding seems fairly straight and quite symetrical from one side of the blade to the other, but again I have not seen this on any other Wosty Frameback. Also, every other Wosty Frameback I have seen has engraving or etching either on the blade itself or on the spine or both, mine has none. The box the razor came in reads "GEORGE WOSTENHOLM AND SON DOUBLY CARBONIZED IXL RAZOR REGISTERED 10TH SEPTEMBER 1850". I have seen other razors with the Doubly Carbonized bit engraved on them which again worries me since my Wosty does not have any engraving to this effect. My biggest concern is that somewhere along the lines somebody "reground" this razor and perhaps compromised the temper. If this razor was reground it was probably done some time ago since there is a bit of tarnish on the suspect area. This razor cuts arm hair better than any of my other razors (still far from shave ready, even to this newb) so I suspect that if it was reground it was also re-honed and possibly shaven with after the fact. Enough of my ramblings, here are some pics:
http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/...nk84/Wost1.jpg
http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/...nk84/Wost2.jpg
http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/...nk84/Wost3.jpg
http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/...nk84/Wost4.jpg
http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/...nk84/Wost5.jpg
http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/...nk84/Wost6.jpg
So there they are. Hopefully somebody has seen one like this before so my mind can be put to ease, but if it looks like there is something terribly wrong please let me know. I would love to be able to make this thing shave ready and use it once I develop some honing skill but if it has been bastardized it might turn into something to practice on. Also are these horn scales? They seem to have some sort of grain but they don't seem like any wood I have ever encountered before. One side is shot but the other is fairly decent.