Thread: Weird razor-like thingy, anyone know what it is?

Yesterday, one good man asked me about this subject.
I couldn't answer for sure.
I've never seen such razors in any sources.
But I've found something similar (for me). Razors in 10 century:

How about a barbers blood letting tool.

I thought it my be a tool for some religious ceremony like a Bris. Further research revealed that the knife used in that ceremony looks more like a letter opener or an oyster knife.

I suppose it could be used for animal sacrifices or some other bizarre hoodoo kinda thing.

It seems to bear a very close resemblance to the shape of a skinning knife. Whatever its intended use, it certainly has quite the smile......

See, this just shows you how out of touch we are with our past. Here's a tool that is really not that old and we don't know what it's for. Now imagine finding a tools thousands of years old and trying to figure out it's intended purpose.

Perhaps a tool a moil would use

There is a similar item here.

Not quite the same as it does not have that bulbous bit at the end, and it looks like the blade could take more rough work as the tail part also appears to act like a stabiliser, assuming it goes between the scales.

The fact that the OPs pic shows that the blade only pivots tends to go against any use as a hand-held knife - the rivet bit looks a bit flimsy (the scales might be very meaty, though).

I have also discounted the fleam idea - a fleam is sharpened around the bulbous part and is hit with a small mallet on the straight part of the blade - this design would leave the sharpened fleam part unprotected.

There are crescent shaped knives used by leatherworkers to cut and shave leather that look a little bit the same, but the handle for this one would be in the wrong place.

A mystery!

Regards,
Neil

My money says its a knife, i would love to use that as a gutting knife for deer or hogs when we butcher, but even if you dont use it it would be cool just to have on display,probly a good bit of history with that old bugger.

To me it looks like some kind of farrier's tool, but the brass handles knock that out since farrier's tools tend to wooden handles.

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

It looks a bit like one of those things they use on animals - a fleam?

I don't think the blade is quite the right design for a fleam. Uncomfortably, I think barber-surgeons used fleams on human animals.
Maybe someone just made it as a one-off , to do a particular job, long since forgotten.