Thread: Makers Mark Identification HELP !!!!

A little help on this one guys Please...

I haven't seen this one before,,,

The stamp is pretty clear and deep V. R. with a small Crown / Silver Steel / Warranted

From the design of the tail and blade I would guess 1870 and newer has a "barber's notch"

The blade was very lightly frosted with the words Old English Razor and Silver Steel

http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...overeigns.html

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Originally Posted by clavichord

Investigating around my razors, I gathered some infos regarding british hallmarks, traditionally used by silversmiths. I realised that some hallmarks were also used by straight razors manufacturers:

Crown [City mark] = Sheffield (from 1733 to present)
Anchor [city mark] = Birmingham (from 1733 to present)

One more find (not strictly connected with silver hallmarks):

WR [sovereign's Duty Mark] = William IV (1820-1837)
VR [sovereign's Duty Mark] = Victoria (1837-1901)

Some examples (Wade&Butcher's in my gallery):

Pic.A (razor #11): [crown] + WR; very precise dating! The ebay seller of this razor published a pic in SRP some days before the auction asking info about the dating. Members agreed that it should be quite old (..the rust on the blade was supporting this opinion..).

Pic.B (razors #55-57): [crown] + V R;

Pic.C (razor #25): [anchor]; the anchor is sometimes used by Wade&Butcher but I don't know if this implies a relationship with the city of Birmingham; I couldn't find infos at this regard. "Sheffield" is absent in the mark on the tang, but this is quite common between W&B razors (very frequent among W&B "barber's use" blades). It happens that the anchor is also part of the emblem of Solingen.. eheh!

EDIT: Join "Those damned collectors" social group!

Looks a lot like the stamp on Frederick Reynolds razors to me... hard to say, though. Send it to Dylan-- if he breaks out in hives, it's a Reynolds. :-P

The 'VR' just means that it was produced in the reign of Victoria, under the permission of a Royal License to make such goods. The crown is just another symbol to reinforce this. The word 'Warranted' just means that the item was guaranteed. Neither of these has any reference to hallmarks or place of origin. Only precious metals are hallmarked, and silver steel is simply a carbon steel and not precious. Silver Steel ... well, we have had many discussions about silver steel! The percentage of silver in Faraday's original silver steel was so minute that it did not enter into assay law, and silver steel after that first brief period did not contain any silver whatsoever. As a lot of makers used 'Old English' that is not a reliable indicator either, so as far as I can see it is not definitely attributable to a maker, which is a pity.

Regards,
Neil