Thread: Anyone know what it is??

Hi Folks.
I friend of mine at work found this razor in his mother' estate. He says It most likely belonged to his greaat uncle. He also said that he served in WWI. The blade has no markings.The scales seem to be horn of some kind and might not be original to the razor. I say that because it looks like it's been repined. The wedge looks to be leather. I bet one of you guys can help put a date on it at least. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
Richard

wish i could help, but it looks great. I really like those scales.

I remember learning somewhere along the way that George Korn designed the first razor with the dual thumb notches like that, but I've never seen one with a straight monkey tail. Also, IIRC his firm made mazors for many other companies, including Case. Maybe that will give you somewhere to start, let us know what you find out. Good luck.

Looks like blond horn to me.
You can test with hot needle on the inside of the scales, if it is horn it will smell like burnt hair.

Don't have any info, but a few questions from images.

What does the box say? Doesn't mean it belonged to the razor, but if so, may help.

Looks like some lettering remains on the stamp, but worn down. Can you read what is there, maybe use a jeweler's loop to read what is left behind?

The tail almost looks like it has been filed. Might be the images, but looks a little rough at its pointed tip?

If the wedge is leather, maybe explains why pins look so rough? I don't know if those would be original pins, so may not be original scales? They do look like horn to me too.

Neat looking razor, sorry to through out more questions than what you asked, lol

It looks to be in pretty good condition. I'd take a guess and say that it's somewhere between 1815 and 1850.

With the work done to the scales being obvious, it may be possible that the notches were also added at a later date. Are my eyes picking up some maker lettering on the first pic? Can you zoom in or look at that area and try to see if you can see a few charecters?

Beautiful and unique razor, and good advice above. I agree that it looks like blond horn. The wedge - I think it is lead. I've had some old lead wedges that seems to "sweat" some white gunk like that. It COULD polish to a shiny wedge, but remember lead is highly toxic. If you decide to try, very slow and totally by hand, use a wet rag w maas, spray or dip in water frequently to avoid any dust, and wear a good breathing mask. I hate the stuff because of the toxicity, but I have left wedges in if the scales were nice, and yours look to be great.

Edit: Going back and looking at the pics again, there doesn't even appear to be any rust at all, even in the pivot? I'd probably leave the patina as it is, it looks even and does not appear to be hiding any surprises. Man, that's a nice razor.

I have an Allen non xll razor with blond horn scales like yours my razor came with a job lot of razors, mine also has a military serial number on it suggesting it was a military razor or belonging to solider in ww1 I will try and search records to see if I can find out anymore about the previous owner I would put it around 1900 s

Looks very similar to a blade by William Revitt from Sheffield:



The image was from another forum, so I copied the image instead of linking the forum which I'm not sure is allowed. There are some subtle differences between the blades, but the look very similar