Thread: Two "new" straight razors for a first time collector!

I am very new to straight razor shaving and have, in fact, not had a straight razor shave yet. I have bought one online and am waiting for it in the mail and have received two old razors, one from each side of my family.

First I received a 5/8 razor and all I can read on the whole thing is "Geneva Cutlery" and "Geneva" and then a circle followed by "New York". This is all on the tang by the way. There are also some markings that look sort of... antler-ish with three prongs each. It has what seem to be plastic black scales but I don't know the age of it so I don't think it would be plastic. I thought originally that the razor belonged to my Great Grampa Gus who ran the barber shop in our small town many years ago but my Dad informed me that this MIGHT not be one of the originals. So I am just curious how old it could possibly be.

Second (and most interesting) I received a razor from my Gramma and she said that it was HER Grampa's, which makes it my Great great great Grampa's. The odd thing about this razor is that the box doesn't seem to fit with the razor, but I'll let you guys be the judge of that. The box says "Henry Sears & Son - 1865 - Warranted" And on the cover - "Extra Ground and Mfd. in Germany". The razor itself says on the tang "Gilbert Saville Works Limited" and on the reverse side, the only piece that maybe ties the box and razor together it says "Extra Ground and Mfd. in Germany". I see now for the first time that the blade seems to say something like "OCTAN" or something, it is in very swirly writing and is quite warn.

Thanks to anyone who has any information! I was excited to start straight razor shaving and would have never guessed that I would have two razors within a week!

Lew

Here is a link to flickr for the pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65713666@N08/

hopefully that works or my user name is eple0701

Sorry, just changed my flickr pictures to public so NOW you can see them. THANKS!

Post pics if you can they are worth a thousand words, if you do make sure to post close ups of any writing. Geneva cutlery is a well known brand so you should get good info one that, Bakelite (an early form of plastic) has been around for longer then you might think and has been used for everything from razor scales to telephones.

Bakelite was patented in 1909 and celluloid was originally developed in England in the 1850s but first commercialized in 1868 by John Wesley Hyatt. Hope this helps.

With a little elbow grease, I'm sure that could fetch a pretty penny.