Thread: any way to find the correct date of my razors

i have a few razors and i would like to find the date of them. I normal guess or use past knowledge like if its a sheffield blade and it does not say england its pre 1890, and if it has ivory scales its like pre 70s. But i would like more finer details to put a date on them.

photos? makes it a bit easier...

It's ... tricky. You can get a general idea of the age from the shape of the blade, the length of the tail, the tang and the shape of the scales, but it's not all that precise, say +/- 20 years. For example, a fully hollow ground blade with double stabilisers, a well defined tang with definite thumb stop, a long monkey tail and curved scales is most likely late 1800s to early 1900s but definitely not early 1800s. If it's a Sheffield piece without England marked on it as well then 1880s would be really close. Adding in the various scale materials can help since celuloid and bakelite had definite invention dates ... assuming the scales are original of course. Researching the details of the company that made it can sometimes help if they only traded for a short time but some traded for over a hundred years. You pretty much have to pile as much information together as you can and consider it as a whole.

Originally Posted by Themagicturtle

i have a few razors and i would like to find the date of them. I normal guess or use past knowledge like if its a sheffield blade and it does not say england its pre 1890, and if it has ivory scales its like pre 70s. But i would like more finer details to put a date on them.

Ivory scales were in use well after 1900, so don't use that as a guide.

Regards,
Neil