Thread: Please identify: G D Abrams & Sons "Flyer".

My first (true) straight razor on my morning weekend runs to the flea markets.

On one side it has the words "Flyer", and on the other it has the following
G D Abrams & Sons
Wayland, N.Y.

I assume its from New York?

I have tried to google the name, but without much luck trying to find out more about it.





Obviously not shave ready, and will need the pins to be drilled out and a good solid clean, looks like surface rust, but nothing a buffing wheel and a good honing wont fix. I am considering making some nice scales for this razor.

It has an asymmetrical grind, and looks to be about 1/2". So its not a very big razor, which should make it a breeze to whip around under the nose.

Now I want to know if the blade can be salvaged, and if so, what should i get started with?

This is my Abrams "Bluebird"



IMG_0246 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Nothing fancy, I just cleaned it up, honed it, and I use it a bunch.

As far as history goes, I dug around a little on Ancestry.com, and found that Glen D. Abrams was a barber in Wayland, as was his son Floyd. This would have been roughly 1890-1920 or so. My speculation would be that he bought a few lots of razors from his barber supplier.. None of the Abrams razors I've seen were more than basic stuff with basic stampings. Maybe he sold them in his shop, maybe he gave them as favors to valued customers, maybe he honed them for a little extra cash, I can't offer more speculation than that.

I love shaving with mine, because I take some perverse pleasure in using razors that are everyday razors from 100 years ago and haven't been turned into modern "buffer babies". Besides, I love New York razors, and have a fondness for Wayland, a beautiful western New York small town.

nice... at least im getting somewhere... whilst i was googling, i saw the bluebird a couple of times, but the flyer seems to be "rarer".

im intending on honing it, and maybe even rescale it, and hopefully i will have a pretty functional razor in my rotation.