Thread: What's the age of my rusty pipe?

Good afternoon everyone. Can someone tell me some background info for this old pipe razor I found? It appears to me this blade certainly predates the bakelite scales. Thanks in advance for your help!

Take a look at this site if you ever need info about old razor brands STRAZORS.com - all about classic razors - George Johnson, Sheffield. Looks like your razor is from around 1830 from the look of the tail.
I´m certainly no expert, somebody else would probably do a much better job at setting a date, but take it for what its worth, and look at the site for more info.
By the way the owner of the site is Manah, a mentor on this forum.

Also, those scales could well be natural, not bakelite. I'm thinking horn.

Am I the only one who hesitated to click because of the title?

On topic: Hope that razor cleans up well for you! Looks like a nice find!

yea, they look like horn scales to me.

This razor confuses me a bit. First -- to me, the scales look like maybe bakelite or vulcanite. Could be horn, I'd need different pics or a good "sniff". Factor in the white spacer - not a lead wedge like I'd expect. Then -- it's a stub-tail, all right,but it's hollow ground with with a stabilizer. Possibly a re-regrind? To the best of my knowledge, hollow grinding wasn't done for about 30 years after these old stub-tails were made. Sorry, more questions than answers. Someone brighter than me will chime in eventually.

Originally Posted by stimpy52

This razor confuses me a bit. First -- to me, the scales look like maybe bakelite or vulcanite. Could be horn, I'd need different pics or a good "sniff". Factor in the white spacer - not a lead wedge like I'd expect. Then -- it's a stub-tail, all right,but it's hollow ground with with a stabilizer. Possibly a re-regrind? To the best of my knowledge, hollow grinding wasn't done for about 30 years after these old stub-tails were made. Sorry, more questions than answers. Someone brighter than me will chime in eventually.

Im with stimpy probably re-scaled at some point, the white spacer the pins and definately the curve of the scales doesnt seem to match a stub-tail.

Using my years of experience and razor knowledge, i would put that razor at 1995....94...93....92...etc.....etc....

While I was trying to date my Marshes & Shepherd,(which I've broken in half since then,..don't ask) I found quite a bit of information on razors around the turn of the 18th to the 19th century. I'm fairly certain yours is closer to 1800 than 1830 and fairly certain if you think it's horn, it's ox horn. I could be wrong.

To Costabro, The razor was rescaled IMO and it appeared to be bakelite. I found an old set of ivory scales that I'll try my hand at rescaling.