Thread: Grandpa's Razor

I started DE shaving about 4 years ago using my grandpa's 1954 Super Speed. I started using a straight last year. My mom recently found one of my grandpa's straights and sent it to me. I had a little rust near the tang and pin which came off easily with a little sanding. Otherwise, I did about 10 laps each on the two hones I have: one is grey and I don't know the grit, and the other is a barber's hone (both had been his as well) and the razor was good to go after sitting in a cedar chest since at least 1972 when he died, probably not used since some time in the 1950's when he switched to a DE because of his health.


I know next to nothing other than that it has Weyer's Special stamped on one side of the tang and scales, and it has Geo. H. Weyer St. Joseph, MO stamped on the other side of the tang. Any information anyone can provide about the date of manufacture, etc., would be most appreciated.

Front:

Back:

no information, but a nice razor! Good luck whit it.

George H. Weyer sold barber supplies from Kansas City, MO and St. Joseph, MO.
As far has who made it , hard to say but look at this thread:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...hick-hair.html

I have two entries that would fit your razor from Goins:

GEO. H. WEYER ST. JOSEPHS MO. g1920-1940

GEORGE H. WEYER KANSAS CITY MO. M.I.G. g 1920-1940 "Deluxe" is stamped on the front of the tang.

Thanks for the replies! Those dates make sense, he most likely got it after he got back to the states from WW I. Mom was born in 1939 and remembers him using it when she was little, so he'd probably had it for awhile by then.

That's pretty neat, having you granpas razor, that is. I bought a [cigar] box of razors from my local antique store a while back. Apparently, the gentleman that owned them had an affinity for "marking" his items, by personally engraving them and additionally, placing his initials and his town and state he lived in on the old coffins. He lived less than forty miles from me. So, tracing him wasn't difficult at all. His name was Walter Pike. He was born abt. 1873 and [transcended] the period b/w using the straight and the advent of the DE razor (I hate calling them safety razors!). Some of the razors are old and some are newer. One, in particular, is an Osgood Bray. The neat thing about that one is that it came out about (I've since given this razor as a gift to my brother, so I'm only guessing) 1901 and they discontinued production about three years later - thereby pinpointing a time period. Another neat thing I learned is that these old guys didn't tape their razors (though, it most likely wasn't even invented in the earlier part of his life). I say that because of all them, one is an old horn Bengall. It's one of the sharpest razors I've ever felt. And it must've been one of the old man's favorites because it is really, really worn on the spine. Needless to say, being that I've shaved with Walter's fine tools, I have developed an affection for the old bugger. I'm waiting for the release and indexing of the 1940 census to see if he was still alive at that time. And when I can pinpoint his time of death , I figure I might just take ride and pay my respects.

I've got an old strop that's marked Geo. h. Weyer
Kansas City - St. Joseph
MISSOURI.

I knew it was "vintage" just didn't know how old it was. Nice strop though. Nice lookin razor too

I dont have any information on the razor, but your lucky your grandfathers razor was in that nice condition. My grandfathers razor (he passed in 74) needed quite a bit of cleaning to get it ready to shave with. It was still completely worth it though since its the only connection I had to a grandfather that passed 2 years before I was born. That does add quite a bit to the experience of useing a straight razor to those of us who are lucky enough to have those heirlooms.