Straight Razor found with metal detector in town famous for a civil war battle.
All,
I'm posting this on behalf of my wife's grandfather. He lives in a very small southern town that was/is known for a relatively large battle during the Civil War. He was poking around with his metal detector a few weeks ago and found a straight razor buried along the top of a creek bank that runs through his property. He cleaned the razor off and oiled the blade with light weight oil. After looking it over, here's what I know about the razor:
It says "Mouleson Brothers" on the blade close to the handle. Near the words "Mouleson Brothers" it has four letters: "XL?T" (I couldn't read the third letter). The blade has a notch at the end shaped like a "v".
In the middle section of the blade are the words "swiss razor." Above those two words are some other words, but I can only make out a few of the letters.
The handle is wooden with brass pins through it to hold it together. I couldn't find any markings on the handle.
The razor is in excellent shape. There's no rust and the handle is not rotten or broken.
I guess I have a few questions: Where can I find out more information on this piece? What is this history of "Mouleson Brothers"? Is there anyway to tell how old it is? Is the handle original to the blade?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've run into a lot of dead ends so far.