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I am pretty stoked, here! Deciphering the information you can get from the National Archives isn't the easiest thing, but I'm happy to give it a crack for anyone who has one of these and wants to...

I've got names now. :)

Anyone with one of these razors can go to the National Archives and do a search on the markings.

Mine appears to have belonged to George Turner, a driver for the RFA, who...

Ah well. I'd love to know how these razors got to America, but I'll be content with running into the brick wall of all the burned records of WWI soldiers. :)

On that note, I have turned up some...

I don't think the marking I found was scrawled, it's really clearly defined letter forms, like from a die-stamp, just much smaller. About the size of the typeface on an old typewriter.

Do you know...

Examining the one I've got, I just found the remnants of another, very faint stamp in between the numbers and the letters. I had to hold it up to the light and angle it around. It looked, at first,...

I've just sent email to the Imperial War Museum in London. I hope they can help. :)

Alright. That cinches it. The numbering scheme on yours is the same as the one I've got, and the positioning is the same.

I am now fully convinced that Neil is correct about regiment markings.

I've turned up very little plausible on RPA, so I think your theory that it's an F, and thus Royal Field Artillery is as sound as it gets until I get hold of someone with documents to trace the...

Thank you very much, Neil and Manah! I do at least feel confident that this is the same James Barber.

Do either of you have an opinion on whether the lack of ERA makes this razor younger or older?...

That's what I was thinking about the RPA brand as well.

The one thing I'm certain of is that I'll be cleaning this razor up and giving it its third(?) life.

Yes! That's the exact program I was thinking of, and I too saw that listing on eBay (and this one as well, but it didn't mention the British refurbishing program -- just said it was an old James...

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6021/6006615334_43ae377b24_z.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6020/6006073805_3756eca1df_z.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6125/6006615870_f1b7c27f2f_z.jpg
...

The thing that's throwing me here is that there's no ERA stamp anywhere on this one, nor 'Sheffield'. But I've not seen many (any? I can't recall) pictures of James Barber razors... I will post...

Hah. Yes. You're correct, there's about a 1/16ths inch gap down the middle of the blade when I lay it on the DMT. It is flatter than any of the other wedges I have though.

My WWI guess wasn't about manufacture, but refurb. I've seen a number of pictures of blades which had been sent to the British army for refurbishing in WWI, and all of them had the same style...

75059

My latest eBay acquisition.

I've dug around here a fair bit and I can find nothing on a James Barber 'Hand Forged'.

Plus, the stamp on the horn scales strongly resembles the WWI razor...