Thread: Any idea when this razor was made?

So should I just leave the razor be until it can be restored? What would the neatsfoot oil do to the razor?

Btw those razors look damn good! It'd be great to get this one looking close to that good. On the opposite scale there are surface cracks on the dark spots in the tortoiseshell. I'm guessing that is from it drying out? Would a restoration be able to rid of those?

Originally Posted by truegentsvalet

Thanks! What is Zak's username?

Voidmonster

I already found this thread.

I'd need to see a closeup of the tang, but it wasn't at all uncommon for William IV era stamps to feature the W and the R to either side of a crown. Sometimes the crown was above the two letters.

From what I can make out in the picture, it's a 'generic' razor. IE, it has only the crown and 'Silver Steel' on the tang. However the tang is pretty difficult to make out.

You can easily clean the worst of the rust off by taking a standard lead pencil and just rubbing over the rust until it's gone. It won't harm anything at all on the razor and the rust will mostly come off, which might make it easier to read what's written there.

If it's not a WR stamp, I'd guess the razor dates from between 1830 and 1860.

Also noteworthy, the red dyed horn scales are quite unusual! Do be careful with any restoration you do. For one thing, they're much less seen than others. For another, the red dyeing agent may possibly have been toxic -- of the variety that isn't particularly safe to grind into a powder and inhale.