Thread: Garage sale find - need help identifying

Hi all,
Picked up this razor and stone el cheapo at a garage sale. I tried to clean up the razor and see what it says on the tang. I can make out the words "James" and "CE" on it. Any idea about who the manufacturer might be and vintage? It looks pretty beat up and has rust. I used Maas and fine steel wool and this is what I could get so far. Scales seem horn and are kinda bowed, but the razor closes fine (i.e., they don't obstruct its closure).

The stone says "O-SO-EZE". Any help identifying it and its grit level would also be appreciated. Am new to honing and was wondering if I could use this as a finishing stone? Its about 2"x6"x0.5" I searched and found a couple of dead links here in this forum.

Thanks in advance for all your help and apologies if my search skills aren't up to snuff. Please let me know if you'd like to see more pics or have any questions.

The razor is pretty toasty.
All I can think is James Barlow. The C E or E C is backwards...
Seems I see a 'W' under the 's' in James at the end.

The hone may be good. Only time and experience will tell.

It's been a few years so I might be remembering it wrong, but I think the barber hone is fairly coarse in comparison to most but certainly still useable. I will try to dig one out, give it a try, and let you know.

I don't know about the razor. At first blush looking at the blade I thought around 1800, but the tail is way too long. I wonder if the blade simply has been used and abused over the years. Still, it can be made into a shaver.

The razor is likely James Barlow as mentioned above, his trademark was 'ECHO'. It looks to have had a hard life

TY all for your responses. Will let you know if I can improve the razor, but I'm not too optimistic.

It's a James Johnson razor with his DULCE mark. Manufactured sometime between 1830ish and 1850ish.

AHA! What I thought was a 'W' is an 'N'!
Still, it looks like the 'John' has been ground back from the 'Johnson'.
So was 'DULCE' stamped backwards?

Makes sense now, I was thinking the stamping had gone wrong

Originally Posted by sharptonn

AHA! What I thought was a 'W' is an 'N'!
Still, it looks like the 'John' has been ground back from the 'Johnson'.
So was 'DULCE' stamped backwards?

DULCE was stamped in a semicircle the way late Rodgers did ENGLAND.

Haha, beat me to it (haven't been around in a while). I just saw the C and E and that was my first guess. I guess that's a sign I've spent too much time around these...