Thread: W. T. Staniforth Ascend Razor

I picked this up on ebay for a very reasonable BIN. The tang is stamped:
W. T. Staniforth Ascend Razor Sheffield England. I'm pretty sure the scales are ivory - they are very thin. If not ivory, what other natural material could they be?

Bone .. ?

Also, some plastics are made to resemble bone or ivory.


Nice looking piece though

I can't tell for sure without seeing it in person, but those scales don't really scream "ivory!" to me. The shape is what you see in a lot of genuine ivory scales (with the pointy ends), but not the little raised relief that's on them. There are only two pins, which is typical of a lot of ivory razors... but a lot of non-ivory ones too.

*Shrug*

Since the pins do not have collars that could be a clue that they are ivory, however, with the beveled edge and the line around the bevel makes me think that it may not be ivory.
If you want you can do a "hot pin" test which is to take a small pin and heat the tip to red hot and place it somewhere inconspicuous and if it melts it is probably a plastic of some sort. If it does not melt then is may be bone or ivory. If I can find my ivory ID stuff I will send it to you.

The red-hot pin didn't melt the handle at all. The reason that I thought that it may be ivory is that it doesn't have those little pits that you see on many bone handles. It's very smooth. It definitely has a "grained" pattern to it, but it's subtle and you have to look at it pretty close to see it. The pattern is hard to describe. It's not lines running the length of the handle like the faux ivory handles that I've seen. It's my understanding that there are many different types of ivory though - who knows - I guess it could be a number of different materials.

Originally Posted by str8razor

If I can find my ivory ID stuff I will send it to you.

Thanks, I'd appreciate that.

Well it turns out that the ivory identifying sheets that I had were for Culluloid, Bakelite and other plastics. I picked up the below links so hope they help if they don't confuse.


Straight Razors - Do You Know What That Handle Is Made From?

Identifying Different Types of Ivory

Caring for Your Antiques and Collectibles

Ivoryhound.com - Your full service source for ivory.

Thanks for the links Bill. A lot of good information there.