Some oldtimers

Today i learned once again that sometimes there is no need to go far to find something interesting. Good ladies of my home island arranged a charity flea market, and as i was having my day off work, i decided to make a visit there. During past centuries, before the bridges this was a place where people mostly took their living from sea: sailors, fishermen, foreign merchants etc. Every now and then some that old stuff still pops up in the flea markets like this.

I got little surprised as i found a box with about 20 razors. Mostly Swedish blades. Some were junk but there were few that looked almost unusable. I wasn't interested as i already have two nice Swedish razors. However i picked up three razors that looked very old and bought them for a total of 9 €. Not bad.

First has fancy horn scales. Little bug beaten but not beyond repairing. Just have to find out how to clean them first. On the blade there's 'India Steel' and on the tang there's a makers mark 'Parker (?). Silver steel. Sheffield'. I haven't cleaned them yet so it is very difficult to find out.
Second razor has 'Imperial' on the blade. On the tang there's 'V, crown image and R' and 'Cast steel'. The scales are horn but unfortunately broken.
Third has 'Old English' on blade and the anchor symbol on tang. Horn scales ruined.
I think i just give a mild cleaning to these blades. Not even thinking of making them mirror finish. Have to make new horn scales for the last two razors but i hope i can save the first beautiful scales.

If any of you gentleman have any info about these old razors i will be more than happy to hear it.

I've no info, but they are some great looking blades!

Beautiful razors. The pressed horn especially.

Chris L

I love those really old blades. I believe they are all pre 1850 and the pressed horn scaled blades are worth their weight in $ on ebay. Collectors go for those in a big way regardless of the blade condition. Nice score.

Thank you gents for your comments. Any idea how to clean those pressed horn scales? There is some blackening and i'd like to try if i can clean it away. It is probably no tools job as it is obvious that those scales are very fragile.

The blackening may just be natural variation in the horn. I have noticed that on some of those old razors they used the strangest kinds of horn... some (as it appears yours might be) is very translucent green/yellow with a kind of iridescence to it....

For cleaning, I would recommend pure neatsfoot oil on a soft cloth- maybe on a cotton swab or so if you need to scrub a bit. A soak in the oil will then recondition the horn and loosen any remaining crud. A good buff with a soft clean cloth after soaking will leave them looking pretty good, IME.

I stress though, that you want pure neatsfoot. Neatsfoot 'compound' can have synthetic oils and solvents that are not good for natural products in the long run.

+1 on the pure neatsfoot. It's really amazing how well horn scales respond to it. Old horn scales seem to "drink" neatsfoot and they just come alive.

Chris L

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Originally Posted by ChrisL

+1 on the pure neatsfoot. It's really amazing how well horn scales respond to it. Old horn scales seem to "drink" neatsfoot and they just come alive.

Chris L

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… and another +1. The before and after has to be seen to be believed. Lovely old razors, Sailor.

Nice ones :) Love it when a good score kicks up :)

Very difficult to identify such old razors, but I'll try.
Well, the first one, most likely, was made by Ann Parker. This is really nice razor of the early 19th century.
"Silver steel" mark was used since 1820.
With beautiful pressed horn scales. Scales are very rare.

Second one, this "Imperial" razor was made by Edgar Allen or James Dixon.
V(crown)R was used since 1837, but "Cast steel" mark was used till 1840.
So, the razor was made at the end of 1830's.

And the last one. I think the razor was made by W&B. I couldn't find other makers at that time with such anchor.

Alex,

Thank you so much for this information. If they are really even close to that old, i will probably leave them as they are, maybe very careful and mild cleaning to remove the rust. In no case i think they ain't gonna end up to be my everyday shavers.

Finding these 3 razors from the local flea market was maybe something that isn't happen too often. I think i gonna get back there and take a deeper and closer look for the rest of the razors.

Had to get back to that same place today just to check if there was something worth interest i hadn't noticed before. Finally picked up these two razors that looked nice. The price was 5€/each. Probably it was bit higher as these two have scales that aren't broken or look dirty like the Parker i bought last week.
First is nice Heljestrand. Looks like unused. The thumb notch or whatever that is, looks special. This razor has been a part of the seven day set, as there's 'Sunday' engraved on the tang. Scales are celluloid.
The second looks bit older. 'Army razor', made by Thomas.W.Ward & Co, Sheffield. The scales are horn. The blade was almost totally blackened so i took the pics after i had wiped them once with a cloth and Autosol.

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Originally Posted by Sailor

First is nice Heljestrand. Looks like unused. The thumb notch or whatever that is, looks special. This razor has been a part of the seven day set, as there's 'Sunday' engraved on the tang. Scales are celluloid.

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Those celluiod scales look more like ivory than any celluoid I have ever seen, I would like a few sets like them.

Nice finds and interesting grind on that one. Almost looks like a full wedge with a relief. Almost like the groove in some puukkos. Amazing find if you take into account how bone-dry of razors shops here are...

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Originally Posted by ursus

Nice finds and interesting grind on that one. Almost looks like a full wedge with a relief. Almost like the groove in some puukkos. Amazing find if you take into account how bone-dry of razors shops here are...

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Hi,

It really is sort of groove in that Ward razor. I hope not blood groove, but the time will tell as i start shaving with it:boohoo:

You are absolutely right that finding such weird things as straight razors from any antique store/flea market is a small miracle here. I think there's no use to try lottery or horse races for some time, as now i've used my good luck already.
There's a 'big' antique & handicraft exhibition held in Turku every year. I've seen few razors for sale over the years, but they were mostly junk and/or the prices where from Mars. Maybe in some countryside auction there still might find something worth interest and cheap. I've kept my eyes open on the dead man's auctions as well. My wife has a nasty habbit of dragging me from the auction to another every now and then (razors are not the problem but everything else my lady keeps buying :p)

Sailor, I could be wrong, because I don't have them in my hands, but I'm pretty darn sure those Heljestrand scales are ivory.

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Originally Posted by BKratchmer

Sailor, I could be wrong, because I don't have them in my hands, but I'm pretty darn sure those Heljestrand scales are ivory.

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Thanks for this. You might be right as i've never seen ivory before. Those scales are very thin; i have no celluloid scales that are as thin as these.
(i showed these to my wife and said that these are maybe ivory and she asked me to throw them away:p ).

Thanks for the advice for using neats foot oil with the old horn scales. At first it seemed impossible to find neats foot oil here, but my wife who uses her time with horseback riding every now and then managed to get me a 0,5 liter bottle. It made miracles to those old scales. I could have never guessed.

Where does one find Neetsfoot oil ??

ah yeah those are ivory scales on the heljestrand - touch them with a red hot pin and you'll believe me. is that mk31 or mk32?
at 5 euro you almost overpaid for it :p :) :p
but, of course to save your marriage i'll be happy to dispose of that stuff for you.

btw is the grove on the ward razor on the front only? i have one, but mine looks like has been reground so i always wondered if there was one on the back too.

Very nice razors. It seems to be little wider blade on the Heljestrand, am I right? Is it 7/8 or 8/8?

The blade of the Helje is 20 mm so that must be 7/8 (?). I've always found inch system very confusing :p
On the back side of the Heljestrand there is 'M (three crowns) K. No 32'
Those 3 crowns are obvious as we are talking about the Swedish razor, but i do not know what MK means.

Maybe i just have to try to learn to live with the fact that the scales might be ivory. Sorry, poor elephant. One day he was walking happily in Africa, doing things that elephants usually do. Guess he never knew that one day he has to give away his life just to be my razor scales. Such a poor and useless destiny.
May the dust lie lightly on you under the earth, elephant.

On the Ward razor there's groove on the front side only. No markings on the back side.

I belive the MK stands for Magnus Kindal, who ran the Heljestrand company in the early 1900 I think..
Maybe he is the designer?

Very nice finds Sailor! :tu :tu To get the rust off I would scrape it off with a disposable single edge razor blade. Then put some oil on the blade. You can use metal polish on it but that would take off the lovely patine and black in the etching. With the thin scales and pins w/o washers I would bet that the Heljestrand has ivory scales. A light coat of mineral oil on the ivory will help preserve them. Keep the out of long exposure to direct sunlight and wipe them down after handling them as skin oils will darken them. Aren't local finds just GREAT! :mexwave:

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Originally Posted by Joed

VTo get the rust off I would scrape it off with a disposable single edge razor blade. Then put some oil on the blade. You can use metal polish on it but that would take off the lovely patine and black in the etching.

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Removing rust with DE blade is great idea. I already put WD40 on the blade to soften the rust for few days. Although metal polish usually works well, it works too well with these old blades. I'm no trying to remove patine, but let these nice blades carry their age with proudness.

These findings were really something special. It is already very difficult to find other than junk razors here, but finding English blades from Finland is against all odds. In fact i've never seen English blades in any live or internet auction here before. Only Swedish, German and Russian straights, and even those are very rare.

Fantastic historical blades!

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Originally Posted by BKratchmer

Sailor, I could be wrong, because I don't have them in my hands, but I'm pretty darn sure those Heljestrand scales are ivory.

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More than you would ever want to know about ivory ID.

http://www.cites.org/eng/resources/p...vory-guide.pdf