How Old is Your Straight?

Made from 1818 to 1890 (maybe someone can help narrow it down). Blade measures approximately 3 by 13/16. On blade “CELEBRATED RATTLER”. On shank “MANUFACTURED BY - WADE & BUTCHER - SHEFFIELD - 'B’ IN CIRCLE, ARROW AND MALTESE CROSS LOGO”.

 

That one has new scales. It was restored by Kevin @HolyRollah
He does beautiful work.

 

Shoulda known

 

William Hyde 1835 ish, Joseph Wolstenholme 1834 to 1836, Bingham 1825ish, George Johnson 1820, George Johnson 1820, John Shepard 1790.

 

You have some beauties there.

 

Thanks Brian. Oddly enough with the exception of the Shepard I paid very little for any of them. The older Johnson and the Hyde have replacement scales, everything else is original. The Hyde are donor scales I had lying about and the Johnson I made out of bone and then stained them to get the aged look. The Wolstenholme scales were very thin and very fragile and they are lined with 1/32 G-10 to beef them up a little. It was a tricky operation getting the G10 to hide behind the old bone.

 

Oh boy...

 

Thanks Jared

 

Nice work!

 

Tally Ho Mid 1800's

 

I've been on the hunt for some old English steel lately. I finally hit paydirt with this "cast steel". razor. Cast Steele ended by 1820, so that dates this between -1790-1820. Excellent wedge blade and horn scales.

 

The oldest razor I have is a Heljestrand MK32, nowhere near as old as what's shown on this thread.

 

Nice early 18's example.

 

Nice score - did you find this on eBay or in the wild?

 

eBay score. Seller surely wasn't a razor guy. Crappy pics, so I took a chance, which worked out. Very rarely can you find anything decent in the wild up here. I live in a tourist area and rusty badly chipped blades have $25 price tags minimum

 

A little more work polishing the blade and scales. My wife was shocked that I actually used something this old to shave with

 

Purdy.

 

Looks great!

 

This is the only vintage razor I have. I tried to find out more about it. But mostly all I can find is what sellers on E-bay claim (apparently, they are fairly common), as opposed to any more authoritarian sources. Based on that admittedly sketchy information, 1920's-1930's. I did see claims they can be as old as 1880's. If anyone knows anything about these Red Point razors, I'd be glad to find out more;

 

Never had one, but they're reputed to be good shavers. Most likely from Utica knife & razor co. Dated around the 20's-30's. Yours looks to be in really good condition. That would easily shine up like brand new