Thread: What the Heck is This?? 10/8" enormous razor... Thats right, 10/8"

Just picked this up at an estate sale. The pictures don't do it jusitce, its colossal. The blade is 10/8", or 1-1/4" wide, and 3/8" thick! and whole thing measures 7-1/2" long. Appears fairly old, its got a leather case, and the scale is a solid piece of aluminum, which almost looks handcrafted?, no markings at all. I've never seen anything like it, maybe its for shaving a horse, or clearing saplings?? Anyone have any information about it?

i think i want it!!!!!

something that finally will fit my hand!!!

That's a travel axe!

No kidding! Maybe its for clearing saplings?

It's a wedge razor, and aluminium wasn't produced in bars until the 1850s, or much used commercially until the twentieth century. In the 1880s it cost as much as silver. So I am sure this razor has been rescaled.

It would be extremely clumsy in use as a razor, and one possibility is that it was intended as part of a microtome. This is a device in which a specimen of tissues etc. for microscopic examination is raised very slightly by a screw through a hole in a glass or steel plate, and a thin slice moved by (and on) a very sharp blade.

Originally Posted by Caledonian

It's a wedge razor, and aluminium wasn't produced in bars until the 1850s, or much used commercially until the twentieth century. In the 1880s it cost as much as silver. So I am sure this razor has been rescaled.

It would be extremely clumsy in use as a razor, and one possibility is that it was intended as part of a microtome. This is a device in which a specimen of tissues etc. for microscopic examination is raised very slightly by a screw through a hole in a glass or steel plate, and a thin slice moved by (and on) a very sharp blade.

I just rescaled a microtome blade for someone. It was pretty big, but had an asymmetrical grind. I think that razor is for use by Chinese chefs. For cutting off chunks of pork!

I think the aluminium scales could well be original. A blade like that would have been an expensive luxury item and prior to the 1900s aluminium was a prestige product.

I have a gut feeling that it is meant to be more of a display piece more than a functional razor.

Going by the lines I would have picked it to be a Wade and Butcher.

I was thinking it might be a microtome section knife too. I actually have a 1890s Bausch and Lomb section knife right now. From what I gathered, most of them but not all are half ground. It would certainly work as a folding butcher knife lol

Its got a case though, and it seems to have been used a bit. Maybe its for shaving thoroghbred racehorses lol. Wade and Butcher, you really think? Boy that would be great

Originally Posted by Caledonian

It's a wedge razor, and aluminium wasn't produced in bars until the 1850s, or much used commercially until the twentieth century. In the 1880s it cost as much as silver. So I am sure this razor has been rescaled.

It would be extremely clumsy in use as a razor, and one possibility is that it was intended as part of a microtome. This is a device in which a specimen of tissues etc. for microscopic examination is raised very slightly by a screw through a hole in a glass or steel plate, and a thin slice moved by (and on) a very sharp blade.

That only works if the blade is flat ground on one side, and this one does not appear to be.

There are other razors that large around, though they are not at all common. Perhaps they were not intended for a person to shave himself. Or maybe they were. We'll never know.