Help identifying a razor?

[jamesbeat]

I bought a few razors off ebay recently, and I'll post pictures of them soon, but this one deserves special attention because it has a brass spine and I'd love to know its providence.

I have begun to restore this razor, I have rough sanded one side of it and used metal polish on the brass, but it still needs a lot of sanding to get it pristine.

I'm afraid my poor photography doesn't really show how stained the blade is or how much better the one side looks now I've sanded it, but it has enormous black stains all over the blade, but absolutely no active rust or pitting.

It is marked 'Thomas Turner Sheffield' and I'm pretty sure the scales are horn.

The main thing I'd really like to know is roughly how old this razor is?

[pal]

Check it out here http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?ltr=T&t=19497 The review says Thomas Taylor but it is really Thomas Turner.

[jamesbeat]

Thanks, that was interesting and I never would have found it myself due to the typo.

Is the frameback type of razor an older style, or just a different style that was made alongside 'normal' razors?

I've confirmed that the scales are definitely horn. One of them was bowed inwards slightly and the blade was catching.
I straightened it out with careful application of a flame, and I got the characteristic 'hair' smell.

I'd really love a clue as to roughly how old this razor is, I love the idea of bringing a 100+ year old razor back to brand new condition and shaving with it, so I'm hoping it's really old :smile: