ASTOR Razor..

**swamps** · 05-16-2012, 08:39 AM

Ok so i've had this SE razor now for a while it was part of a lot including a Le coq a star a Rex and a valet but haven't been able to find out anything about it as every search i do only seems to turn 1 picture of a astor set with a different type of razor and no info or Astor razor blades so if anyone has any info on it then please feel free to share...

**warhawk** · 05-16-2012, 08:42 AM

That is a sweet looking SE razor. I wish I can help U out as far as some info but I'm sure U will get your answer here. So... how does it shave?

WARHAWK

**Azarius** · 05-16-2012, 05:42 PM

That is one beautiful razor...can I safely assume that a standard SE blade cannot fit, even if modified?

**HoosierTrooper** · 05-16-2012, 05:49 PM

Waits just says it was manufactured in France by an unknown company, that's about all I could find.

**swamps** · 05-17-2012, 05:54 AM

Originally Posted by warhawk

That is a sweet looking SE razor. I wish I can help U out as far as some info but I'm sure U will get your answer here. So... how does it shave?WARHAWK

No idea i have far to many other razors so most i have don't get a look in..

Originally Posted by Daniel Plainview

That is one beautiful razor...can I safely assume that a standard SE blade cannot fit, even if modified?

Yep correct its about 1mm to short on the width to stay between the tabs evenly...

Originally Posted by HoosierTrooper

Waits just says it was manufactured in France by an unknown company, that's about all I could find.

Cheers for looking tom i got tired of trawling google and ending up back at the same thing made in france but we don't know who by....

this is the only other one i could a picture of on the net different handle and not brill photo's but all i could find of it......

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**Sledgehammer39** · 05-18-2012, 05:05 AM

Nice looking razor!

**MacDaddy** · 05-18-2012, 06:39 AM

I had a bit of time this morning to do a little digging into this one, and I turned up this ad in an old French periodical, Revue de L'ensignement Primaire, from Nov 1, 1908 (PDF link):

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That gave me the name "L. Astorgis," which could have been a merchant, but with the name "Astor" coming out of his last name I thought would probably be the manufacturer or at least the person who commissioned the brand to be manufactured. So I went looking for more there, and found this catalog that shows the same stylized "Astor" logo that's on the razors:

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**MacDaddy** · 05-18-2012, 07:04 AM

Did a another quick search on the guess that the "L." might probably be "Louis" and found this in a German book on the steam engines at the 1900 Paris World's Fair:

That references him as a maker of pipe-cleaning brushes, which makes sense with his primary line of business, and the address matches one on a postcard I'd found previously:

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**Rob72** · 05-18-2012, 07:47 AM

Originally Posted by swamps

That very set was on ebay.fr, recently. I was hopeful, as Astor isn't commonly referenced, but, alas, the exchange rate does not favor us, and someone with deeper pockets had a fine win.