Excelsior razor: any info?

Dear all,

My mother has just found my grandfather's razor, which is manufactured by Excelsior (see pic). Unfortunately I cannot find a lot of info on the Excelsior razors. The open comb head design resembles that of the Old Type Gillette razors, but probably this one is not so old. Maybe from the thirties or fourties? Any help will be appreciated.

Kind regards,
António Grilo

Desperate bump...

Can't help you Antonio, but, Welcome to B&B.

Someone here will surely help.

You have a Great Start here, we LOVE pictures!

Dear Dools

Thank you for your warm welcome.
Since you love pictures, here is another one that might help. I have found an Excelsior blade wrapper that was sold in eBay some time ago. The item description said that it was probably of German manufacture, exported to France. I have also found some references to straight razors manufactured by Excelsior in Solingen (Merkur also has its base in that city, famous for its swords since the Middle Ages, and for its knives and blades up to present time), but no reference to safety razors...

Welcome to B&B,
Excelsior Cutlery Co. Was a brand German import straight razor, Swedish Razor Company. The agrncy was located in NY and sold Excelsior brand razors. Most likely they made safety razors too.

But didn't Excelsior Cutlery Co. change its name still during the 19th century to Swedish Razor Company? Then according to http://www.uniclectica.com/misc/manuf.html the Swedish Razor Company operated only between 1895 - 1904
... So this Excelsior might probably be yet another company.

amrcg said:

But didn't Excelsior Cutlery Co. change its name still during the 19th century to Swedish Razor Company? Then according to http://www.uniclectica.com/misc/manuf.html the Swedish Razor Company operated only between 1895 - 1904
... So this Excelsior might probably be yet another company.

Click to expand...

Yes, they were called that until 1904 . I think they were manufactured in Germany and imported by a NY agency and sold as Excelsior. The popularity of the safety razor made other companies copy the Gillette Old Type Open Comb razor design. My guess is in the 1920's. There were probably no Open Comb Old Type razors being copied as of 1903/1904 because other copycats did not have a razor to copy, Gillette already got it's Double Rings patented and ready for the masses at this date and did not sell many.

Well, in this case, the 1920s already sound too early, since my grandfather was still a child and not many people in Portugal had access to safety razors or at least found them of much use (most people went to the closest barber for a straight razor shave). In case it is from the 20s, then it surely belonged to my great-grandfather. On the other hand, don't you think that the handle already bears some resemblance with the fat handle of 1939-1945 Techs? Could it be that they copied the head from the Old Type, while they copied the handle from the contemporary Techs? Do you know some other trademark who did a similar mix?

By the way, the handle is very light and seems to be Aluminium. Was this material already used during the 1920s to make safety razors?

Gillette also produced an EXCELSIOR safety razor, british made which sold for 10/6 which came in a green and white cardboard box with 1 blade 2 shaving edges. Have the box, but also unable to find any info on these razors. Shall try and post some photos tomorrow.
Graeme