Anchor Brand Straight Razor

[Metalhead]

Anyone know anything about Anchor Brand straight razors? It obviously has not been stored very well. Is it worth cleaning up?

[kootenay joe]

That logo is called "Star Anchor Arrow" in knife books, used by Wester Bros., Wester & Butz & Jacoby & Wester. The knives date from about 1890 to 1920's. Many are fancy Gent's type knives, such as a 4 blade Senators in pearl or ivory and the workmanship is also first rate.
Your straight razor looks to have bone handles or possibly ivory.
kj

[XX Case XX]

Metalhead:

In answer to your question about that razor being "worth cleaning up", well that depends. Anything that someone likes and wants to keep is worth saving, so it depends on you. Do you like it? Do you want to keep it? If the answer is yes, then by all means it's worth cleaning up.

Another way to look at it is this: If none of your current knives don't date back as far as this razor does, then by keeping it, your collection "automatically" dates back to the 1920's/30's era.

I don't own any knives that date back that far. I think the oldest I have is 1946. K-Joe already stated that this razor is of good quality and most likely scarce so you might want to consider keeping it. I'd be willing to bet that if you give it up, years from now you'll be kicking yourself saying "I wish I'd kept that razor". If you don't have the skill to clean it up yourself, reach out to one of the "mechanics" on this site and I'm sure one of them would be willing to take on that job.

__________
Mike

[kootenay joe]

With collectible razors the condition of the blade seems to be the most important feature: no chips/nicks in blade edge, corner not rounded off, little to no blade loss.
There are lots of razor collections 'out there' and most old razors do not command much money often selling around $25 for example. Some are more sought after and prices can go into the hundreds (rarely).
I do not how if OP razor is rare or if it is a high value one.
The blade looks o.k. from what i can see in the picture, so you could coat blade with mineral oil to help prevent further oxidation as a minimum.
kj

[Metalhead]

Thanks for the info. I found it at an antique store years ago for about $20 and sat it in my great grandfather's old shaving mug kind of as a novelty - until the wife broke the mug while "cleaning." I always thought it was neat to have, but I never knew anything about it. I wasn't planning on getting rid of it (unless it is worth a ton of money)! I didn't think about it dating my collection, but I like that perspective because I'm pretty sure nothing else I have would date back that far.