All About Pocket Knives

I inherited 7 Straight Razors from Wives Grandpa who recently died. Was said his dad was a barber so I assume most of these are from 1800's or early 1900s. I don't collect them and have no idea even where to start.

Questions arise such as..

How old are they? Who made them? Are they rare?

Do I clean them ? Some forums say people want them dirty so they can clean them themselves.

Is there a price guide? Where is best place to sell them if I would decide to part with them? Maybe Ebay? Craigslist ? Or a local pawn shop?

How do I know what I have??

Any help would be great. Thank you so much for your time

Here are some Pics

to the site.

I would not bother trying to clean any of them, most of them have little value, except #2 the Wostenholm razor . This is a popular brand and it still has the blade etch. The Wolf Lane don`t look bad either.

Willie will be along and fill you in on the rest of them

HI,

I'm pretty much in agreement with MB. The Wosty is the best of the bunch. The Wolf Lane is decent but won't bring much. The Henckels is pretty badly rusted and won't bring much either.

The other four won't bring enough to bother listing them on ebay as there isn't much interest in those types of shaving gear.

The Wostenhome had a nice etch but it does have some rust/stains that will detract from getting big bucks on it. It looks to be a 6/8 ( 3/4 inch blade width) which is another thing that will keep the total value down as right now the hot ticket items on older razors are the 8/8's and bigger. That razor was made after 1891 and probably around 1910-1930.

No 7 is toast. Rust had gotten down into the edge and it won't ever be much use as a user or a looker. Any attempt to hone an edge on it would be a waste of time as the edge will look like swiss cheese from the rust. The steel at the edge of those things is extremely thin.

The Wolf Lane could be used as razor I think. It doesn't appear to have any issues that I can see. It is stained and the gold wash that was on the blade looks to be about 2/3rds gone. That will affect the sale price.

I do not advise any attempts at cleaning. Unless you know what you're doing you will decrease the value even further.

The other four are attempts at a better mouse trap. They didn't work out and were superseded by the double edged safety razors that Gillette came out with about the time those were made.

There are books out there that give an arbitrary value, but..........

You might try doing a completed auctions search on ebay to get some idea of the prices that similar razors sold for.

All in all, I'd think about just oiling the blades and keeping them. They have a family history that is probably worth more than the dollar amount you would realize if you tried to sell them. IF you try to auction them, do not sell them as bunch. You'll lose your shirt figuratively speaking. List hem separately and send me a PM before you try and I'll try to help you describe them better.

Sincerely,
Willie