Any ideas what this is?

[jugglertim]

found it at a flea market. i was looking at an old single edge razor and the guy said "if you like old razors, you should see this." and he pulled this out. he said/thought it was an old military issue shaving razor. i think it just may be an old scraper of some sort. so where better to sort out if it is a razor or not than here?

the bar in front of the razor moves side to side only as much as you can see in the second picture.

any ideas??

 

[deruitem]

I got nothing!

 

[dpm802]

If that thing is a razor ... I don't want to be the guinea pig that gets to shave with it the first time.

It appears to be some sort of utility knife, but that movable bar is really throwing me for a loop.
Maybe its something like a cheese slicer? Or something that would peel an apple?
Or perhaps its designed for whittling wood.

Did it have a blade in it when you bought it?
Maybe that moveable bar can be forced back and it will open up the device to change blades.

 

[rebos]

I would be extremely surprised if someone let that thing touch their face.

I am --like you --thinking that it is a scraper. Hope you get a proper ID on it.

 

[OccamsBadger]

I got nothing either but I bet it would give a TSA agent a heart attack.

 

[cb91710]

I would be extremely surprised if someone let that thing touch their face.

Let's get Honed... he'll shave with anything!

 

[jugglertim]

blade that was in it was a standard single edge blade. it slides out the top. i showed it to a few friends at work. one of them said fruit peeler is what he was thinking. another one said (without me suggesting it) that he thought it it looked like it might be an old military issue shaving razor. interesting that he had the same guess as the guy i bought it from. i use a replaceable blade straight razor, so shaving with this would be similar, but i just don't think that is what it was designed for.

 

[dpm802]

If that thing were a military-issue razor, we would have seen others like it before now.
So I think that option can probably be ruled out.

 

[mattnick]

It looks more like a torture device than a shaving device!

 

[joshuastar]

cheese razor?

 

[mattnick]

Welcome to B&B by the way!

 

[jugglertim]

Welcome to B&B by the way!

thanks! i have been here many times lurking and learning. but now i guess i am official.

 

[ricardo9505]

commercial box cutter?

 

[BBrad]

Since Gillette had a major contract for WWI, and GEM was also supplying 1912s, I can't see that device being a "military" razor. Maybe a box cutter . . . maybe one could shave with it . . . but I'm agreeing with dpm802 that if true, we would have seen plenty of them before now!

 

[Jack-in-the-Green]

Tongue blade? Seriously, though, I'd guess potato peeler, or something similar.

 

[OzoneAz]

commercial box cutter?

That would be my guess too...

 

[KipNoxzema]

I was going to guess something revolved on that bar, but there are no wear marks.

 

[smalltank]

I think this is the metal chopstick shave vid version Seraphin made..lol

 

[Topgumby]

I'm thinking it's a fabric cutting tool. Kind of like a carpet knife.

 

[drocu]

It looks like a tool to strop SE blades. That bar in front of the blade would sit underneath the strop and I'm guessing it moves in both directions so you can flip the device over and strop in the other direction. I've seen a similar device (in concept anyways) in the BST, I believe.