look what my wife found

[wherndon]

She was looking thru her chest of drawers for a top, and found this in the very back. I have never seen it before, and she doesn't remember it. Only thing we can think of, is that it belonged to her father, and she hid it away to keep the kids from playing with it...
Anyone know how old it is?

 

[SafetyRZRBgnr78]

I have one almost like it that was my great great grandfathers and it had a date on it that said 1907.

Your's looks like it's in better shape though. At first I didn't know what it was used for but I was told Barbers used it to thin out the hair. Mine doesn't have a box though.

 

[Wid]

I have one exactly like it. Have no use for it but it's here.

 

[wherndon]

i'm thinking that by the way the guard is shaped, you can actually shave with it.
Anyone know?

 

[onotoman]

Yes, the Durham Duplex is a decent shaving razor if you can get blades.

The original blades were 'Hollow Ground' and I've never been able to find any that didn't have a lot of rust.

I bought some new plain steel blades and some stainless steel blades from the Durham Duplex company (still going in UK)

http://www.durham-duplex.co.uk/stainless-steel-razor-blades.htm

See 'Duplex Slotted Blades'

The plain steel blades were awful even after I tried to strop them but the stainless steel ones gave a decent shave - not unlike a Shavette.

The razor originally came with one comb attachment (as you've shown here) and a stropping attachment. You can actually use the stropping attachment whilst shaving (instead of the comb version) to give a more 'authentic' straight razor setup.

Hope this helps

Best Wishes