Souvenir of Solingen flea market find.

[Mlee]

About a week ago, I was on my way home from work and thought I would stop by one of my favorite flea markets. In a display of a vendor that I've found a couple of fairly nice razors in the past, I found this one. It appeared to be NOS but had a little surface rust and some tarnish. I finally got around to cleaning it up and it turned out pretty nice. Below is a little history that Arne was so kind to share.

It's a very beautiful razor made by a very skilled maker that managed to find first class material in the ruins of Solingen. The razor is made as a souvenir to be sold to the American troops that occupied the Ruhr area, where Solingen is, the first years after the second world war. The soldiers were the only ones with money in Germany at the time. The coat of arms are that of the town of Solingen. The maker will never be known, it might not have been a known brand but a craftsman working on his own. My guess is that the rest of the razors were split up between the heirs when the G.I. passed away.

And now for the rest of the story. I was driving by the same flea market again today and thought "I wonder if there might have been another one in the display that I missed?". I pulled in and went straight to the same vendors display, there was not one but 2 laying on the shelf. I had one of the ladies open the display for me so I could look them over. They were both in as good a condition as the first was before I cleaned it.

On the way back to the counter I told here that a week ago, I bought Sunday, now I found Monday and Wednesday, I asked her if she would mind calling the vendor and see if he had the rest of the week. She looked at me funny but after I explained to her what I was talking about, she called him. He said he only had 2 more, so I left my name and number and they said they call me when he brought them in.

Here they are uncleaned.

 

[ScottChapin]

Now they’re nice!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Psusocr]

Great find !

 

[global_dev]

fantastic find! i love the 7 day sets.. and those look great

 

[M14Shooter]

Very Nice

 

[MilkCrate]

Very nice score!

 

[Polarbeard]

Do you have enough for everyone?

 

[ajduplessis]

beautiful

 

[Suhrim21]

You are extremely lucky. They are absolutely gorgeous.

 

[ajduplessis]

Starting to develop a serious case of jealousy

 

[Suhrim21]

Starting to develop a serious case of jealousy

I've been jealous since he posted the first one. I'd give anything to have just one of those beautiful blades.

 

[Mlee]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone. I'll post the others when I get them.

Do you have enough for everyone?

Not yet but as soon as I do, I'll start passing them out.

 

[Twelvefret]

Beautiful and congratulations

 

[Somerled]

Fabulous story, with wonderfull looking razors.
Your a lucky guy!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Mlee]

Beautiful and congratulations

Fabulous story, with wonderfull looking razors.
Your a lucky guy!

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks

 

[Mlee]

I received a phone call yesterday from the flea market telling me that the razors I had inquired about were in. Unfortunately I was out of town and had to wait until today to go look at them. When I got there, she laid them out on the counter. I was only expecting 2 but there were 3. They were every bit as nice as the others, all with a little surface rust, no pits, cracks, or chips, and all of the scales are straight and crack free. The best I can tell, Wednesday is the only one that looks like it's ever been honed. I'm still short one razor (Thursday) and the case, but I can't complain, I have 6 almost like new razors. I will post better pictures after I get them cleaned up.

 

[Suhrim21]

@Mlee You are a very lucky person. Feel free to send one to me.