- Joined
- Monday February 9, 2015
- Location
- California
This weekend I received the three WWII razors that I bought from a guy over in the UK.
The razors were originally found, among a lot of others, in some buckets in an old cotton mill in Blackburn in the UK that had been used as a store during the war and it appears that the razors are new, old stock as they had never been issued to the front.
The guy who found them were kind enough to look through them all and found that they all had the same marking - apart from two that were different to the others. He kept one and sold me the other one - along with two of the 'common' ones.
Here they are after having traveled safely across the Pacific and all the way to my table in California
I haven't cleaned them up yet and quite honestly I have no real desire to try to give them too much of a shine.
As mentioned above there are two different markings on the heads.
The more common one looks like this (which I have two razors with):
...and the more uncommon one:
Showing their handles;
Back of baseplate:
As far as material goes, if I had to guess, I'd say its Zamak.
History - or the lack of it
I've been trying to dig up some information about these razors and their engravings but didn't find a whole lot of data out there so if anyone have something to add please let me know and I'll be happy to update this section.
These razors were part of the British military issued "Grooming kits" and became part of the new standard pack that got updated in 1937 and was issued throughout the second world war efforts. What I have not yet been able to determine is if these razors were made in the UK or in the US. The grooming kit often came with "Howard razor blades" that were made in the US and shipped over to the UK so it's possible that the razors also were manufactured in the US.
Then again, it has also been reported that these razors came with a package of blades named "All British Safety razor blade" as per below, so who knows.
The kit even came with a boar shaving brush with the same broad-arrow mark and year stamped on the bottom of it.
The first engraving: "MM&S 1944" "CC 1087"
The best I could find as far as "MM&S" goes is that it's a military abbreviation for either;
- Medical Modeling and Security", and
- Management, Medical and Security
If the MM&S on these razors truly stands for one of these I don't know - but so far it's the best I could find.
It could also simply stand for a manufacturer's name.
The arrow or "crow foot" denotes government stores - more specifically MOD stores Thanks member rangers62 on TSR for that information).
The "CC" is commonly believed to stand for "Command Centre" followed by a four digit code.
But as with a lot of the above it's more or less confirmed so if anyone has some solid information/interpretations to these engravings that would be greatly appreciated.
The second engraving: "WDC 45"
Best guess here is "Western Defense Command, 1945" as it is a common abbreviation during WWII as per for instance this page
So, unfortunately not a whole lot of confirmed information about these razors yet but I'm hoping to be able to fill some of the gaps eventually - and if nothing else I know I'll be enjoying these razors.
The razors were originally found, among a lot of others, in some buckets in an old cotton mill in Blackburn in the UK that had been used as a store during the war and it appears that the razors are new, old stock as they had never been issued to the front.
The guy who found them were kind enough to look through them all and found that they all had the same marking - apart from two that were different to the others. He kept one and sold me the other one - along with two of the 'common' ones.
Here they are after having traveled safely across the Pacific and all the way to my table in California
I haven't cleaned them up yet and quite honestly I have no real desire to try to give them too much of a shine.
As mentioned above there are two different markings on the heads.
The more common one looks like this (which I have two razors with):
...and the more uncommon one:
Showing their handles;
Back of baseplate:
As far as material goes, if I had to guess, I'd say its Zamak.
History - or the lack of it
I've been trying to dig up some information about these razors and their engravings but didn't find a whole lot of data out there so if anyone have something to add please let me know and I'll be happy to update this section.
These razors were part of the British military issued "Grooming kits" and became part of the new standard pack that got updated in 1937 and was issued throughout the second world war efforts. What I have not yet been able to determine is if these razors were made in the UK or in the US. The grooming kit often came with "Howard razor blades" that were made in the US and shipped over to the UK so it's possible that the razors also were manufactured in the US.
Then again, it has also been reported that these razors came with a package of blades named "All British Safety razor blade" as per below, so who knows.
The kit even came with a boar shaving brush with the same broad-arrow mark and year stamped on the bottom of it.
The first engraving: "MM&S 1944" "CC 1087"
The best I could find as far as "MM&S" goes is that it's a military abbreviation for either;
- Medical Modeling and Security", and
- Management, Medical and Security
If the MM&S on these razors truly stands for one of these I don't know - but so far it's the best I could find.
It could also simply stand for a manufacturer's name.
The arrow or "crow foot" denotes government stores - more specifically MOD stores Thanks member rangers62 on TSR for that information).
The "CC" is commonly believed to stand for "Command Centre" followed by a four digit code.
But as with a lot of the above it's more or less confirmed so if anyone has some solid information/interpretations to these engravings that would be greatly appreciated.
The second engraving: "WDC 45"
Best guess here is "Western Defense Command, 1945" as it is a common abbreviation during WWII as per for instance this page
So, unfortunately not a whole lot of confirmed information about these razors yet but I'm hoping to be able to fill some of the gaps eventually - and if nothing else I know I'll be enjoying these razors.
