A Vintage Military Razor

I was visiting a friend of mine, who is both a long-time, highly-successful tennis coach and a history buff -- especially interested in military history. In his Michigan residence (he also lives in Florida part of the year), he has a little museum in his basement. He was walking me through his collection, when I spied his only shaving artifact: A Simplex Military Razor, complete with its original box.

This is a three-piece design with a bakelite handle. The baseplate's shape is a ringer for a pre-WWII Gillette Tech. The packaging suggests that the razor was manufactured by the Federal Razor Blade Co, in New York.

Though the head is heavily covered with a whitish substance (old soap?) and the baseplate is also partially coated, I suspect both have a black finish underneath. The substrate from which they are made is unknown to me.

I am not tempted to ask if I can clean it up and shave with it, because if it is a pre-war Tech copy, then the shave would be just a bit too aggressive for me. Still it was a fun surprise to find this shaving artifact in my buddy's private museum.

Happy shaving!