Valet Autostrop Pass-Around

[Bushhippi]

O.K. Here is my story on how the stropping of the blades went......first I stopped the Feather carbon and the vintage Valet SS blades 50 times each......with the suede strop Joe made up..............up and down was a one count.

Stropped carbon blade made no noticeable difference, could not get through half side of my face.
Stropped Valet SS blade their was a noticeable difference, finished off the rest of my shave........but towards the end of the first pass it was pulling and tugging.........did not want to do a second pass...

So I finished up a second pass with it reloaded with the Gem blade......DFS

I we'll ship off the razor to cpacamper today or tomorrow, summery to follow........

 

[DrAwkward]

O.K. Here is my story on how the stropping of the blades went......first I stopped the Feather carbon and the vintage Valet SS blades 50 times each......with the suede strop Joe made up..............up and down was a one count.

Stropped carbon blade made no noticeable difference, could not get through half side of my face.
Stropped Valet SS blade their was a noticeable difference, finished off the rest of my shave........but towards the end of the first pass it was pulling and tugging.........did not want to do a second pass...

So I finished up a second pass with it reloaded with the Gem blade......DFS

I we'll ship off the razor to cpacamper today or tomorrow, summery to follow........

You are a brave man to try the Valet blade w/o stropping. When I try it next, I think I will follow your lead and do 50 up & down passes.

 

[cpacamper]

My office tells me the box arrived. I will pick it up Monday mornimg and report back next week.

 

[Bushhippi]

My summery on the Valet autostrop:

First I would like to thank Mos6502 for making this happen........may have never tried one thinking that this was to archaic of a razor for regular use. But now it is on my list to get.

I found it to be a very aggressive razor........but very fun to use. I cleaned up my MMOC and tried it out for the first time and I agree with DrAwkard it is aggressive too.........but IMO the Valet is more so..........That being said I really enjoyed my stay with the Valet Autostrop and look forward to getting one in the near future..........

 

[cpacamper]

Box is in hand, here is a pic of most of the contents, sans strop and case:

Questions: What are the two spineless blades on the right? When stropping, which side of the leather do I use?

Ok, I wish my beard grew faster. I figured out how to use the strop (maybe used the wrong side?), so I loaded the Valet blade and stropped 30 times back and forth, then proceeded to lather the back of my hand and shaved 1 pass wtg. No tugging or pulling . I like the razor's weight and balance.

I'm going to strop the Valet blade 50 times back and forth as recommended and shave my face tomorrow morning. If the spineless blades are stainless, I'll try those next, then a Gem stainless, and last will be a Feather stainless I saved just for the autostrop passaround. Will report back soon.

PS Who is next after me?

 

[mos6502]

The solid blades are Valet blades too, they're just older so they lack the VALET cut out. I don't think they can be revived by stropping.
The instructions say to use the smooth side of the strop.
I'm not sure who's next, I'll have to look over the thread again.

 

[joamo]

The strop could be used with either side, the slightly smoother side may work just a little better. It was made from a suede piece, I didn't have any grained leather thin enough to work with. It might take a paste fairly well though.

 

[cpacamper]

Day One: stamped Valet blade

I decided to go with my usual prep and w/x/atg shave for my time with the razor (hot shower, sunflower oil as preshave, VDH Deluxe face lathered with an Omega 10066, cold water rinse and Lilac Vegetal).

Stropped the blade 50 round trips and wtg was surprisingly smooth. Xtg I noticed a bit of tugging, chalked it up to angle and/or technique. Atg was more tugging still and it wasn’t technique, the blade lost whatever keen edge it got from the initial stropping. I think if I stropped between second and third passes I’ve had a smoother atg pass; not terribly practical on a daily basis. I’m not Muhle R41 BBS; I feel some atg stubble on my neck and jawline, with some neck irritation. In fact, the results are quite similar to Gem OCMMs and Pushbuttons in my experience: a bit rough cutting through whiskers and not as BBS as I’d like with some lingering irritation.

The razor feels pretty well balanced and the handle is fairly grippy, but a bit thin. Despite the industrial look of the head, I find the head much more maneuverable than the Gem heads I’ve tried, and head to head I would pick the AS over the Gem every time based on final shave result.

It’s my opinion that paint scraper-type SE blades I’ve treid are generally not as sharp as DE blades (though the Feather stainless SE comes close) making my overall SE shaving experience relatively inefficient and aggressive. Injector blades work much better for me. YMMV big time here.

For tomorrow’s shave I’m going to put the stamped Valet blade away in favor of a de-spined Gem or a Feather stainless.

 

[Bushhippi]

(though the Feather stainless SE comes close) So you say.............are they your own blades? Because the only Feathers in this pass around are the ones moss provided, and they are the blue carbon ones, not stainless steel...........I am little confused, could you please clarify.

 

[cpacamper]

Yes the Feather stainless SE blade is from my very own stash.

 

[cpacamper]

Quick update: tried a de-spined Gem stainless this morning, much sharper than the stamped Valet blade. The cutting action was much smoother, but I noticed more blade "chatter" than with the Valet blade. At first I thought the blade wasn't seated right in the stops and I noticed one of the stops was slightly bent downwards so I straightened it a bit and noticed a slight improvement

I'm thinking the modern Gem blade is a bit thinner than the vintage blades, so some chatter is gonna happen.

Overall a more comfortable shaving experience, but not as good of a final result as I aim for. I'll keep at it with the Gem for a few days, may even try a head shave with it tomorrow morning .

 

[mos6502]

I have noticed that the blade stops on all of the 1912 Model Cs I've got have one stop's open end bent up more than the others. I believe this is so the blade can be flipped into place and "locked" in without the edge hanging up on stop or the other. The blade itself should sit perfectly flat and parallel to the teeth though, and it was in this condition when I sent it out.

The original blades and the carbon Feathers are both thick blades so probably "clamp" in place better than the modern Gem blades. Additionally the early Valets all have an inherent flaw in that the axle the blade mounts to will always have a tiny bit of slop so chatter to some degree is inevitable. On the later models that use the cut out blades the mechanism for locking the blade in place is entirely different and probably results in less or no blade chatter.

edit: PS: friarofthebriar is next in line, and then it's headed back home.

 

[cpacamper]

View attachment 439984
Went right to the Feather stainless for an irritation free mostly BBS face shave and darn good head shave. Feather stainless blade works very well despite a bit of chatter, not nearly as much chatter as the spineless Gem, though. I will use the Feather for the rest of my time with this incredible tool.

 

[cpacamper]

Razor is cleaned, sanitized, packed and on its way back to mos6502.

I enjoyed the most comfortable shaves using my stainless Feather SE blade. I bet with some NOS vintage Valet blades, the chatter I noticed with the modern SE blades would not be an issue; however, due to their relative scarcity and the chattering issues with more modern SE blades, I would not consider this model Autostrop as a daily driver.

Nonetheless, I really enjoyed my time with the razor and I cannot thank mos enough for the opportunity to try it out.

 

[mos6502]

Happy to have let folks give it a whirl.

 

[Bushhippi]

Bummer for poor Friaroftebriar................... PS: friarofthebriar is next in line, and then it's headed back home. ​Ho well sorry dude..........

 

[mos6502]

He is apparently away on a trip or some such, so the razor came back to me in the meantime. They'll get their turn when they return.

 

[Flintlock]

I hope this helps http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4exDJXACHg.

AWESOME! Thanks.

Anthony