January for AutoStrops?

Here is my AutoStrop travel kit:

Here is mine. It works great with the Feather blades but I do need to keep the edge back (I use the wrapper for this) when closing the door of the holder as it wants to skew a bit. On the top picture you can see it's still a bit skew in the holder but it's perfectly straight on the comb. The free play on the hinge compensates it. There is no free play at all when the comb is in closed position.

It's an English one, I do not know which type. I like the thin ball end handle.

I got it in a generous PIF from B&B-er Toddy.

Just had my 1st shave with the auto-strop---very nice---can these be re-plated?

If TTO razors can be replated without disassembly, I see no reason why it can't be done with a Valet.

The plating on mine is still nice appart from the strap rolls (see bottom picture) but to me that just shows it has been used as it was intended.

This one I picked up for $5 at an antique store (no strop); it has the cut-outs just above the center of the A and at the top of the T.

It works just fine with Feathers...well, not just fine, it works GREAT!

It could probably benefit with another polishing though.

beisler said:

Just had my 1st shave with the auto-strop---very nice---can these be re-plated?

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I saw one on eBay that was replated in rhodium.

So I got the Feather blades and sure enough they fit perfectly my Autostrop Valet which does not take the Gem blades. I have concluded from searching around both on this forum and elsewhere the models I have are the VC1 and VC3, with the latter requiring the Feather blade with the cutouts. Shaving with it today for the first time I found it an excellent razor maybe shaving slightly milder than the VC1 but I will check the Feather blade in the VC1 at the end of the sessions with the VC3. I get around 7 shaves with the Gem blades.

Here's my WWI Khaki Kit. It was issued to a guy who used to be my Dad's neighbor when my Dad was a kid. The old guy and his wife took care of my Grandma and her kids (Grandpa was a loser and bailed out) when he was a boy, and my Dad returned the favor and took care of them when they were old and couldn't get along like they used to. This razor made its way into my brothers hands and when he found out I was starting to collect razors, he gave this to me. It's one of the prizes of my collection



Here it is cleaned up


Here are a couple more I've picked up

Here's my WWI Khaki Kit. It was issued to a guy who used to be my Dad's neighbor when my Dad was a kid. The old guy and his wife took care of my Grandma and her kids (Grandpa was a loser and bailed out) when he was a boy, and my Dad returned the favor and took care of them when they were old and couldn't get along like they used to. This razor made its way into my brothers hands and when he found out I was starting to collect razors, he gave this to me. It's one of the prizes of my collection

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Here it is cleaned up
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Here are a couple more I've picked up

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Here's my silver VC2 full set with a box of blades and the owner's name embossed on the box top. There's also a gold VC2 million-dollar and a VC1 in the metal coffin. I have a bunch of original blades laying around; thinking of setting up a PIF if anybody's interested. Actually tried shaving with one - YEeeeOuchhh!!!! Grabbed the 1912 Star to finish up.

Great thread! And sorry for zapping it back to life (which seems to be happening a lot since I've started collecting and using SE razors!).
I just won a pair of SE razors on eBay and one was a Valet Auto Strop.
After reading about which blades worked best, I ordered 15 Feathers from Razor Blades and More. A buck a blade, but if I can work out the actual auto stropping procedure, hey I'll be saving money, right? Attached is a photo of the Auto Strop from the original eBay listing. I'm looking forward to giving this ugly beast a run...and as a previous post mentioned, leaving it out on display to scare my house guests!

I still assert that they're the coolest, most masculine looking razor around! Come on, they have gears!!!

They always remind me of a push style lawnmower.

cpool222 said:

I still assert that they're the coolest, most masculine looking razor around! Come on, they have gears!!!

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Huh! THIS has gears!

pjgh said:

Huh! THIS has gears!

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+1. The Wilkinson Empire is awesome! Love using mine. Definitely appeals to my engineering side.

Here's my VC4 auto-strop I got off of eBay. It came with two Valet blades and a barely used strop.

SafetyRZRBgnr78 said:

Here's my VC4 auto-strop I got off of eBay. It came with two Valet blades and a barely used strop.

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That's a nice one! I'm not sure I've ever seen one just like that case.

Yeah all the ones I've seen have the cases like I've seen above on this thread.

It's a really nice razor the only thing bad about is the handle gets loose sometimes.