Valet Auto Strop?

Can someone briefly describe what's the deal with the Valet Auto Strop or its equivalents?

As I'm now officially a Gemocrat, is this worth trying?

Resharpening a blade sounds like a pain in the butt, but Feather makes replacement blades, right?

Should I just stick with the various GEMs I keep finding myself buying or is this something special? Ample stock on eBay for under $20 ...

Disclaimer. I did not make any of the videos linked below.

The razor incorporates a stropping mechanism that allows you to strop the blade by pulling it back and forth across an appropriately sized strop. A number of the original strops are still available. All I've done when I tried to use this feature with a modern stainless blade was to ruin the blade. Still here is a video that shows how it's supposed to work.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25-F9ZQp5Dg[/YOUTUBE]

Some Auto-Strops use only special cutout blades. You can get a modern Feather equivalent that will work at Razor Blades & More.

Others will work with a standard SE blade with the spine removed. A couple of videos that show what to do have been linked here frequently.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4exDJXACHg&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7Bq0nLygEg[/YOUTUBE]

And that's the deal.

Only as usual, I have something to add, I find, several minutes later.

They shave well, but are not my favorite SE razor for that purpose. Unless you can actually get the stropping mechanism to increase the life of the blade, which I doubt will happen with a modern blade, they are no more cost effective.

Vintage blades can be found, sometimes, I have some that I may try eventually, but they may need to be honed as well as stropped, and the mechanism doesn't handle that.

The main reason for getting these, IMHO is that they're just interesting. That's enough for me, but might not be enough for everybody.

You don't strop the modern Feather blade, it's coated. I think you should try the auto strop. They are inexpensive and a pretty decent razor. Plus they have a cool factor with all of that hardware sitting on the head.

Or, heck, should I just take the plunge and buy a cheap straight razor?

People say that SE shaving is similar, anyway, right?

But all the stropping does sound like a pain in the butt.

I will tell you that I much much much much (convince you yet?) prefer SE to DE shaving. Just the sound alone would make me switch to SE. I have a Valet, but I haven't gotten around to buying blades for it. I may next week sometime. If you want to try SE, pm me. I love my Gem 1912 and won't shave with anything but it from now on!

p.s. As cheap as SE blades are, I wouldn't mess with stropping a blade.

I was going to try mine, but I can't figure out how to get the old blade out. Is there a guide to that, somewhere?
-- Chet

Chet - do you have a pciture of yours or know which one it is? If the same as the Model C, I have instructions & will be happy to take a scan of them for you

Chester said:

I was going to try mine, but I can't figure out how to get the old blade out. Is there a guide to that, somewhere?
-- Chet

Click to expand...

It depends on which model you have. Blade loading evolved over time. A picture would help.

garyg said:

Chet - do you have a pciture of yours or know which one it is? If the same as the Model C, I have instructions & will be happy to take a scan of them for you

Click to expand...

I don't know the different models, but I'll take a pic when I get home. I thought I had a bunch of these, but I sold off a bunch of stuff, and I prolly unloaded most of them. I had one that had a kind of hinged flip-gate -- that one seemed pretty easy to get the blade out. This one seems to have the plate permanently set into it.

Photos should be up in a few hours.
-- Chet

Chester said:

I don't know the different models, but I'll take a pic when I get home. I thought I had a bunch of these, but I sold off a bunch of stuff, and I prolly unloaded most of them. I had one that had a kind of hinged flip-gate -- that one seemed pretty easy to get the blade out. This one seems to have the plate permanently set into it.

Photos should be up in a few hours.
-- Chet

Click to expand...

If it's one of the older ones (it's a pre-"Valet" Auto Strop), the blade will mostly likely slide in and out sideways on the side that has a visible little knob that sits in the blade notch. It may seem firmly fixed in place, but it moves.

I just figured this out myself last night while I was cleaning up a Model B the postman brought me.

I have a model C that I use on occasion with a modified SE blade. It shaves just as well as my GEMs . . . but has a much different feel and sound.

It is heavier in the head, so the balance is different than a GEM. The most unsettling thing, however, is the sound of the razor while shaving. The gear mechanism, which flips the blade over while stropping, makes a clicking sound every time you stroke the razor. It makes you fear that the blade is loose . . . it isn't, but it does make you a little nervous!!

While I have never tried my "newer" versions that only take cutout blades, I hear the Feather blades work well. One of these days I will order a pack and try them out . . .

While the stropping aspect is about as useful as teats on a bull, the razor itself works quite well un-stropped with modern blades, and is well worth the experience!

Model C, trying again to post .. third try so if there are three after all please ignore two