Thread: Valet Auto Strop

I just got a fantastic Valet Auto Strop razor - it's one of my favorite non-straight razors! It's my first SE and it's inspiring me to look at the beautiful old GEMs. It didn't come with a strop and I've done my best to thin down some strop leather that I had around, but to no avail - I just can't shave it thin enough.

Does anyone have any idea where to find leather that is so thin it will fit through the mechanism?

Many thanks!

Julian

Your best bet would be on auction sites. These come up pretty often and are generally cheap.

One thing: The stropping will destroy any coating on your blade (all modern blades are coated), and that will probably make it worse to shave with, instead of better. Modern blades don't need stropping.

Of course, not stropping on the Valet will make it just another SE razor - but that doesn't matter to me. It still shaves very well.

Good point - I didn't give the coating piece a thought. That being said, I am using "real" Valet blades (they have the name cut out of the blades)...I'm assuming that these are still coated? I guess the silly question is - is there really a need for the stropping at all? I have noticed that the blade is getting draggy after about 7 shaves (I was fortunate enough to get the razor in a case that had 10 original blades in their sleeves and box).

If they're NOS Valet blades then they're not coated. These blades should benefit from a good stropping session.

You can get new blades from Feather for these razors. The feather blades are superior, but can't be stropped.

Stropping does help the old blades. I have several of the old wedge blade SE razors and those really benefit from stropping. If they're uncoated, then they behave similarly to straight razors and can shave well for a long time with adequate stropping.

Great to know! I just found the Feathers at razorbladesandmore - they look like they'll fit just fine. Perhaps I'll save the rest of the old Valet blades for show and buy the Feathers to use. As far as the strop goes, I'll look around - it would be great to have something that would work on the old blades!

New strops here: Valet Autostrop Hand Made Replacement Strop, Kangaroo Leather

Originally Posted by ethermantis

I just got a fantastic Valet Auto Strop razor - it's one of my favorite non-straight razors! It's my first SE and it's inspiring me to look at the beautiful old GEMs. It didn't come with a strop and I've done my best to thin down some strop leather that I had around, but to no avail - I just can't shave it thin enough.

Does anyone have any idea where to find leather that is so thin it will fit through the mechanism?

Many thanks!

Julian

Hi Julian,

Yes, I had the same problem, cutting down a strop from a cut-throat allowed it to pass through, but it was very very tight, and dangerous to use.

Being in the process of learning leathercraft now, I decided last night to make myself one, as I had a suitable piece of leather in stock. It was a simple job to cut a piece to length, make a hook out of a piece of wire coathanger, and fold it through, glue and punch three holes and use three rivets to secure it further.

If you can't manage this, I'd be happy to send you one at cost, which will be no more than £2.00, plus postage. Where are you, UK?

You can email me direct on [email protected]

Regards,

Richard Lakin-Inzunza