Thread: Strange Barber Artefact

This is a decive picked up from a flea market, the previous owner said that the device was used by a barber.
Does anyone has an idea what it does ?

It was used to catch rodents, that would then be used to practice shaving techniques on.

Looks like an automatic Badger hair extractor to me.

It's the retractable mechanism for a auto seatbelt. LOL! I see those on Ebay all the time. A retractable strop went in there, very much like a seat belt. I never could get a good descipion on the strops so I don't know if they were leather or linen. Almost certainly they had to be a thin woven linen. They were made for travel. Kinda a good idea IMHO.
Ernest

This totally reminds me of the This Old House segment that they have a item from a viewer and they are giving their 'answer' for what it was used for. Though most of them are really far fetched lol.

Good Times.

Looks like a DE sharpener to me.

yeah, truith of it is: it's an Allegro brand DE blade strop/hone- and in less than perfect condition. Possibly was used by a barber to strop DE blades. They were available in 2 or 3 sided models (2 different strop materials and sometimes a hone). Great piece for display but unusable on today's modern DE blades.
Google Allegro- you'll find plenty of pics and such.