Ladling reads, Patented Other Patents 1907-1914- 1923 Pending Under blade: AUTOSTROPSAFTEYRAZOR CO. LIMITED TORONTO CANADA Blades: http://www.razorbladesandmore.com/content/feather-single-edge-blades-5pcs Henry Jacques ("Jack") Gaisman (December 5, 1869 – August 6, 1974)[1] was a philanthropist and inventor of a type of safety razor, the autographic camera, and over one thousand other patents which benefited common items such as swivel chairs, men's belts, and carburetors. His safety razor was patented in May and July 1904, and was initially sold by the Auto Strop Safety Razor Company, a competitor to razor and blade manufacturer Gillette Razor Corporation, run by competitor Mr. King C. Gillette. When Mr. Gaisman found similar technologies in the Gillette razors, his company sued the Gillette Razor Corporation for patent infringement, which Mr. Gillette resolved by merging with Auto Strop. When Mr. Gaisman came on board at the Gillette corporation, he found financial reporting errors which shook investor confidence and briefly caused the Gillette stock to drop. When Mr. Gillette eventually died at age 77, Mr. Gaisman went on to become the leader of the Gillette Razor Corporation
Sorry to let you down, however, the red streaks are from another paint operation that didn't work out well. I'm trying and now and then failing. New single edge blades on the way. I like the metal case. Any idea on the year?
Try looking at this website and typing in Valet as the search criteria. compare your model with the styles. I would say it is a Auto Strop, Valet, Model C, Pal, nickel and gold plated but it is hard to tell from your pictures. http://www.stropper.com/home/stropper_index.php?category=
It appears to be a VC1, made from 1922 to around 1927 or so, but it's hard to say with 100% certainty based on your pictures. I'm basing it on the handle. If the blade holder isn't the kind with the pins that lock into the cutouts on the blades you can use standard SE blades by removing the spine. I'm not a huge fan of the relatively expensive Feather SE blades because they tend to only last a couple shaves and then they're done. That type of case was nicknamed the coffin case.
A old blade came with it and it does have cut outs and the blade when held will lock in place. Comes out rather easy also. I haven't seen many with the Made in Canada. Gillette Valet Razor – Determining Age Our Gillette Valet had several markings on it, including the Gillette Name, The Model Name (Valet), and a bunch of patent numbers included. Like any good game of clue, we had several great bits of information to process. Patent Numbers 1492246 1639335 1770170 2068717 By using the last patent number, 2068717, we are able to tell what the most logical starting point for the razors existence is. In most cases older patents numbers (lower patent numbers) pertain to parts of the Gillette Valet razor that probably also existed on earlier models. Below shows the patent numbers with the associated dates and inventors. Based on this, it is reasonably assumed that our Valet razor was produced around 1937 and might have been used by a service man during World War II. Patent number: 1492246 Patent Inventor: Henry J. Gaisman Filing date: Aug 19, 1921 Issue date: Apr 29, 1924 Name: Safety Razor Patent number:1639335 Patent Inventor: Henry J. Gaisman Filing date: Jun 24, 1924 Issue date: Aug 16, 1927 Patent number:1770170 Patent Inventor: Henry J. Gaisman Filing date: Oct 22, 1927 Issue date: Jul 8, 1930 Patent Number: 2068717 Patent Inventor: Nicholas Testi Filing Date: Oct 4, 1935 Issue Date: Jan 26, 1937 Prior to 1930 there was another company that produced the Valet razor called the Auto Strop Safety Razor Company and run by Henry Gaisman. Henry’s first patent a “safety razor” in 1904. Henry ran Gillette after King Gillette died in 1932. An interesting fact Henry Gaisman lived to the ripe old age of 104. The word “Strop” (pronounced strope) is a thin leather strap that was used to sharpen a razor blade. If you see razors made by the Auto Strop Safety Razor Company you can be safely assured that those razors were made somewhere between 1904 and 1930-1932.
Nice! I picked up one of these (VC2) a few weeks ago only to find out, and be disappointed, that the blades are very proprietary for this model. For me personally, blade modification isn't worth it to me. I have chalked this one up to a learning experience in razor history and will keep it as a "collector item" for now.
They are great shavers! Congratz! As far as I can see on the pics it looks like the blade slides in from the side. In that case you should be able to use modified SE blades.
Thanks Tom. Seems it is difficult to determine year of manufacture. There isn't a serial number on my razor so it is dated between 1904 to 1930. Thanks for the coffin case information. The case is in good shape.
Found this. Will post full report L8r. Reported as: VC1,2,3,4. VC1- Part of a 1935 Model C Special Set - the razor itself is known as the “$1 model” VC2- Produced from ‘28-‘35 - the “Million Dollar Razor” VC3- Produced from ‘35-‘40 VC4- Produced from ‘41-‘46 (my granddads razor) There are minor differences in the handles, nothing to write home about. They are fully knurled with useable cut knurling, no wimpy molded knurling here. Some of the handles do have grooves cut the full length of the handle. IMO, these are some of the nicest handles I’ve ever used on a razor. They are 3/8" in diameter and 3" long. The VC1 weighs 60 grams, the rest weigh 65 grams (my scale is accurate to 5 grams). The dimensions of the heads are all the same. When I remove the handles and place the bottom of the head on a flat surface the highest part is 11/16" high. The depth of the head from comb to the rear is 1", and the width of the head is 1 13/16". The heads are where the major differences lie. As the production progressed it appears that the factory was involved in major cost cutting and in designing ways to make their blades and only their blades to fit the razors. Because of that, these Valets require special blades and for some models there is only one modern blade that will fit. Feather makes a SE blade for the Valet, and I know that it fits all of my AutoStrops. The Valets that require this special blade have a punched out blade cover to fit the punched out Valet or Feather blades. These models are VC2, VC3, and VC4. The VC1 and earlier can accept a modified modern SE blade as well as the Feather and Valet blades. The modification consists of removing the spine and snapping off each rear corner. It’s no big deal to modify a blade. So the early Valets have all the blade choices of any other SE razor plus the Feather or Valet blades. The younger models can only accept a vintage Valet blade or the modern Feather. It just so happens those are the years Valet was owned by Gillette, what a surprise!. I only get 2 good shaves from a Feather and I’ll use Feathers for this review to keep everything as much the same between razors as possible, so every other shave, I’ll use a fresh blade. One short mention... The AutoStrop is designed to strop the blade. Initially I wasn’t going to do that since I had a bad incident not too long ago, but I think I’ve gotten over my trauma and can try it again. Feathers make the perfect blade to strop since I normally only get 2 shaves per blade. If I get significantly more shaves we’ll know that it works. The Valets that require the specific blades are easily identified by a full blade holder, very little of the blade can be seen with these models. Maybe 1/16" is left showing near the comb. The type that can accept modified blades has a short “half” blade holder and a great deal of the blade remains showing after installation. Pictured, only the VC1 to the left can accept a modified blade. Earlier models can as well. One short mention... The AutoStrop is designed to strop the blade. Initially I wasn’t going to do that since I had a bad incident not too long ago, but I think I’ve gotten over my trauma and can try it again. Feathers make the perfect blade to strop since I normally only get 2 shaves per blade. If I get significantly more shaves we’ll know that it works. The Valets that require the specific blades are easily identified by a full blade holder, very little of the blade can be seen with these models. Maybe 1/16" is left showing near the comb. The type that can accept modified blades has a short “half” blade holder and a great deal of the blade remains showing after installation. Pictured, only the VC1 to the left can accept a modified blade. Earlier models can as well. Before a detailed comparison I need to install some blades. The VC1 has a spring loaded blade holder that will accept modified SE blades or Feather SE blades. Of course it’ll also accept vintage Valet blades as well. With this model you begin as with every Valet. The head locking lever is pushed up to unlock the head and blade. Then hold the blade by the left side only and get the blade to “start”under the little turned out flap of the leaf spring of the blade holder. While not grasping the sharp edge (common sense), working only from the left side of the blade, it’s slid into place. It takes much longer to write and read this than it does to accomplish the job. Pushing down on the blade locking lever raises the comb and the blade is held firmly by the clips on the comb. The blade locking lever is between the head and the handle. It also can adjust the aggressiveness of the razor on this model. Notice the turned up edge of the leaf spring that retains the blade. It's to the lower right of the blade holder here. The VC2 begins with the same locking lever, then when it’s unlocked the blade holder is swung open to reveal a door that unlatches from the right side. That is swung open to reveal some punched raised areas that mate with the proper blade (already discussed). I took a Feather and aligned the punched area on the blade with the raised areas. Make sure the blade is installed as close to the pivot point of the razor cover as possible or you’ll be in for a very aggressive shave. The razor will allow that. Also make sure the blade is aligned properly. Complete the installation with the locking lever and make sure that the head locks closed. The VC3 gets opened the same way, so we jump to swinging the blade holder open and find a similar punched area with raised “pins” that mate with the blade. This razor has rounded areas that allow one to properly align the blade . Again, mount the blade as far rearward toward the pivot as possible. This should put the notches in the blade at one extreme and that’s what you want. Again, failure you do this will give a super aggressive shave. This model has little “wings” that keep the blade in place and I manually closed them on the blade, but the wings will automatically cam closed if one doesn’t do that. After that is accomplished lock the head and make sure it’s locked. VC3 blade exposure- farther away from the comb All of the razors have the same Rube Goldberg look to them with tiny gears on the sides. I absolutely love the look. These gears work in conjunction with the rollers seen at the rear of the head for stropping the installed blade. In practice it works great, but that isn’t what this review is about. Just Google “stropping with a Valet Autostrop” or something similar and you should find a few Utube videos to see how it works. The first shave is with the gorgeous VC1. This razor is a medium aggressive razor. Very nice feel to it. It gave a close, 2 pass plus touchups BBS without any problems, hitches or surprises. The angle is typical SE razor angle, a very shallow angle to the skin, almost with the head wiping the skin. The aggressiveness of this razor comes as no surprise, it’s one of the two razors that have the cutting edge close to the curve of the comb. I didn’t strop the blade with the VC1 as the razor is pristine and I didn’t want to wear any of the plated parts. Because of the leaf spring that holds the blade tightly I have no doubt I wouldn’t have run into the problems I did when stropping the blade with the VC4. The VC4 holds the blade with “wings” at the side of the razor and the blade is sort of held in place by the punched out portions of the blade and the corresponding punched areas of the head. I don’t like the way the blade loads one bit, but after spending time with it it isn’t difficult to figure out and get right every time. When stropping the blade, well the operation is rather “sloppy”. The blade isn’t held snugly by the very nature of the “clamping” mechanism, so after it blade flips even once the blade is out of place in the razor head. That might not be a problem when stropping, but one needs to put it back into place to shave again. I successfully stropped the blade and it’ll be used tomorrow. For the second shave I followed the gorgeous VC1 with the ugly duckling of the bunch, my granddads VC4. Many months ago I tried this razor for the first time and thought it was quite aggressive. I used it again for this review and thought it was too mild. It could be I’ve grown, or maybe the blade wasn’t positioned the same for each shave. But let me change the subject for a moment. I used yesterdays stropped blade and frankly it was the pits. It wasn’t cutting much and I wasn’t looking forward to scraping whiskers off, but wanted to cut them off, so I put in a new blade. Maybe a stropped blade was better or less expensive than a new blade 70 years ago, but a stropped blade certainly isn’t better than a new Feather. Blade loading is the pits in this razor. There is no way to accomplish it w/o handling the cutting edge of the blade, or at the very least, getting extremely close to it. I’m thinking a hairs breadth close, not even 1/16" away from it. But I installed the blade and got a mid aggressive shave, but bordering on mild. I checked the blade stops on the comb and the blade was correctly in place. It might be a 4 setting on a Slim. It’s not an everyday razor for me. Because of the less than optimum blade installation routine I may never use it again. This is my granddads razor and I’d like to use it, but it has too many things going against it. This razor has the blade positioned further from the comb, but with more gap. I mention that only to explain the (for me) too mild shave. This shave would be fine for some folks. OK, so I don’t store the blade in the razor I just used it in. I've got to use another Valet with the same blade for another shave tomorrow. So now was time to remove it from the razor. Opening the head isn’t a problem and the wings slide out of the way easily, but the waxy glue used on the blade makes the blade adhere to the head. I thought the installation of the blade was hairy, removal was even more so. Now I’m trying to use my fingernail to pry the blade up in the only area of the head where I can really see any blade to get leverage on, right near the edge. I do not like this razor. It’s very poorly designed for todays Feather blades. It may have been wonderful for Valet blades, but I’m not using Valet blades. If you have a Valet razor that was handed down to you you might find it worth the hassle, but I don’t. I did manage to pull off all of the blade “operations” w/o blood though. But done many times you’re only kidding yourself if you think it’ll never happen. The 3rd shave was with the VC2 “Million Dollar Razor”. This is another Valet with the blade edge close to the comb, so I’m going to expect a mid aggressive shave like the VC1. Blade insertion is a real PITA with this razor also. The same problems all over again. This is the razor that has the same swing open head and then when that’s open it has another door that swings open. There are too many places for the blade to settle in on the pins, and to make matters worse this razor doesn’t have the raised areas to align in the cutouts of the blade to show you that you’re close. Same faults as with the VC4 blade loading, the fingers must work in very close proximity to the cutting edge. But I finally got it in place, and the blade is up against the blade stops. Once the blade is installed properly it gave a great shave, 2 passes plus touchups for a BBS. I prefer a more aggressive razor, but this would do for me. I’m guessing that part of the great shave is the ultra sharp Feather blade. This razor is one of the Valets I have that has the blade close to the curve of the comb. That explains it having a shave I can live with. The next shave will be with the VC3 Autostrop and as is my usual practice I installed the blade in it after using it in the VC2. Of all the “match up the slots with the pins” type Autostrops this design is the easiest for blade loading. It went smooth and fast today. The shave was a bit mild for me, but I expected that. The shave was excellent for the mildness of the razor. It was a BBS in 2 1/3 passes (that equals 2 passes plus touchups). For a Feather blade on it’s 3rd shave, that was some kind of phenominal. Actually the shave was as good as the Valets with the more aggressive geometry. To recap: The looks of these razors for me is better than acceptable. I really like the Rube Goldberg look to the shave head. For me the design flaw for these razors, and particularly the VC2, 3, and 4 is the blade loading. Once the blades are loaded they give acceptable to great shaves, depending on the year in which it was made. The newer ones (VC3 & 4) give a milder shave. The VC1 & 2 gave a mid aggressive shave. Blade loading for the VC1 is the best of the bunch, it’s easy, fast and the hand is away from the sharp edge of the blade. I anticipate my using the VC1 far more than all of the others combined for a few reasons: it has a shave experience I prefer, because of the easier blade loading, and because it will take modified SE blades. As far as stropping a Feather blade... I won’t bother doing that again unless the shavepocalypse is upon us and I absolutely have to. But the real answer for that IMO is to stock up on blades now so that I won’t need to strop blades. Before I close this review, if you have a Valet that takes the modified SE blades (VC1 and earlier) it would be good now to show and explain how to modify a standard SE blade so that it’ll work in the razor. Doing this will allow one to use any SE blade intended for shaving to be used in your Valet. This lowers the cost of using these razors substantially and allows blade options. Sorry, there is no good way to modify a SE blade for the later Valets (VC2,3, and 4) , Gillette saw to that. You start with a standard modern SE spine back blade. What we’ll do, in a nutshell, is remove the spine then snap off the blade corners. Do I need to tell anyone that these blades are very sharp and that extreme care should be used when doing this? If so, consider yourself warned. The first step is to select a blade. Leave the protective paper on it if you have a bulk blade. If not just be very careful. I place the blade on a soft wooden surface in my shop and pry an edge of the spine up with an edged tool. Here I’m using a screwdriver blade. A fine edge on the tool is OK, but it wouldn’t use a sharp edge. The clamp is there to give me something to push against w/o having my hand there in case the screwdriver slips. The amount of edge needed to be pried up is exaggerated here. If you look at the other corner of the spine you’ll see the crimp that needs to be removed from out of the blade itself. Prying up 1/8" just to make sure everything clears the notch it’s crimped into is plenty. Once the corner is pried up hold the blade and using the other hand, just pull the spine off. It’ll come off easily. Use a plier to hold the bare blade if your blade doesn’t have a guard on it. EDIT: There is an easier way to remove the spine from a SE blade. Using a plier, just squeeze the very edge that is folded over to form the spine. It opens right up for removal. Now comes the part that I really don’t like to get my fingers/hands near. Be sure you wear goggles because the piece will fly as it breaks off. I do this out in the shop where the tiny pieces of steel are acceptable. You could also cover the piece with a cloth to contain it, but you’ll give up the advantage of seeing what you’re doing. The paper blade guard needs to be removed to do this part of the operation. Don’t destroy it though, save it for reuse. I use a long jawed Vise-Grip and reach diagonally across the blade with the jaws of the V-G. I place the jaws where it want the blade to fracture, and lock the jaws. Then using a sharp edged block of wood or metal, and placing the blade/Vise-Grip in the proper relation to the block, a swift tap on the Vise-Grip with a mallet will nicely snap off the corner and leave no bent edge. Done right, this corner is complete, then just repeat for the other corner. The corners can also be bent to snap them off, but this can leave a bent edge and that will just prematurely wear the blade holder out. To do this I use two pliers and placing one in the proper place for the break, use the other to bend the blade. After the blade has been modified I use a piece of tape to reaffix the guard to the blade for storage. Note the bent right corner of the sample blade. The paper guard is ready to be folded over and taped for storage. The newly modified blade has had more of the corner snapped of than is required, but it'll still work fine. The point is that this isn't rocket science. There is a huge tolerance on modifying blades for use.
Yup.. Lucky me, I have the VC2 version... I didn't know about this until after I brought it home. I thought all SE razors took modern SE blades... I know better now and some be making that mistake again, I hope.
I think I saw those when I was first researching my razor(after it was too late). I can't remember if they are the ONLY blades available or my bumps are different that all the other pictures I'd seen for modifying blades/fit... Here's mine. Both my alignment bumps are linear to each other. Most I've seen have one at an angle to the other.
