I got this yesterday in a travel kit. A de fits it but is this a shavette or a carpenters tool? The markings say MFG, By La Carpenter co.damb pat April 8 .13
Actually, it is an invisible razor. They stopped making them in the 70's when the Trac II was introduced.
I think it may be safe to say it is not a shavette. Possibly a bakers lame to score bread tops? Along the lines of this?
Is that a WAG? It sounds like a WAG. Here's the facts we know. It's made by L.A. Carpenter Co. and was patented in 1918. It took 3 hole blades, since the current Gillette blade we have today didn't exist until 1928. Pairing L.A. Carpenter Co. with (B. MASS) Boston Massachusetts gives me this... The Company that made it was originally called "L.A. Carpenter Press Metal Co." and appeared in the Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, Volume 181 By United States. Patent Office 1912. Which tells us nothing except it had two simultaneous locations and existed between 1912 and 1913. It could be a barber's tool. Or a box cutter. Or a smoothing plane for a carpenter. I think it's a blade stropper. You'd insert the blade and strop one edge and then flip it and do the same on the other. But I can't prove it, since I've never seen one exactly like that.
I agree it looks like maybe it's a stropping tool to me. I guess you might be able to shave with it but with a thin DE blade unsupported like that I think it would flex too much to be usable for shaving.
Right, but the 3 hole blades were plenty thick enough to use as a half supported shavette blade. Gotta imagine how the tool might have been used in it's time. Edit: to play devil's advocate.
DE blades back then were very thick compared to today's DE blades. They could stand up very well to stropping and honing, hence all of those DE blade sharpener gadgets of the era, including the very first electric automatic DE blade sharpener, invented and made by Dremel. Yes, THAT Dremel. That gadget is what the Dremel company started with and only sold for several years until DE blade manufacturers came out with better, thinner blades and lowered the prices to where blades shifted mostly to disposable rather than keeping them around for a long time and resharpening them. It cut into the Dremel company's bottom line drastically and they had to find another product, hence the Dremel tool we all know the company for today. Up until that time, it was the only thing that Dremel made and sold, and it was such a good seller, it made them tons and tons of money. Here's a nice read on the Dremel blade sharpener: https://www.woodworkersjournal.com/dremel-rotary-tools-razors-edge-cutting-edge/
Me too! I saw one on eBay in May I think it was. Sold for $10. According to the seller, it worked but was well used so I didn't bother. I figured with a well used one, the leather stropping wheels were well worn and ineffective.
I have several different stropping machines, for DE blade, but not this one. For them to work well, you need a vintage thick carbon steel blade. The modern thin ones, made of stainless dont work well. Even after using these machines, they arent even close to the comfort of modern blades. But, back then, men were not as picky, just shave the hair, no pain, and no blood was what they cared about. Plus, times were a little tougher back then. Every penny counted. ..
