Unusual SE Kit

[Professor Blighty]

I picked this set up yesterday, it is mint and has never been used, even once. It contains an Ever Ready SE razor (flip top), and intriguingly, a second device which appears to be some kind of strop mechanism. The brown object in the centre of the second picture is a folded strop, still sealed in its original packaging. The third picture shows the rolling bar mechanism for (I assume) moving the strop.

My question is this, why provide a strop for a single edge disposable blade razor?

The normal single edge blades fit the razor on the left perfectly.

I am both confused and intrigued....hope someone out there can shed some light on this.

 

[Yellow Jim]

It's an Ever-Ready Streamline and a very nice example at that. Quite often the strop is missing from these sets. I think the original blades that were used with these razors were the thicker wedge type blades rather than the SE blades that are more familiar with today and also not as "disposable". Also, the blades back then were typically carbon steel rather than stainless steel and as such stropping was probably more effective at maintaining the edge on those blades.

By the way if you don't fancy using it, I expect it would fetch a decent sum on ebay in that sort of condition.

 

[Professor Blighty]

It's an Ever-Ready Streamline and a very nice example at that. Quite often the strop is missing from these sets. I think the original blades that were used with these razors were the thicker wedge type blades rather than the SE blades that are more familiar with today and also not as "disposable". Also, the blades back then were typically carbon steel rather than stainless steel and as such stropping was probably more effective at maintaining the edge on those blades.

By the way if you don't fancy using it, I expect it would fetch a decent sum on ebay in that sort of condition.

Many thanks Jim, most helpful!