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The Wasp

The Wasp

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356
Location
The Wee County
The SE bug I've caught has brought me a Valet Autostrop and a Wilkinson Empire from the interweb. I've brought a few razors up to scratch now, so kind of know the razor cleaning drill, and they are both looking good, especially the Valet, but I am keen to restore the strops and perhaps the boxes too. I have no idea where to start doing this with all the different materials used. They are in fair condition and I think they have the potential to scrub up nicely. I need to know which chemicals/cleaners and tools I should use so I don't just waste the velvet, leather and wood. Thanks in advance..
 
Velvet is a tough one to clean. I have ruined a few by just trying that little bit too hard. First, any lettering and logos will come straight off with ANY cleaning. Second, anything even slightly tough will leave bald patches in the velvet. I've settled on a damp (that's "was wet and very well flicked out") soft bristle brush for the insides of all boxes.

Re-doing cloth over the inside of the hinge is a pain. Leave well alone, but if it's a tatty mess ... a razor blade and just nick it out. I think it looks cleaner that way. Outside, you can buy cloth tape to re-do the hinge. Most black boxes come up lovely with a gentle sanding and then a good two or three hits with black boot polish. Valet Model C sets in coffin-like cases come up champion like this! Metal boxes, well, polish as per razors.

Gently on the inside, the rest is up to your imagination. I'd be interested to hear any wacky combinations you come up with ...
 
Thanks Paul. The Wilkie is in a plain brown wooden box with a Model C strop, a wooden blade box plus one wrapped Ever Ready wedge blade. The velvet inside the box is purple or burgundy but pretty shot at second glance. I think i'll just take out the cloth and sand the box. The Valet is in a black leatherette box with a rich wine coloured lining and five wrapped blades, I don't think it'll take much to bring it back to a reasonable condition. Invaluble information as ever PJGH..
 
I had a day free today so I attacked all my boxes and accesories to decide what to clean/keep/chuck. The two strops are unserviceable so I removed the metal end grips and polished them up. The Valet box cleaned up not bad and the velvet came up a treat using glasses wipes, which lifted the dirt but left the lettering intact. I'll return to give it more treatment in a week or so. I stripped what turned out to be, blue velvet out of the Wilkie box and scraped it and sanded it, bringing up a nice grained finish. Ithrew out a unsaveable 1914 box along with a very tatty Schick case. Iam using the refurbished wooden box to store the original blades I received along with razors that I have purchased, so it has a vintage cardboard wrapped Ever Ready, a Corrux, two old and loaded injectors and half a dozen Valet blades, along with a wooden Wilkie blade box with a wedge blade inside. It would be interesting to know if I can use/salvage any of these vintage blades or are they too risky or too far gone?
 
Inspect the blades under a magnifier - if there is ANY hint of rust or discolouration on the edge or the blade, discard them. You can (carefully) clean up the Ever Ready/Corrux blades with steel wool and then some metal polish for use as show blades in cased examples.

The Wilkinson wedge, however, can be cleaned up, honed and stropped.
 
Once cleaned, I still wouldn't shave with them ... I've never actually cleaned one, so can't comment if the wool will bring off the blue colour. I have tried a vintage Valet blade though, but it did not go well.

To give you the best chance of enjoying the Valet, grab a pack of Feather Hi-Stainless off Connaughts. You can also use a spine off a GEM blade to "re-spine" a Feather for use in GEM and Ever Ready razors.
 
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