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Greetings
I felt it might be of interest to some of you who are contemplating getting a Valet Autostrop or a Wilkinson Sword Razor to share my experiences modifying modern SE blades to fit some of these razors.
First it must be said that in the case of the Wilkinson Sword Razors, these were designed to use wedge blades or a propriety Wilkinson SE blade (long out of production) the wedge blades are very slightly narrower in width and considerably less deep. A slight 'tuning' of the razor is required to use modern blades which is perfectly described and illustrated by Jamie in this excellent article here:- http://www.theshavingroom.co.uk/forum/thread-10963.html
I use a slightly different method to remove the spine but you arrive at exactly the same end either way, by gripping just the back edge of the aluminium spine with a pair of pliers or better still pincers bend the blade slightly by pressing it on the work surface and the spine will open up allowing the blade to be removed with just finger pressure.
Having removed the spine, with the same pliers or pincers remove the bottom corners from the blade as shown in the photo, how much you remove for use in both the Valet Razor and for the Wilkinson is not at all critical. I simply grip the blade tight in my fingers and just snap off the pieces of metal. It might sound tricky or dangerous but in practice they snap off easily on the GEM Stainless PTFE coated blades and even easier on modern carbon blades ie Treets or Blue Stars.
The only dangerous part where extra care needs to be taken is inserting the blades into the blade holder on the Wilkinson razor as it is necessary to make a bridge with ones finger and thumb over the sharp edge of the blade to slide closed the blade retaining catch. A safer and probably more sensible alternative is to use snipe nosed pliers!
The photo's show the sequence of modifying the blade.
I have taken a photo of my one Wilkinson and several Valet Razors to show which model Valet Autostrops will take these modified blades and it is only the first two Valets ie the models with the narrow blade holder, the four Valet Models on the right will not and the Valet Razor on the extreme right will not even take a feather SE blade because of the position of the pins/cutouts.
A problem purchasing Valet Razors and Wilkinsons from e-bay (which for most of us is the only source) is they are generally photographed face down so it is not possible to tell which model they are from the back as you cannot see the blade holder. The plus side is that they are often cheap, in the case of Valets (which IMHO) are the better shavers very cheap so if you buy a duffer for three quid you have not lost the earth.
My knowledge of the different models of Wilkinson Sword razors is strictly limited but I believe that only the Empire model is capable of taking the modified blades but I would welcome hearing from anybody who has succeeded with a different model, to be 100% sure I feel you would need to hold the razor in your hand and examine it.
I do not think these razors are the holy grail of shaving but they are just fun to play about with and do give a really good shave. I would add as a slight word of caution that if you 'play' about with these razors using modified blades enough it would almost seem inevitable that you will cut a finger eventually!
Regards
Dick
I felt it might be of interest to some of you who are contemplating getting a Valet Autostrop or a Wilkinson Sword Razor to share my experiences modifying modern SE blades to fit some of these razors.
First it must be said that in the case of the Wilkinson Sword Razors, these were designed to use wedge blades or a propriety Wilkinson SE blade (long out of production) the wedge blades are very slightly narrower in width and considerably less deep. A slight 'tuning' of the razor is required to use modern blades which is perfectly described and illustrated by Jamie in this excellent article here:- http://www.theshavingroom.co.uk/forum/thread-10963.html
I use a slightly different method to remove the spine but you arrive at exactly the same end either way, by gripping just the back edge of the aluminium spine with a pair of pliers or better still pincers bend the blade slightly by pressing it on the work surface and the spine will open up allowing the blade to be removed with just finger pressure.
Having removed the spine, with the same pliers or pincers remove the bottom corners from the blade as shown in the photo, how much you remove for use in both the Valet Razor and for the Wilkinson is not at all critical. I simply grip the blade tight in my fingers and just snap off the pieces of metal. It might sound tricky or dangerous but in practice they snap off easily on the GEM Stainless PTFE coated blades and even easier on modern carbon blades ie Treets or Blue Stars.
The only dangerous part where extra care needs to be taken is inserting the blades into the blade holder on the Wilkinson razor as it is necessary to make a bridge with ones finger and thumb over the sharp edge of the blade to slide closed the blade retaining catch. A safer and probably more sensible alternative is to use snipe nosed pliers!
The photo's show the sequence of modifying the blade.
I have taken a photo of my one Wilkinson and several Valet Razors to show which model Valet Autostrops will take these modified blades and it is only the first two Valets ie the models with the narrow blade holder, the four Valet Models on the right will not and the Valet Razor on the extreme right will not even take a feather SE blade because of the position of the pins/cutouts.
A problem purchasing Valet Razors and Wilkinsons from e-bay (which for most of us is the only source) is they are generally photographed face down so it is not possible to tell which model they are from the back as you cannot see the blade holder. The plus side is that they are often cheap, in the case of Valets (which IMHO) are the better shavers very cheap so if you buy a duffer for three quid you have not lost the earth.
My knowledge of the different models of Wilkinson Sword razors is strictly limited but I believe that only the Empire model is capable of taking the modified blades but I would welcome hearing from anybody who has succeeded with a different model, to be 100% sure I feel you would need to hold the razor in your hand and examine it.
I do not think these razors are the holy grail of shaving but they are just fun to play about with and do give a really good shave. I would add as a slight word of caution that if you 'play' about with these razors using modified blades enough it would almost seem inevitable that you will cut a finger eventually!
Regards
Dick
What model is that?