Larson Blade Stropper

[mrb7]

Does anyone know much about an L.E. Larson "Blade Stropper" device?

I got one some months back in a box of stuff, and I just put it aside because I was really looking at the Gillette Slim in the box. Every once in a while would run across it, but until today I've never looked at it close enough with glasses on to actually read that it is for stropping. I thought it was some ancient shavette handle.

Well, to make a long story short, I was in the beauty supply store yesterday getting some Barbacide, and I noticed the Personna "hair shaping" blades. Then my (nim|fee)ble mind said, "Those blades fit that shavette handle thingy; buy them."

Well, Saturday and Sunday are my straight shaving days, and I figured this was a "straightish" kind of thingy, so I loaded up a blade in the clamp and went to town this morning.

Once I got all the weepers stopped bleeding I finally read the side of it, and discovered it is for stropping blades, not a shaving handle.

So now I'm wondering to myself, what the devil kind of blade would you strop in this thing? It seems a DE blade would be next to impossible to position correctly for repeated stropping. An GEMS SE blade would position about the same as this SE "hair shaping" blade I put in it this morning. Certainly nothing with a bevel and a spine goes in it.

So, what did it do when it as all the rage?

 

[daedpa]

Pictures please.

 

[mrb7]

Well, here is one with a "hair shaper" blade loaded.




And here is another of the end knob that opens the head clamp.




Note that the clamp is closed on the blade in the first one, but the knob is turned to loosen the clamp and the blade is obviously removed in the second one.

I cannot get a picture of the wording. But it is manufactured by the L. E. Larson Company.

 

[mrb7]

My experiment with this, despite my bad shave Saturday morning, has prompted me to order up a Feather handle.

I know, I know. The Feather is not a straight. I got that. But I'm going to give it a darned good try. And if I wind up hating it it will turn up in B/S/T.

 

[weizemanner]

Do you have a picture of it taken apart? Does it come apart?

 

[mrb7]

It doesn't come apart. Turning the knob 90 degrees CCW loosens the clamp. Then turning it CW tightens it. I suspect that internally it's nothing more than an offset cam which wedges against some lever inside to tighten the clamp.

The SE hair shaper blades fit like hand in glove. But it's pretty clear that it's a device from a bygone era, not something to strop modern day cosmetology blades.

What used blades like this - that someone would have tried to strop - in the '40s or '50s?

 

[weizemanner]

I bet a Durham blade would fit in there.

 

[mrb7]

I bet a Durham blade would fit in there.

We're you supposed to strop Durham blades?

That's some kind of razor?

 

[weizemanner]

Yeah, it later came with an attachment for stropping blades on the same handle you shaved or cut hair with. But it's possible that there were early handles or competitors stropping handles.

http://s464.photobucket.com/user/waltdkidd/media/DurhamDuplexKit-.jpg.html?t=1296269014