First shave with Valet autostrop plus Gem blade

[luv2shave]

Excited to have my first Valet Autostrop shave. Got one from ebay last year and was assuming it only take a Feather FHS10 blade which I have ordered a 100 of and are on a boat to India.

Meanwhile saw a Shaving With Fuzzy video where he shows how to modify a gem blade for earlier models.

Dug out my Valet AS and realised it can take Gem blades too. (Owe you one Fuzzy for that video)
Cleaned, sanitized, despined and clipped a Gemblade blade and it fit perfectly in place.
Picked up a VDH boar - i like its stiff backbone  modern Williams and had a go !

First shave I had with a Gem blade which was silent. There was no "scrapping burnt toast" sound- more like an injector shave.

I could feel the teeth prominently and the blade was held at some distance (snug in the tabs)so it wasn't a shave with lots of blade feel and aggressive.

Shallow angle riding the cap worked best. Again no audio feedback but I could sense it was cutting.
Mild DFS to BBS shave. Skin feels soft and smooth post shave.

Excited to join the Valet Autostrop club of all you fine gentlemen here.

[Ordinaryshaver]

Yeppers, those Valet and AutoStrops are surely good shavers.

[luv2shave]

Hello Gents

Picked up the Valet Autostrop again. Has a few shaves on the despined blade. I seem to be getting subpar shaves. I go almost flat on the head maybe 5 to 10 degrees shallow, but dont get that Gem blade feel on the skin.Shaves are good, but take more passes and touchups on bad stubble areas.

A bit confused. Can all you enlightened VS owners share some wisdom.

-Ever seeking Every Learning !

[Wchnu]

Hello Gents

Picked up the Valet Autostrop again. Has a few shaves on the despined blade. I seem to be getting subpar shaves. I go almost flat on the head maybe 5 to 10 degrees shallow, but dont get that Gem blade feel on the skin.Shaves are good, but take more passes and touchups on bad stubble areas.

A bit confused. Can all you enlightened VS owners share some wisdom.

-Ever seeking Every Learning !

Some how I missed the original post here. Sorry about that. If your getting bad shaves first change the blade. Maybe it has not lasted as long as others. I would start there!

[TobyC]

I agree, you shave with the blade, so the blade is the first thing to suspect.

A despined GEM blade is shorter front to back, make sure the blade is pushed all the way forward into the stops.

Occasionally you will find a razor where the cutout in the push tab hits the handle before the blade is all the way forward, slightly flattening that piece will repair that. Notice I said slightly, it doesn't take much, it's not a noticeable thing.

[luv2shave]

I agree, you shave with the blade, so the blade is the first thing to suspect.

A despined GEM blade is shorter front to back, make sure the blade is pushed all the way forward into the stops.

Occasionally you will find a razor where the cutout in the push tab hits the handle before the blade is all the way forward, slightly flattening that piece will repair that. Notice I said slightly, it doesn't take much, it's not a noticeable thing.

Never thought of this. Let me take a look, though jts a bit hard to visualize.

[TobyC]

I agree, you shave with the blade, so the blade is the first thing to suspect.

A despined GEM blade is shorter front to back, make sure the blade is pushed all the way forward into the stops.

Occasionally you will find a razor where the cutout in the push tab hits the handle before the blade is all the way forward, slightly flattening that piece will repair that. Notice I said slightly, it doesn't take much, it's not a noticeable thing.

Never thought of this. Let me take a look, though jts a bit hard to visualize.

Is it a VC1? Look at the back where the handle passes through the lever, see if the handle stops the lever too soon.

[luv2shave]

After my sub par shave with my Valet Autostrop VC1 and a despined Gem blade, I took out my bunch of razors, found an earlier model Autostrop razor. Cleaned it up with a toothbrush and dish soap for 45 minutes of scrubbing it thoroughly till all the gunk cleaned up and it gage a nice shine with Patina some places
Dislodged the despined blade from VC1 and inserted in to this razor. Tightened and adjusted the blade till it parked perfectly aligned with the blade stops.
Lathered up Wholly Kaw Tempest (the worst scented soap I've ever used) with a Razorock chrome barbershop Silvertip synthetic brush.
The razor was perfect from the first stroke. Nice  aggressive  blade feel and toast scrapping noise.
Fantastic two pass shave with this razor. The nice heft in the head and its distinctly vintage looks complete with the brassing visible on some spots on the rods and patina on other sections and handle.
All you folks were right after all about the VC1 holding yhe blade short of the blade stops and making it very mild and inefficient.

[Wchnu]

luv2shave is that a AutoStrop A?

[TobyC]

After my sub par shave with my Valet Autostrop VC1 and a despined Gem blade, I took out my bunch of razors, found an earlier model Autostrop razor. Cleaned it up with a toothbrush and dish soap for 45 minutes of scrubbing it thoroughly till all the gunk cleaned up and it gage a nice shine with Patina some places
Dislodged the despined blade from VC1 and inserted in to this razor. Tightened and adjusted the blade till it parked perfectly aligned with the blade stops.
Lathered up Wholly Kaw Tempest (the worst scented soap I've ever used) with a Razorock chrome barbershop Silvertip synthetic brush.
The razor was perfect from the first stroke. Nice  aggressive  blade feel and toast scrapping noise.
Fantastic two pass shave with this razor. The nice heft in the head and its distinctly vintage looks complete with the brassing visible on some spots on the rods and patina on other sections and handle.
All you folks were right after all about the VC1 holding yhe blade short of the blade stops and making it very mild and inefficient.

Excellent!

See if you can "adjust" the VC1, it will shave nicely as well.

.