Thread: Mechanical straight razor sharpener?

Anybody familiar with this cool contraction??
RARE Antique 19thC Dey Patented NY Mechanical Straight Razor Strop & Sharpener | eBay

I don't know what it is , and neither does the seller (who has 10 neutral , and 7 neg. feedbacks in the last 12 months) . Whoever bought it , has my condolences .

I'm not sure I can even tell how that would work!

I Googled the Dey Patents Co. , of Syracuse N.Y. . They made clocks . There is no mention of sharpeners , or anything else besides clocks .

Looks like a shure-fire way to break a blade! Crazy contraption! Heaven only knows what it is!

You mean you don't know what that is? Why it's an Acme decapitation machine. You put the victims head on the right and turn the handle and it neatly lops his head clean off. it was used mostly in Texas for folks who didn't like the idea of a firing squad or hanging in the late 1800s.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

You mean you don't know what that is? Why it's an Acme decapitation machine. You put the victims head on the right and turn the handle and it neatly lops his head clean off. it was used mostly in Texas for folks who didn't like the idea of a firing squad or hanging in the late 1800s.

And if you really dont like them it can slice, dice and even julienne their heads. Makes a great conversation piece as well. Be sure to be the first amongst your friends and family to get one. But wait, theres more.....

Almost exactly one year after the patent date stamped on the machine, Alexander Dey of Glasgow, Scotland was granted a patent for a 'Razor Sharpening Machine'.

I'm betting that's the real deal. Looking at it, I can see exactly how it would work.

How well it would work is a completely different matter, but I'm pretty sure that does what the seller says. He just got the Syracuse part wrong.

The way it would work is that the piece next to the wheel has an area to secure a razor. The wheel arms are curved away from the blade so that turning them, they move over the length of the cutting edge.

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

Almost exactly one year after the patent date stamped on the machine, Alexander Dey of Glasgow, Scotland was granted a patent for a 'Razor Sharpening Machine'.

I'm betting that's the real deal. Looking at it, I can see exactly how it would work.

How well it would work is a completely different matter, but I'm pretty sure that does what the seller says. He just got the Syracuse part wrong.

The way it would work is that the piece next to the wheel has an area to secure a razor. The wheel arms are curved away from the blade so that turning them, they move over the length of the cutting edge.

I'm still not convinced . It may very well be a machine to sharpen razors or whatever . It could also be something someone cobbled together from a bunch of old junk . Also the actual patent date would be stamped on the machine , not a date from about a year earlier , and I would also expect the manufacturer's name to be on the machine . The holes at the ends of the fan blade looking thing , attached to the crank are another mystery . They are there for a reason . They could have been there to attach weights , to give it momentum . Or they may have been left from where it may have been attached to something else . JMHO

Nope, this is the real deal. I found the original US patent, issued on the date stamped on the machine. You can download a PDF of it at PAT2PDF - Free PDF copies of patents: Download and print! search for Patent #389291.

The design is slightly different than the drawings in the patent but it's clearly the same device.

I really doubt it worked very well, however.