Prewar Schwinn A.S. stem-1936 true razor

[mr.cycleplane]

Offered here is the 1936 Schwinn stem-known as the true razor. so named for its three crisp peaked ridges on the stem bridge. this stem is the first year and made from brass. note: the 'v' on the front of the stem above the pinch nut was only found on these brass first versions. this stem has seen some use and light abuse(wear to chrome from use and abuse from improper removal-see the small dings along top). also has '4191' number stamped on top-see picture. hard item to find-correct for the higher end prewar Schwinns.

 

[markivpedalpusher]

Nice drop forged stem came out in 37 correct? I think there was a catalog error featuring it in 36 in the 50 years of Schwinn Built bikes catalog.

 

[mr.cycleplane]

if i was to make a guess-no(officially). the patent was pulled in i think june/july of 36 and schwinn didn't monkey around like the way engineers do today-they moved fast on ideas and got things out as they wanted to be the cutting edge in the bike industry.

i would even bet the patent hit at the same time they were bolting stems on the bikes! they had an in-house foundry and cranking out the brass stem was a piece of cake. of course it had problems but was an improvement over the torrington deco stem(that is why the razor came to be in the first place). first drop forged stem in steel was close to original but for unknown reasons they ground off the 'v'-see picture. the grind mark(removal of the 'v') is crude and polishing not schwinn's finest work-has the crisp ridges still. i'd buy into this razor version in late 1937! this is very rare stem-second variation. not a schwinn myth-the original razor came out in 1936! seen too many for sure 1936 bikes with the razors(unless they all got retro fitted with razors!).

 

[markivpedalpusher]

I agree this version is probably the first drop forged stem for the 1937 model year.