I have some injectors, and thought it was about time to try them. I shaved with a G1 this morning, and an L1 the two days before that. The plan is to alternate and get in at least 5 shaves with each. I also have an I2, Hydro Magic, which I'll get to later. The identification of the models comes from this page. I'm getting excellent shaves, but this isn't about that. I've noticed that with the Hydro Magic, when you open the lever to clean it, and then close it again, the head doesn't tighten up fully. I have to push on the bottom of the head with my thumb. Then it clicks into place, and seems to be secure, with the blade in there tightly. For those who have experience with this razor, is that normal? I don't want the head suddenly popping open and the blade loosening up while I'm shaving with it.
For the archives, if someone else is searching as I was. Ran across a similar issue with a recently purchased I2 Hydro Magic. When retracting the blade release lever, the bar guard wouldn't fully seat into the razor head leaving the blade a bit loose. Some thorough cleaning released A LOT of hidden gunk and helped out tremendously with tightening up the blade. Didn't fully fix the issue, but much better. Upon further inspection, the plate that the release lever cam pushed on was tweaked a bit. Some gentle massaging with a small flat-head screwdriver and neeedlenose pliers fully fixed the issue. The blade now seats tightly into the razor head when depressing the release lever. My guess, the build-up of dried soap over the years interfered with the release mechanism and slowly bent the plate when the lever was actuated. As a side note, has anyone found a Schick in the wild (or, even on eBay for that matter) that HASN'T been packed full of dried soap and whisker remnants?! Every single injector I've bought has been ridden hard and put away wet (literally) leaving decades of dried gunk behind. For some reason mostly all have had green, dried soap which I'm guessing is Palmolive? They've all cleaned up very well, but every single one has been in this condition. Were Schicks just not taken care of, or looked on as favorably, as their Gillette counterparts back in the day?
There is at this moment a E2 (just like mine, good user grade with case and blades) sitting in a resale shop cabinet for $15. It's been there for a few months and it's clean as whistle. But you're right, most aren't.
I find it helps to read the ↪patent for the Hydromagic lever while holding a (fully functional) Hydromagic injector in your hand. Then you'll fully understand where and how they can go wrong... The patent is rather long and complicated though...
A lot of brain power went into the design.... Going through it sentence by sentence is quite rewarding though. If you're weird like me....
Good reading, there!! Amazing to see how much work goes into the day to day items we take for granted. Braggar! Nice feature on those early E's, the ability to open up for cleaning.
I got the same one. Bent the head forward a little so I don't have to hold the handle at so big an angle away from the face.