I got two tucks of Gem Micromatic Double Edge Reversible blades from @Morman Bridge. I was planning on using them next week in my Bullet Tip razor, so I wanted to see how they fit in the MM. Here is what I did. This is my MMBT with the first tuck of blades. I opened the tuck to see five blades individually wrapped. Here are the five blades fresh out of the box. I took one blade out to unwrap it. It fits only Gem Micromatic razors. A reminder to hold the razor flat against the face. After using cleanse and dry razor and blade. Blade must rest under stop hooks. See next post for more.
The first blade had one edge that was mostly rust free, but the other edge had plenty of rust. Here is the blade in the MMBT with the "good" edge down. You can see rust on the left side. I has wondered how the other edge would be protected. There are two little "wings" on the underside of the lid. When the lid is closed the wings go down into the gap on each side of the blade and then move the blade forward to seat it in the stop hooks. This is the back side of the same blade. It turns out that this was the best blade in the whole tuck. In fact it was the best blade in both tucks. Here are the five blades. The one at the bottom is the best of the lot (same as above). After I took this picture, I went through the second tuck and found that all the blades in it were also very rusted. It looks like I will not be trying out these unusual blades next week. I am disappointed that I will not get to try one. I don't even want to risk using the one "good edge." I wrapped them all back up and put them back in their boxes. The boxes and wrappers are all good. I am thinking that there must have been some moisture in the cardboard wrappers that caused the edges to rust. These blades are over 50 years old after all. I feel a bit rusty myself sometimes. I do want to thank @Morman Bridge for the opportunity to maybe try one out. It is just too bad that there was not a good one in the lot.
Nice photo essay!. How about trying some steel wool or CLR to clean off the rust on those blades and then honing them?
Damn, I'm sorry Jim. I didn't know. I have used these blades in the past, and although they weren't rusted yet, they must have been getting closer to rusting. Some of them worked pretty good. But many were dull. I'm very sorry they were bad. I hope you forgive me. I can go through the blades I have left, and try to find some that are good and send those to you. I'll check them out tonight. Again, I'm sorry.
No problem, Alan. It is just one of those things. I was really stoked to give one a try, but I am afraid that the edges are too far gone. As I looked closely at them, if I cleaned the rust off the edge is craggy. I just would not feel comfortable dragging one across my face. The boxes looked pristine, and I was surprised that there was only one almost good edge out of 20. Nothing to forgive, my friend. Your heart is in the right place. The 47 Super Speed you sent along more than makes up for this disappointment.
I checked one of the tucks from the ten that I got and all blades were fine. Also, for the fun of it, I put one in my G-Bar and Featherweight and they don't have any movement when in place because I read some place that they would work. But if you want, I can send you some to use.
Interesting bit of grammar drift over the years. Although "cleanse" and "clean" share a definition, we would probably say that one should "clean" the blade, as in to remove dirt, these days. "Cleansing" the blade would carry a more serious intent to remove impurities, something like sterilization, for instance.
It was too bad that those blades were all rusted. @jimjo1031 offered to send me a few of his Reversible blades. I got them yesterday when I returned from Virginia. He sent three, and when I opened the first one I was pleased to see that it was in good shape. So, I decided to do the test with Thursday's shave. Well, it went off without a hitch. It was a very good shave. I put it in my MMBT. They were after all made for the Micromatic razors. I got a great shave with no issues. I even had next to no reaction with the alum block. They are a little awkward to handle, but once you get them in the razor, it seems to work like a dream.
I actually use the word "cleanse" quite often, probably twice as often as "clean", and I use the two interchangeably. But I may be a half bubble off center!
