So a little while ago Dale PIF'ed me an OCMM and I couldn't wait to give it a try. Since that first time, I have used it many times and have always ended up with a good shave. Sometimes a great shave, sometimes an "ok" shave, but never a bad shave...................Unitl now. On Saturday I put in a new Walgreens Gem Personna blade and ended up with not only one of the worst shaves with the OCMM, but one of the worst shaves I've ever had. I believe Dale once called the OCMM a sweet cuddly pit bull, well this particular time that sweet cuddly pit bull mauled my face something fierce. I had blood all over, bumps, serious razor burn. It was strange. I've DE shaving for about 8 months now and I think I have a pretty good handle on my technique and what my face can and cannot endure, and this just had me perplexed. I was thinking that maybe there was something wrong with the blade? Has anyone, just out of the blue, ended up with an awful, awful shave that you can't really put your finger on as to why?
I'd be blaming the blade. Had you used that brand before? Sometimes, there's just a bum blade in the lot. Sorry for your misfortunes.
Thanks JoAnna. Yeah, that was the thing, I didn't do anything different. They are the only SE blades I use. That's why, like you said, maybe a bum blade. At least that is what I'm attributing it to. I will definitely be careful next time. (with a new blade of course):biggrin:
Bad shaves happen every so often. Without them you can't enjoy the good ones. I would chuck the blade, take a day or two off to heal up and have at it again. See what happens from there. Did you change anything else? Different soap or cream? Not the best batch of lather? Maybe just had a lot on your mind and wasn't paying attention?
I, too, would first think of a cruddy blade. I've had some average shaves due to getting over confident but never had a truly horrible shave that I couldn't put my finger on what happened. Since it was a new blade, that is more than likely the culprit. As Dale said, take some time to heal up and then get back at it. My favorite razor to use when I have to shave and I'm still healing from a less than stellar shave is my Gem Featherweight. Maybe your mind was wondering thinking of baby names while you were shaving!
Bad blade is the most likely villain. A simple swap fixes that. If you get another bad episode, you may need to consider the store blades, their true make, etc. I have used over 50 Ted Pella Coated Gem Blades and am yet to get a bad one. TSD sells them in handy small quantities too. Another situation that reportedly occurs is bad blade seating. There is a u-tube tutorial url somewhere on a past thread (perhaps a year ago) that illustrated how to assure good blade seating. If I find it I will re-post the url.
First the blade. Then look to see if you are handling it with the same aggression (i.e. pressure) as a milder razor. You are not suppose to use pressure with a milder razor either but sometimes we all lapse in our technique.
Tomnat, you're still kind of lucky - I've never, ever gotten better than a paint scraper-quality shave from any Micromatic, and I've tried several with several brands of blade. Just my lack of technique, I guess. More's the pity since around my parts the Micromatic is the most common SE you run across in the wild, and as cheap as you'd want.
blade looks like the butler did it However, how was your lather? a good/bad lather can really change the effect of a blade/razor combo. Is it possible that your lather was instead of the blade?
I think my lather was good; it wasn't different than it normally is. I'm going with the culprit being blade. In any case that blade is history, living the rest of it's days in the deep dark depths of a labeless washed out chicken broth can, where it can look back and reflect on the pain, agony, and the lasting emotional scaring it caused in it's short time in use.
The blade didn't happen to get on top of one of the blade stops did it? Not really likely with this model, but conceivable.
You could still use that blade in a razor blade paint scraper. Remember, when your SE blades are too dull to shave, they're still plenty sharp for scraping. Maybe that blade got dropped on the floor at the factory.
