I just got one for £6 and wondered if anyone has restored one. I would really like to, as it's a bit ropey, but I don't know if it can be dismantled. Does anyone know, please? There is a dot on the head cap. Is this, what is referred to as, the magic eye and what's it for? Do you have to hold the head flat to your face? I had a good shave holding at the angle of my G-bar, although it was quite a bit more aggressive than I'm used to. It's got a beautiful weight to the handle: another really nice SE razor. Now I have two
The Gem Bullet Tip like Other Micromatics Can Get Sold in Very Poor Condition..You Can Dismantle it as Its Basically Held Together with a Slot & Dowel Type Design..I Woudnt Recommend it Mind.. You will Get a Cheap Clean Gem Bullet for Far Less than Getting One Re Plated..Other than that there isn't Much else You can do with them..Bottom Line Get a Nice One..The Guiding Eye thing was a Marketing Ploy & Nothing Else..The Angle is the Same as the G Bar.. Billy..
It is my birth era razor since it was introduced in 1947. I like mine. Yeah, just get one that is in good shape and clean it up. Like @Billyfergie said, the Magic Eye was a marketing ploy. It does require a very shallow angle though. Great shaves...
I don't do it that way, needs to be angled down a bit to work. This is a mild razor and if you follow those guidelines you're going to drive yourself nuts trying to make it work. Just go with how it feels.
All gems are great shavers, I have at least 10 of them and are different models. What makes them really shine is the performance of the Personna PTFE Gem blade
I passed on a clean specimen. They were asking $22.00. Owning a couple 1912's but no "good" blades has left me feeling lackluster about them. I should try; Any others worth looking into, and who sells less than 100?
The Magic Eye, is a bit of a strange name. You'd think Gem were marketing toward children instead of grown men. The angle illustrated above didn't work, maybe because of the thicker collar, hence different cutting angle, of the original blades, compared to a modern blade. Once I changed the angle slightly, I had an amazing shave. I am becoming a devotee of SE razors, thanks to my two Gems. The shave is really terrific! You'll never get a closer more comfortable shave, in my limited experience. I just love them. I'm using the Personna PTFE Gem blades, which are wonderful. They are thicker than a DE blade, less flexible and last longer and better yet, a SE razor blade doesn't poke out of the sides of the razor. I usually catch my nose, shaving across the grain, with a DE razor blade. The problem I have, is getting one in mint condition that is reasonably price before adding postage to the UK and customs charges. It may well be cheaper to try a restore. Either way, the Gem Micromatic Bullet is a keeper!
Can you polish a nickel plated razor the way you would aluminium; what I mean is, going through grades of micro-mesh to take out water marks and light scratches or is the nickel too hard for that to work? Just a thought, has anyone tried?
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the nickel plating is susceptible to being polished away exposing the base metal. Might be brass, steel? Thinking an aluminum razor is solid through and through allowing for quite a bit of abrasive polishing.
I know you can get micro mesh, fine enough to polish plastic headlight glass, etc. I wondered, if I used the finest pieces I have whether it would just take the top scratches out and some of what appears to be water stains. If I feeling brave I might give it a try. It only cost me £6.
The Micromatics are a Single Nickel Plating...Any..I Have Owned Anyway..There is No Copper or Brass Plating Underneath so they use a Heavy Nickel Plating Which is Quite Soft & its Very Easily Scratched with Polishing or Even Day to Day Use.. Billy..
I started with 1500 micro mesh, on the head. Nothing happened for a very long time, so I put the pad on the table and rubbed the razor head, on the pad using more force. All that happened was the scratches became very shiny and round the edges of the head it started to brass. It now looks rubbish but it's very shiny.
My OC Micromatic has a good amount of wear and scratches. I even thought about stripping off the plating and having it all in brass. Actually, I'm still thinking about it and using my Wen rotary to do it with.
There definitely seems to be some brass on the head. I wonder if the handle is the same, or as Billy suggests, made of something else. Does brass oxidise? It would be a pain to keep cleaning it. I wonder f it would slide across the skin as easily as shiney nickel plating. Let us know if you do it. It would cost me £50 to have mine re-plated. I'm looking for a mint one. It's a great shave.
Brass does tarnish and I've been experimenting on a couple of brass cases I have by coating them with clear lacquer spray, as I hate having to clean them up every so often. I'm just wondering how well it would hold up on razor heads.
Also, Jayaruh uses a brass OC Micromatic. Maybe he can be asked on how much it oxidizes or tarnishes while using it. Guessing it's like using older brass Gillettes, just have to clean them once in a while.
