Good to know that@jmudrick. Interesting, So guys who like a aggressive shave could take the spine off and make their bump free Gem razor a touch more aggressive in theory. Has any one done that procedure of removing the spine making for a aggressive shave?? A person could also tame a Gem open comb razor in theory by elevating a open comb with the bumps by placing a thin narrow magnetic strip on the blade so it straddles the bumps(lifting the back of the blade higher). Wonder if any one has tried that procedure to tame some aggression and to smooth it out a little? When I get my Gems they will be tested for different shaves with shim variations and like always any new razor gets shimmed regardless. The bumps are basically shims IMO but some guys hate shims and will not use them regardless and most of the time there is no need I have found.
I use a twin injector blade as a shim in my bumpless MMOC and other older SEs. Doubt that it makes a whole lot of difference but I do it out of habit.
I presume so, certainly makes logical sense. The double sided blades were released a year after the MMOC razor.
How does that shave? I saw a picture of something like that with the twin injector blade clamped in the front snout of the top cover of a micromatic. Maybe that was your razor I saw on some different threads, interesting none the less!
No it sits under the rear of the blade effectively acting like a thicker spine. You may be thinking of substituting an injector blade for a Gem which is also a thing.
You like try different ideas also @jmudrick like myself , I might try just what you suggested later on. I now have 6 Gems on the way 2 MMOC, 1 feather weight,1 G-bar, 1 push button and just bought a beautiful gold Gem 1912 like new IMO( it has been a year for Vintage & modern RAD). I think I have all the different GEM aggressiveness ranges covered and for not a whole lot of money. The shipping was $ 50.00 US and $45 US for the razors and $10.00 for 30 SS Personna Gem blades from Connaught. That is a good entry price for SE razor platform, that will give years of enjoyment (cheap entertainment when you think about).
That's the beauty of the vintage SEs, aside from the Streamline and Brit 1909 your cost of entry is negligible, even for razors in primo condition.
Exceptional post! Thanks for the details and the graphics. I have shimmed by using two injector blades glued together. Seemed to work well.
Excellent resource. Thanks for not crediting me, not providing a link to the original material (like this: https://razors.click/Shimming/ ) and for removing any pesky copyright notices.
Great effort into that one. I did not see any copy right, I will remove it if you wish! Some forums will not allow links. I have a hard copy and no copyright is evident! It is a good site you have!
You already did. No need to remove the post (although you mutilated all my lovely formatting and image annotations I spent so much time on). Consider yourself slapped on the wrist.
Found this on You tube and there were large scale marketing tactics that GEM VS GILLETTE were going on that most folks were not aware of today. The big club of Gillette can sure show it's marketing strength and looks like it won for today anyways but who knows the next rival to appear.
Nice video. To be clear Gillette did not as the video states "have the rights to the twist to open razor". Obviously ASR and Segal both produced TTO razors before they did, and while Gillette sued Segal for patent infringement the courts ultimately ruled against those claims.
We got talking about dating MicroMatics on another thread and @jmudrick found some interesting information on them that I will share. It's hard to find this information but some how he finds these tid bits that make collecting Gems interesting. From my research the first Micromatics appeared on shelves in February 1931 after having been announced to distributors the previous summer soon after the patent approval. Your razor would date from 1932 or later since it has the two bumps to accommodate the double sided blades released in 1932. Only with a case might you be able to narrow in on the date any further.
I,m still waiting for my MMOC that got shipped to a wrong address and sender is trying to correct the issue, but in the mean time I have bought a Beautiful mint condition Gem 1912 model that from my research was packaged in 1921 and is still a virgin razor to my best visual guess. NO scratches, soap scum or the normal wear and tear. Found some more information for Gem owners that is very useful.https://books.google.ca/books?id=4oX3BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA428&dq=gem+razor&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=gem razor&f=false Keep scrolling down past some of the blank pages and there is lots of information on GEM razors & ASR company.
Right now I have only the OCMM but recall the bullet tip and clog pruf being pretty smooth. The G Bar has a fine balance. Odd that I never could get a good shave from the pushbutton.
Interesting thread. Great reading the post. @riverrun you are a better man then me. That is a very nice looking razor. Rumor is that there will be one up for grabs on another SE forum soon.... Just a rumor.