So I won a Gem Junior on the 'bay for around $8 shipped, and I'm trading some home cured bacon to a friend for a Gem Featherweight and an injector of some kind that he picked up. All appear to be in pretty decent condition, not needing much more then scrubbing bubbles My experience so far is just with DE razors. I've done a fair amount of reading on these guys and am interested to give them a try. Any general tips? Which would be the best to start with? I'll pick up blades for the Gems at Walgreen's. Are Chinese Schicks the best bet to start with for the injector? I'm intrigued by the folks that user cut down Feather Artist blades in injectors, may give that a try down the line. Any advice or information welcome. Thanks.
For the GEM, get yer tips right here. I've not used them, but I've heard that the Chinese Schick injector blades are quite nice, although a little pricey. I use the ASR blades gotten through Ted Pella, but these have to be bought in lots. You can also try your local big name drugstore to see if they have injector blades. Some still carry the Schicks and/or ASR injectors. If you can find (and are willing to pay for) vintage injector blades, those have the best reputation.
I started using the Schick injectors that I can get locally at a mom and pop drugstore. They seem to work well. I then found a bundle lot of NOS Personna injector blades on Ebay. Now those are the bomb for me. The Personnas are sharp and smooth. I have purchased the GEM blue star blades from the same drug store and they seem to work OK. Then, I found out about Ted Pella and ordered 100 of the GEM PTFE coated SE blades. The GEM PTFE coated blades are sharper and work better for me in the single edge razors that I have tried. All you can do is purchase the different brands that are available to you and try them out to see what works the best for you. YMMV.
As with any new DE you try, SEs are not different - each has their own optimum angle of attack that must be figured out by trial and error. And as with DEs, the NO PRESSURE rule applies to SEs. Bottom line, treat SEs and Injectors like you would any DE you're using for the first time - go slow, pay attention, respect the blade, no pressure. Nothing special or overly complicated about the SE or Injector, just one blade edge instead of two. Don't over think it. You're just shaving.
Go with the junior. Mild and excellent handling. I have not used a FW but people say it is very mild and good for a beginner. You really can't go wrong with any though. I started with the very aggressive ER 1924 and found it to be more comfortable than when first using an EJ. By the third shave i fully got the hang of it. The head design makes it easier to find the right angle and maintain it than a DE. However the cutting angle range is more limited. SEs cut. They don't scrape. Thus they will require more finesse when shaving along the curvature of the chin-expect a few patches on the chin when you're learning. It might be helpful to stretch certain areas of your skin...
One tip to add... borrowed from the original GEM literature... don't even try ATG under your nose (unless you like the nose-less look ). Instead do XTG passes from each side (one r to l, the other l to r).
Now you're telling me! I've done it all wrong the last two years... So that's why people give me a weird look when they see me first. And now I know why my glasses fall off my face!
I've tried the cut down feather blades and my initial reaction is that it's extra effort without significant benefit, but I have only limited experience with injectors and I plan on giving them a try again down the road as my injector technique develops. Definitely check out Richgem's link for tips, good advice there, I have become a big fan of the hot towel.
I bought local but I don't think the Chinese Schicks are much cheaper online. Maybe the Personna injectors can be had cheaper but I think it's mainly the time and effort, you have to cut them down and you don't have the key for injecting unless you load them into one of the dispensers.
Struck out at Walgreen's, they said they don't carry SE blades anymore, this despite them being listed on their web site and it specifically saying they were in stock at that location. I showed her on my phone. No dice.
Try CVS, surely you have multiple ones nearby. I think they're in competition with Starbucks for the number of redundant locations in one town.
Yeah, I will track them down this weekend. Don't have the razors in hand yet anyway. I had an assistant with me today (see below) who was not interested in making any extra stops.
If you want better than the current Chinese Schicks.....Get the NOS Personna 74's...they're the best thats ever been. All little pricey today but worth it IMHO......also NOS Schick Plus Platinums were the "Standard" for many years....nothing new measures up, IMO....but the good news is; in my opinion; even the EMS's blow away most all DE blades....so in that respect it's all good...
The Gem Junior showed up Saturday, and I picked up some carbon steel blades at CVS. The razor had a lot of crud on it, but nothing scrubbing bubbles and an old toothbrush didn't take care of. Here it is after cleaning: Shaved with it today. Finding and maintaining the right angle was not too tough. Only difficulty I found was fitting it into tight spots like my moustache and soul patch areas. Probably just something to get used to with practice. Did two passes with it, with and across the grain, and finished up atg with my Merkur slant. I know with the carbon steel blades it's advised to remove them and dry them; I decided to try the following: left the blade in, and dunked the head in 99% rubbing alcohol to displace the water, then shook it a few seconds to evaporate the alcohol. We'll see how that works.
If you like and prefer the carbon blades, I highly recommend you get the 120-pack of Treets from Amazon. Carbons can get expensive (still very cheap compared to cartridges). Even after drying them I find the second shave only acceptable. A shadow of the superb shave I get from them on the first use. I just toss them after the first shave. Still works out to $0.12 a shave. Also that GEM could still use more cleaning. Steel wool will bring it back to new. I love brass.
The carbon steel were all I could find locally. I have five of the ted pellas on the way from the TSD shop for comparison. But thanks for the lead on bulk Treets, will definitely check it out if I end up preferring them.
