1898 Zinn Gem Automatic

Hi all

Just received my 1898 Zinn Gem Automatic from D.Irving79 and thought I'd share! I'm very excited - it's like Christmas day all over again. I've attached photos for those who want to drool.

I shaved with it tonight. To be honest, it wasn't the best shave of my life, BUT it was definitely the best shave I've had with a new razor. Ended up with a DFS shave after four passes. Absolutely no irritation, but I did get a few small nicks on my ATG pass - I think it was angle as I only had a few when I started the pass, and it stopped when I tweaked slightly. It felt very gentle, but was nicely responsive. So, I am very happy and looking forward to the next shave!

Cheers
Richard

Very cool looking razor!

Thank you! I'm feeling very proud of it.

Very cool!

That is one beautiful razor. Before 1900. WOW!
A piece of art! Congrats of owning such a razor

That is one beautiful razor. Before 1900. WOW!
A piece of art! Congrats of owning such a razor

Waaay cool

That is way cool!

Very nice indeed. So many different kinds of razor still to learn about. About the name "automatic", is this for some special feature of the razor, or was it just a model name?

for this razor all you did was put in a disposable blade and shave vs. every other razor of the time that you had to hone/strop the blades, adjust screws for proper blade seating, etc.

So they beat Gillette for the disposable blade idea?

Nice Razor!!!

mark_mw said:

So they beat Gillette for the disposable blade idea?

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them, ER, superior. gillette had the IDEA first i believe, but it hit the market after these guys.

SWeeeeeeeeeeeT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh dear - I've got a dilemma! Admittedly a self inflicted one.... I've had one shave with the 1898 already, but my new 1912 has just arrived, and I have an E-3 injector arriving in a few days. I want to try them all at once! I guess I should be sensible and stick with the 1898 for a while first....

does it use a standard available blade???

bob.e said:

does it use a standard available blade???

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Yes - injector blades work well in it.

Nice GEM!

rapperley said:

Yes - injector blades work well in it.

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so modern standard single edge blades won't work in this?

also, since injector blades work, you could experiment with cutting down the feather disposable straight-razor blades (which are identical to injector blades just longer).

i gave this a try using regular injector razors with the feather straight blades and it worked well.

anyway, congrats on a terrific acquisition.

No, I wouldn't have thought so. Haven't tried, but the head doesn't look deep enough to accept them.

Out of interest, why do you suggest cutting feather disposable straight blades rather than just using injector blades? Can't get my head around that one.

Just had shave number two - good, but still experimenting with blade position and angle. I had too much blade out this time and it bit me... grr. Loving the challenge though!

nwman said:

so modern standard single edge blades won't work in this?

also, since injector blades work, you could experiment with cutting down the feather disposable straight-razor blades (which are identical to injector blades just longer).

i gave this a try using regular injector razors with the feather straight blades and it worked well.

anyway, congrats on a terrific acquisition.

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