First SE shaving attepmt

I purchased a GEM 1912 short handle a few months back for about $2.00. It has been sitting on the shelf since I purchased it because the only blades I could find for it locally were the CVS carbon steel and I had some concerns with the quality of the blades.

After reading DonMac's post about him trying his MMOC with the blades and getting good results, I decided to take the plunge. I polished up the GEM, loaded a new CVS blade, lathered up and was ready to get started.

The first stroke was good. It was comfortable, no tugging and smooth. The second stroke seemed a little different, not cutting as well, and by the third stroke, I could tell something was wrong. Looks like my razor doesn't hold the blade in place. I tried bending the spring down to increase the tension but the spring already touches the base of the razor head when the cap is removed. Think I might have to find another one of these out in the wild... Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Both blade stops are present. Looks to me as if the blade itself is aligned properly with the comb and that the cap is slightly skew. Am I seeing the picture correctly?

No, the blade rode up off of the blade stop on the right hand side about 1/16"

It looks like this problem : http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/423889-Blade-Won-t-Stay-In-Place

If the blade can't stay in place, it won't be good... Those are fairly common and cheap (good news), the bad news is that this one is probably good for the metal only...

The tension spring is screwed up in some way. Take a look at the picture below. Note how the tension spring presses against the spine of the blade, and note that there is a gap between the front of the spring and the edge of the square opening in the cap. The spring is supposed to press the blade firmly against the blade stops, and that is not happening with your razor.



I have a 1912 Damaskeene that has the same problem. Unfortunately, I have not found a fix for it. At least you didn't pay much for your 1912.

--Bob

Well.. Looks I'm in the market for a functional 1912 and a MMOC...

modedit: sorry, had to remove the link, against TOU

Yeah, this is a fairly common problem with old 1912s it seems. And it's hard to really ask a seller about it because they won't know how to properly test/inspect the razor.

You could also try the non-OC micromatic if you want to start with something a bit less aggressive. They use the same TTO opening mechanism, which means you're less likely to get a dud. Or you could just buy one of those lots of SEs that periodically pops up for like $30 and have an instant collection