Which blade do you recommend for a GEM 1912?

Which blade do you prefer among :

• GEM Carbon
• GEM Stainless
• GEM Stainless Coated
• PAL Blue Carbon

I live in Scotland in the UK....We are limited to stainless GEM Blades of here....They are cheap and I find them to be excellent blades....Their is a general consensus that they can be a tad ruff for the first couple of shaves in a 1912, but I get round this by using a Half of a GEM Spine as a Shim behind the GEM Blade Spine that I am using....The spines on the Vintage blades were thicker and the shimming method just about replicates that and smooth's things out for me...

Billy

Which blade to use is a personal choice, but I can make some suggestions as to what not to use. Don't use the PAL blue carbon unless they are the Super Blues. The blue carbon blades sold in bulk are not really suitable for shaving.

I don't see any advantage in using uncoated stainless blades. Those sold specifically for shaving are coated.

Also, be aware that the carbon blades must be removed from the razor and dried after each use, otherwise they will rust.

I get roughly twice as many shaves from the stainless blades as the carbon blades. YMMV.

--Bob

A fresh blue star

I use the GEM Stainless Coated because I don't want to be bothered with blade maintenance.

GEM stainless I also don't like to dry my blades.
I got some Ted Pella blades PTFE coated blades last week and they are very smooth but don't give me as close a shave then the regular GEM stainless. YMMV

I recommend Gem stainless ptfe blades. I took a chance and bought 200 of these earlier this month without any blade testing for my Gem se and valet auto strop razors. It`s been about 2 weeks now of shaving with my first Gem ss se ptfe blade and this first blade of mine is still going strong. I plan on shaving mainly with my se razors for another one or two months before I buy another 500-600 more Gem stainless ptfe blades. These se blades in combination of my present stock of double edge blades should last me for a very long time.

I am also in UK and use S/S coated blades which are good for me. I have tried carbon blades, which i did not like at all, not because they had to be cleaned and dried daily, as I do that with my S/S blades anyway.
I also find that I can use them, in some of the older SE Razors in my possession.

The Gem Stainless coated blades that are actually intended for shaving are far and away the best SE razor blades available.

Close, comfortable and I can get at least two weeks worth of good shaves from one.

The carbons are just for nostalgia purposes and don't even try the industrial blades from the hardware store they're not for shaving.

kcb5150 said:

A fresh blue star

Click to expand...

I vote with him.

Thanks, sirs, for all the advice.