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Feed the Addiction

It begins.

For years I have been a happy DE shaver. Great Shaves. Happily Married. Retired. Almost 2000 posts on B&B. Like most of us, I had my B&B routine. I would start at the General Shave Talk and then move to Safety Razors, Double Edged Razors. I would then skip over Single Edged Razors and move on to Safety Razor Blades. It was not that I had anything against single edged razors. In fact I recognized that many were beautiful examples of industrial art - just not my thing. And then about 1 month ago I started browsing around the blog, satisfied to learn. And then I started browsing around Ebay. And then I purchased a pack of GEM blades from CVS. And then I purchased this beauty yesterday. I should have it early next week.

Feed the Beast

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A Look At The Head's of DE's & SE's Really Tells The Story. Almost All DE's Are Very Similar in Design And Style. SE's On The Other Hand Offer A Great Variety in Design And Style. Add In Auto Strops Rube Goldberg Cool Look and Schick's...You Have A Lot Of Area To Explore.
Better Make A Lot Of Room On The Shelf...
 
The design of the DE blade with its two shaving edges is very limiting. Essentially all DE razors are variations on the classic 3 piece or TTO design. There are Gillettes and . . . copies of Gillettes.

No such limitations exist for SE's. In addition there are 4 different SE blades still being produced (Classic Gem style, Injector, Feather AC and Auto-Strop/Feather FHS. Then there are the wedge blades, which while they are no longer being produced, there are plenty of them out there and they can be re-honed and reused for years.

In addition, SE's were generally better built than DE's. I have SE's dating all the way back to 1887 and none of them have "the usual hairline cracks in the handle."

I no longer find double edge razors to be very interesting.

--Bob
 
The Bullet arrived yesterday. Great condition. TTO opens smoothly and closes tightly. Nice weight and balance. I have some CVS blades(carbon) as well as what appear to be NOS GEM "Micromatic" blades. Sealed brown and orange wrapper. I assume that they are carbon as well.

I will shave later this afternoon before going out this evening. Which blade should I start with? I am inclined to go with the GEM, unless the NOS blades do not shave well after all these years. It seems fitting that a 70 year old Bullet should shave something more regal than a CVS blade.
 
The Bullet arrived yesterday. Great condition. TTO opens smoothly and closes tightly. Nice weight and balance. I have some CVS blades(carbon) as well as what appear to be NOS GEM "Micromatic" blades. Sealed brown and orange wrapper. I assume that they are carbon as well.

I will shave later this afternoon before going out this evening. Which blade should I start with? I am inclined to go with the GEM, unless the NOS blades do not shave well after all these years. It seems fitting that a 70 year old Bullet should shave something more regal than a CVS blade.
I'd say the old GEM blades are probably going to be too dull if they're carbon steel blades. Usually carbon steel doesn't age well, but you might get lucky. You could try them but have the CVS standing by if it doesn't feel right with the GEMs.

The CVS blades are made by the company that used to be American Safety Razor, which is the same company that used to make those GEM blades. I think you really need to get a hold of some new GEM stainless steel blades as well.
 
Now that was fun! I just had my first shave with the GEM Bullet. I decided to go with the CVS blade rather than the NOS GEM micromatic blade that came with the razor. My normal razor is the Wolfman OC, a razor that I find to be moderately aggressive but very smooth and efficient. I expected the Bullet/CVS blade combination to be both more aggressive and less smooth than the Wolfman.

My first stoke was a bit tentative. I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into. It didn't take me but one or two strokes to find the proper shave angle. Totally intuitive. To my surprise the Bullet was less aggressive than the Wolfman and delightfully smooth. Within a few strokes I was zipping around my face as if the Bullet and I were old friends. In the end I did my usual one WTG pass with a bit of buffing here and there. Not a single weeper. No irritation. Just a smooooth, easy shave.

This one is a keeper.
 
Let's talk about blades for a moment. GEM by Personna are readily available on the internet. The box doesn't say, but are these blades PTFE coated??

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Yes, even though it doesn't explicitly say so on the package. This his has been verified by ASR. There is a thread you can find if you Google long enough.

-Bob
 
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