GEM Lightweight razor.

The previous owner of this razor didn't like the looseness of the little tab that sticks up through the cap, this is what I found. That lever has nothing to do with opening or closing the cap, it sticks up through the cap only so it will be pulled back out of the way so that you can load the blade. When you close the cap it allows the tab to move forward and push on the back of the blade to hold it in place.


Look between the tab and the cap and you will see that the tab is in contact with the blade spine.





With the cap removed you can see the tab holding the blade.











I went ahead and shaved with it with the cap off just to be sure that it was OK. It's perfect, and it's a pretty nice little shaver. I still don't know why they put top caps on these things, just for looks I guess.

In short, there's nothing wrong with this razor, and it's not as mild as I thought it would be.




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Usually you can't see the little bumps in action on the blade bed, but here you can see them raising the back of the blade off of the blade bed.

That looks pretty cool without the top. Do you plan on keeping it that way? I've only used mine a couple of times, but I found it to be surprisingly efficient. It's a little on the light side for my taste, but I could probably get used to it.

Nice pictures - thanks!

--Bob

troy said:

That looks pretty cool without the top. Do you plan on keeping it that way? I've only used mine a couple of times, but I found it to be surprisingly efficient. It's a little on the light side for my taste, but I could probably get used to it.

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I'm considering keeping it topless, but realistically it has no effect on the shave. The head weight isn't changed much either, the cap only weighs about as much as a blade. After hearing everyone say how mild they were, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the shave! I will definitely be using this one again, I like it!

spidey9 said:

Nice pictures - thanks!

--Bob

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Thank you sir!

Another nice one Toby.I need to pick one of these up to round out my Gem collection

Nice pics indeed.

eastomjac said:

Another nice one Toby.I need to pick one of these up to round out my Gem collection

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Thank you sir! It really is a sweet little shaver, and the handle is much nicer to use than I expected.

BSAGuy said:

Nice pics indeed.

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Thank you sir!

Ingenious!

Very interesting. I sent the OP the razor in question. When I got the razor off of ebay I noticed that it rattled. That to me suggested a compromised spring tension thingie. In any case my panic button went off.

While I did not try to shave with it I was a little skeptical to do so because I had placed a blade in the razor, closed the lid and was able to move the blade a bit with a small screw driver. This is not a definitive test in anyway but was just to see if the blade did move due to slightly resistance. I figured that if it did, chances are the blade would move while shaving. Looks like I was wrong. In any case, I am glad to see that it has worked out for TobyC. I am ok not getting it back too. I have enough SEs to satisfy me (for now).

It seems to hold the blade rather well, and the stops on the front are slightly hook shaped, so the blade can't lift up without pushing back first. And the cap won't allow the blade to move sideways far enough to be a problem. It's not built as rugged as an older GEM, they were made on the cheap, but it's a nice shaver.

Those GEM Featherweight razors give a nice smooth shave without any irritation. Great little razor.

What is the official name of this thing? Google gives me the same images for "lightweight" and "featherweight".

Nevermind.

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