Anyone try a shim with Blackland Sabre L2 plate?

[GoodShave]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering how I could squeak out a little more efficiency out of the Sabre L2 plate and was curious if anyone has tried a shim with it.

I saw a video where somebody removed the spine from a GEM blade to use as a shim with the Sabre L2 plate. My guess is not only would you have to remove the spine but you would have to cut down the blade (remove the cutting edge) so the shim edge does not compete with the cutting edge of the regular blade on top of it.

Has anyone here tried it and found it helpful?

 

[Rob72]

Not a Blackland owner, but yes, you would need to grind back the shim plate edge. The best tools for this (in order):
Worksharp with a 200grit belt.
Cheap diamond lapping plate off Amazon or ebay.
Diamond pocket sharpening stick if you already have one.

 

[GoodShave]

I decided to use what I had lying around the house to experiment with shims.

Since I don't have any used GEM blades and I was not about to destroy any brand new GEM blades, I took three new box cutter blades and cut off the cutting edge and the spine using my Craftsman rotary tool (Sear's version of a Dremmel) and a cutting wheel.

I decided to cut the spine area off so that the shaving GEM blade would keep the same angle when shimmed without me having to remove the spines of new GEM blades just to use a shim. I will try the shims soon.

The Sabre top plate could support even more shims but I figure three shims is as many as I would use for a shave in any razor.

 

[GoodShave]

10/15/2022

Growth: Two day beard.
Prep: Warm shower: Stirling Sheep bar soap
Pre: Washed face with Stirling Glacial unscented pre-shave soap then reapplied before lathering.
Brush: Rudy Vey 25 mm STF
Lather : Razorock XXX Italian shaving soap
Blade: GEM Personna SS (D8)
Razor: Blackland Sabre
Base Plate: L2 with shims
Handle: Blackland Sabre
Post: unscented Stirling witch hazel and PAA Mysterium Serum

Even though I had been trying out cold water shaving, I decided to go back to warm water rinses for this shave. I did that since my first cold water shave was with the Sabre L2 plate and it was not very good or pleasant. (My second cold water shave was with a more efficient razor and it was a great shave).

I did the first pass with one shim going WTB. That left quite a bit of stubble in the mustache and chin areas. It was slightly more efficient than the L2 plate by itself, but I was looking for more efficiency.

The second pass, I used two shims and went Outside-In for the mustache area, E-W on the chin then a W-E pass on the chin (so that was a third pass for that area). I went my normal ATG on the neck. Two shims probably put the Sabre into medium aggression territory for me. Not too much blade feel but even more efficient from my estimate.

I then did a tiny bit of touch up with three shims to see how aggressive that would be. I really didn't need to do much touch up but I was curious about three shims. Three shims was a little too aggressive for me. Too much blade feel.

The overall shave was BBS/BBS-. This was the best shave I have achieved with the Sabre.

I think I will try full shaves using each shim level starting with two shims as the additional directions for sure cut down more stubble no matter the shim level.

The shims worked well. The side posts on the top plate along with a tiny bit of the center blade hole top kept the shims in place and away from the edge of the shaving blade. I don't know what kind of steel these box cutters are made of so I am making sure to dry them very well so they don't rust. Once I have some used GEM SS blades, I may cut them down so they will be more rust resistant. The spine of the shaving GEM blade is unsupported by shims but I did not notice any issues. If it becomes a problem I may put some shims under the GEM spine.

 

[GoodShave]

The L2 plate with two shims works well. Until there is an L3 plate, I will stick with this combination as I can get a BBS/BBS- with two passes without having to go ATG/fool's pass in my mustache or chin areas.

 

[GoodShave]

I created a thread documenting how I made the shims for my Blackland Sabre.
You can find it here.