Gibbs No 14

[Evdini]

Hey everybody! I rarely post mostly just read all of the the interesting material in this awesome community. I need some opinions on a newly acquired Gibbs No 14 with the Bakelite handle. This is kinda long so hang on to your butts.

1– I got the razor in the mail with the intentions of sandblasting the head and refinishing it. This was the first Gibbs I’ve owned and I noticed how thin the engravings are on the head. It looks as if it was only engraved on the outer plating of the metal. I’m worried that if I sandblast the head the engravings will disappear with it. Can anyone confirm this suspicion?
2– I then noticed that one of the posts for holding the proprietary Gibbs blade has broken off. I was thinking of just removing the remaining post so I wouldn’t need to alter the modern blades to fit. I would need to come up with other way of keeping the modern blade aligned. Is this a good idea or a bad idea? I’m on the fence and my wife’s eyes glazed over when I said the word “Gibbs”.

Absolutely any input would be appreciated. Thanks everyone!

 

[Ron R]

I use to sand blast a little where I worked in a Welding fabrication shop and what we did was use rubber or different tape on area's we did not want blasted. A few layers of Electric taper on the area of concern will prevent most of that area to be blasted. Check often to make sure the tape is still doing the job of protecting that small area of concern.

 

[dmshaver]

I'm unable to offer advice, but I will ask you to please post pictures when finished.

 

[Evdini]

I use to sand blast a little where I worked in a Welding fabrication shop and what we did was use rubber or different tape on area's we did not want blasted. A few layers of Electric taper on the area of concern will prevent most of that area to be blasted. Check often to make sure the tape is still doing the job of protecting that small area of concern.

I'm unable to offer advice, but I will ask you to please post pictures when finished.

I certainly will. I think I’m going to remove that remaining post so I can at least put a modern blade on it.

 

[romsitsa]

Sandblasting could be a bit harsh for zamak, I would go with hand sanding.
Electroplating is a hit or mis with cast metal in my experience.
Whatever you do do not use electrostipping it will dissolve the head.

 

[Evdini]

Thanks. Gibbs razor heads are cast? I didn’t know that. Maybe soda blast would be more gentle that glass or aluminum oxide.

 

[Ron R]

I should mention about this New adjustable that Yaqi just introduced.
You can buy a Yaqi the final cut(AKA- TFC) adjustable that looks similar to the Gibbs 1930's adjustable but the Yaqi TFC adjustable takes regular blades and I own one and they are very reasonably priced in USA dollars ($28ish US) I would not think twice about owning one and as a matter of fact I bought a second one on sale about 1.5 months ago. If you buy on the Yaqi live sale they even throw in a stand for Yaqi TFC adjustable. They shave really well and I'm very happy with this razor!
You will be a lot happier with this new razor that the Gibbs that needs a lot of work.

Have some great shaves!

 

[Evdini]

I should mention about this New adjustable that Yaqi just introduced.
You can buy a Yaqi the final cut(AKA- TFC) adjustable that looks similar to the Gibbs 1930's adjustable but the Yaqi TFC adjustable takes regular blades and I own one and they are very reasonably priced in USA dollars ($28ish US) I would not think twice about owning one and as a matter of fact I bought a second one on sale about 1.5 months ago. If you buy on the Yaqi live sale they even throw in a stand for Yaqi TFC adjustable. They shave really well and I'm very happy with this razor!
You will be a lot happier with this new razor that the Gibbs that needs a lot of work.
View attachment 1468205

Have some great shaves!

Thank you for the info! I was just looking at Gibbs replicas and clones this afternoon. I’ll still mess with this one (I love to tinker with razors) but I will check that Yaqi out this evening.

 

[Felix G]

I should mention about this New adjustable that Yaqi just introduced.
You can buy a Yaqi the final cut(AKA- TFC) adjustable that looks similar to the Gibbs 1930's adjustable but the Yaqi TFC adjustable takes regular blades and I own one and they are very reasonably priced in USA dollars ($28ish US) I would not think twice about owning one and as a matter of fact I bought a second one on sale about 1.5 months ago. If you buy on the Yaqi live sale they even throw in a stand for Yaqi TFC adjustable. They shave really well and I'm very happy with this razor!
You will be a lot happier with this new razor that the Gibbs that needs a lot of work.
View attachment 1468205

Have some great shaves!

I have original Gibbs adjustable. The Yaqi one have completely different head. The head design is what gives the Gibbs it's unique shaving character.

 

[EclipseRedRing]

I use a Gibbs #14 and also a metal #16 which offer a very similar shaves, but are different in that the #16 has the posts on the cap rather than the base plate and is about 20g heavier. Both are superb razors with + and - sides and for me offer a superior shave to the adjustable which I found very unbalanced, so much so that many owners replace the handle. I do not favour adjustables myself although the Gibbs mechanism is beautifully elegant. I would leave the single post in place rather than removing it. Standard blades are very easy to modify, many people go to great lengths to make equipment to modify them but I use a simple hole punch as shown below. It works well but I estimate that it spoils about one in ten blades.

 

[Rob72]

Since you're already doing a major re-work, go ahead and drill holes for posts. I would have to measure, but posts are somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/8". Just a shallow hole, so as not to bore out the stamping on the bottom side, and then soft solder or JB weld the posts in place

 

[Ron R]

I have original Gibbs adjustable. The Yaqi one have completely different head. The head design is what gives the Gibbs it's unique shaving character.

Have to agree, the Gibbs 1930's head design for most models takes preparatory blades where the Yaqi the TFC takes regular blades.
Yaqi and Gibbs works very similar in design and I really enjoy the Yaqi TFC Adjustable. I have 6 adjustable razors and it is right up in the top of those 6 for ease of use and cleaning the razor to most important fact final shave results. It just works well IMO!