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Is it me or the Damaskeene?

Hate to post this on Micromatic Monday but had another tough shave with a Damaskeen. I know there have been posts in the past on this topic...having trouble finding them but would love your thoughts.

I picked up a Damaskeen earlier in 2020 and honestly have not had a great shave on it. I got a 4 blade sample pack from tryablade and have used GEM PTFE, stainless and PAL Blue Carbon (today's blade). I've hand stropped each blade 20 or so strokes before each shave. The razor seems to be in good shape-good spring and the blade is secure and straight (pics attached)

My technique might be partially to blame. I think I've got the angle figured out but since I mainly use a DE, I've got to readjust each time I use the SE. Each shave just feels like I'm using a broken bottle. Lots of tugging and it barely seems I've done anything after the first pass in comparison to a first pass with the DE. Today I did one pass with the GEM and could feel irritation so I finished with the DE on the XTG pass and clean up. I'm using the same preshave prep (hot shower, wet face) and soaps that perform well otherwise and serve me very well on my DE shaves. The variables are the blades and any kinks in my technique.

I think now I've kind of psyched myself out as I go into these shaves with low expectations but hoping for something different---that may lead to pressure and angle fiddling which probably doesn't help. Still multiple shaves, different blades, same unpleasant results. This was a low investment endeavor so dropping it would not be the end of the world. But...I don't like giving up! I'm wondering if I should give another GEM model a shot though. Thoughts? Recommendations?
 

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Is the lid snapping down nice and firm? Blade tabs don't look bent, over all form of the head looks fine. Sounds like you'er angle of the dangle is off doing more scraping then slicing try lifting the handle putting more of the cap on the cheek.
 

Ron R

I survived a lathey foreman
Thanks, yes he lid snaps securely on the blade. I suspect you may be right about angle although I tried to really pay attention to that this morning.
You should not strop a new blade IMO until you start using them. The Gem Personna PTFE is very sharp and does not need stropping. The Damaskeene is a mid range razor and should be smooth. Try not to apply pressure or just enough to over come gravity when shaving uphill on face. Remember the gem mocks a straight razor and it takes a few shaves to dial in . Instead of the stropping the Stainless steel coated blade you could flip the blade and to make it easy , they are stamped Gem (side 1) Stainless(side 2) works for myself.
I will leave some information because a lot of literature has been lost ove the decades.
Gem instruction manual (2).jpg
Gem procedure (2).jpg
blade_angle-se-de.gif
Blade Review #6.3 June 26th 2020 (3).jpg

Have some great shaves! Stay & think safe in these times!
 
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Old Hippie

Somewhere between 61 and dead
Reading around I see it's not at all unusual to have a "broken glass" shave with a carbon Gem blade. The best blades in my opinion are the Personna Gem Stainless PTFE Coated. As Ron says, it's sharp outta the wrapper and doesn't need stropping. (Though some guys do...) I like those first couple of shaves because they're supremely sharp. I flip the blade every use, so I guess we can call that "face-stropping."

I find with a Damaskeene (I have the more common closed-comb) that it is a mild razor. All of the 1912 patterns seem so to me. I can get a decent shave (SAS to CCS) but the mildness of the razor always tempts me to either do a lot of buffing or raise the angle to "get closer" which just makes the darn thing a paint scraper. For me it's not a razor with which to "chase the baby."

By contrast I get excellent shaves from the Ever Ready 1914 "Little Lather Catcher" style. I think that one is my favourite period Gem-style, above even the MMOC. Considering I paid all of $2.50 for it, stellar performance.

O.H.
 
I definitely would not strop new Gem. If your stropping technique is off, you'll have the type of shaves you describe.
 
Thanks all. I think I will stop stropping and re-double focus on technique. The Damaskeene may or may not be a good razor for me but a lot probably boils down to technique. I'll also look back over Ron R's thread on GEM models that has so much great info...and perhaps pick up another model to try as a comparison at some point.
 
I personally very lightly cork the coated GEM PTFEs before first use, for a smoother first shave.

I also did a lot of skin stretching with my off hand at first. Now that my touch is better trained and lighter, I don't do as much with my off hand.

Because I am not an every day Gem shaver, I lightly forearm strop, 5 to 10 laps, after the shave just before storing the blade. This is mainly to dry the edge, not for smoothness.

Coming from DE, it took me a while to get comfortable Gem shaves. I personally prefer the Shovelhead and the Micromatics. Down the line are the 1912s (including Damaskeene), the 1914 LLC, and then the Featherweight, G Bar, Contour head. With all of them, the more practice I have, the better the shaves.
 
I've never had a decent shave with my Gem Damaskeene either, if you want to know the truth. Mine sits in a drawer, and has done so for years. It never seems to shave close enough...give me a Star with a nicely honed wedge blade and I get a BBS shave everytime.
 
An update….it was mostly me! After reading the responses to my post and pouring over other GEM and SE related posts (apparently I had a lot of time on my hands), I decided to give the Damaskeene a fair shot. I ordered up a pack of GEM PTFE blades and committed to at least a week’s worth of shaves where I would really focus on the razor. I did nothing to the blades--no stropping or corking. The only thing I did was flip the blade after each shave (Gem side on odd shaves, other side on evens). I stuck to my two main better performing soaps and did not vary any other elements of my routine.

The results: Very close and effective shaves! I would say it’s true for me that shaves 1 and 2 on a new PTFE blade were a little tough. I had weepers under my lip on the first pass of the first shave--definitely not dialed in on that one. Overall, I think I had more irritation than with my DE and had more clean up. But, the results were dramatically different from what I had described as my earlier experience. Angle, pressure, and not trying to strop the blade I think played a big part. I found getting under the nose to be the biggest pain and my usual potential irritation spots (below mouth and in the chin area) experienced more irritation than with the DE. However, the closeness of the shaves were top notch--consistently CCS/DFS. Today was shave 7 and the blade may be giving a bit but another close shave.

I’m not sure if the Damaskeene is the best GEM/SE for me or not….so of course I started down the rabbit hole and bought a Featherweight (Version 1), an Ever-ready 1914, and I may have a bullet tip. If I miss on the bullet tip, I’ll probably pick up a clog pruf. These razors cover a bit of a spectrum but I’m interested in seeing how they all do….and then perhaps continuing further down the hole to try a Schick Injector. None will probably be a daily driver but it will be fun to see how it goes.
 

Old Hippie

Somewhere between 61 and dead
I did nothing to the blades--no stropping or corking. The only thing I did was flip the blade after each shave (Gem side on odd shaves, other side on evens).

That's my technique. You'll get in the habit, as I did, of being a little extra-careful on the first couple of shaves. I've come to appreciate them for their almost effortless quality. The next two are usually the best in the blade.

O.H.
 
I would like to point out that there is a difference between blade stropping and blade dulling. A lot of the techniques I’ve read about in this thread are not true stropping, but merely systems of wearing down an edge rather than being true stropping that fine tunes, corrects and removes anomalies from the edge. Corking is not stropping, and hand stropping, though true in spirit, is not technically controllable.
8E05BDCE-F948-4B9B-BCD2-07E04D8861F7.jpeg

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Just to add my 2 cents here, I strop all my GEM blades. Everyone I've ever used benefits from stropping. I've used the PTFE ones and they still felt rough to me. I strop them on my hand about 4 times on each side and they are good to go then.
I don't think I could use a GEM blade if I didn't strop it.
 
I find with a Damaskeene (I have the more common closed-comb) that it is a mild razor. All of the 1912 patterns seem so to me. I can get a decent shave (SAS to CCS) but the mildness of the razor always tempts me to either do a lot of buffing or raise the angle to "get closer" which just makes the darn thing a paint scraper. For me it's not a razor with which to "chase the baby."

By contrast I get excellent shaves from the Ever Ready 1914 "Little Lather Catcher" style. I think that one is my favourite period Gem-style, above even the MMOC. Considering I paid all of $2.50 for it, stellar performance.

O.H.

I feel the same way. I get great shaves from my ER-1914 even better than my modern ATT G1 razor. I think I should mine gold plated. I love it that much.
 
I've never had a decent shave with my Gem Damaskeene either, if you want to know the truth. Mine sits in a drawer, and has done so for years. It never seems to shave close enough...give me a Star with a nicely honed wedge blade and I get a BBS shave everytime.
I drank the kool-aid on the Damaskee. I own about 40 razors and this on does not see any action.
 
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