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Micromatic Monday

GAW9576

GAW9576

Ron R said:
GEMonday March 2 2020, Pulled out my Gem Jr Parade and it's like we one together when it comes to fine shaving, I really enjoyed my shave like usual with this razor. Not sure if it is the audio feedback while shaving or just the results at the end of the shave that puts a smile on my face!

Razor: Gem Junior parade with the baton handle- Mfg 1943 variant
Blade : Gem Personna SS PTFE (9)
Soap: Razorock "The Dead Sea" - nice scent with great lather qualities.
Brush : Razorock Noir 400 Plissoft synthetic black whiskers.
Pre-shave: Brush wash my face with CeraVe hand bar soap + a dollop of clear Aloe Vera gel.
Prep: cold water rinse after each pass of 3.
Post shave: Razorock T.D.S aftershave with witch Hazel + Nivea balm.
Results : CCS,DFS,BBS + no irritation + no weepers= :a17: :thumbsup:great shave and hit the sweet spot.
View attachment 1069378
Some times I like to leave some manuals and other information if some one buys a used Gem razor.
View attachment 1069379 View attachment 1069380 View attachment 1069381 View attachment 1069383 View attachment 1069382
Have some great shaves!
Click to expand...

I appreciate you periodically posting pictures of this information for us.
 
RumpleBearskin

RumpleBearskin

GEMMonday - The aftermath
IMG_20200302_064417-01.jpeg

GEM Jr. Bar
GEM Persona SS PTFE (think it was 10 it 11)
HSSC Kootenay Blue
Maggard's Black and White
Old Spice Classic

Lovely shave today. The Maggard's synthetic works so well on this soap. And the Jr. Bar, though LOUD, is a joy to use. Tossed the blade afterwards, not because it was done, but because after 2+ months of once a week use, why not?
 
Ron R

Ron R

I survived a lathey foreman
Flintstone65

Flintstone65

Imagining solutions for imaginary problems
I had a straight-up Micromatic Monday with a GEM Micromatic Flying Wing with the patented (by the marketing department, I'm sure) "guiding eye" technology! It really was a super smooth shave with a GEM SS PTFE blade on it's 10th shave. 3-passes and a very comfortable DFS result.

Now a word about soap -- I REALLY enjoyed this Ariana & Evans soap Forbidden Fruit. The scent really resonated with me....the apple and brandy notes really jumped out at me, but there's a complexity from the floral and herbal notes that keeps it from being too sweet. The floral and fruit combination really do evoke a Garden of Eden. The lather was not overly slick, in fact it's an easy soap to rinse off, but there was plenty of slickness/glide where the lather is and more than enough protection/cushion. Last but not least is the artwork, the "Fall of Man" by Hendrick Goltzius painted in 1616. I took some art history in college -- I thought it would be a cakewalk, but turned out to be a pretty challenging course -- and I managed to pick up some appreciation for painters and sculptors of the past. To me an interesting part of this particular work are the animals used: the cat (which looks very similar to one of mine), the elephant in the far distance (see Adam's left hand), and there are 2 goats which have been cropped out of the picture on the soap container but are in the original work. Many paintings of this particular scene usually illustrate Eve collecting the fruit and/or offering a whole apple.....this particular work shows Eve having taken the first bite and offering the remainder of the fruit to Adam. The cat's expression is almost priceless....she is looking at the viewer as to if say, "these humans are morons"....I often get that same look from my cats.

proxy.php


This was the first A&E soap I have ever tried, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Most of my soap exploration has been less artisan and more commercially-produced by large manufacturers (e.g., Palmolive, Tabac, Arko, LEA, Haslinger's, Williams, etc) -- but I recently picked up several pucks of Meissner Tremonia soaps (which is another artisan that I really like), and I was looking for a way to store them (aside from a Ziploc-type container), and I discovered something I want to share: Maggard Razor's Empty Containers.

Basically, Maggard Razor's builds their own soap samples of the various soaps they carry by taking a regular sized container and emptying it into small sample containers. Then instead of just tossing out the empty soap containers, they sell them. The price for the containers is really reasonable (IMO), and there is always some residual soap left in the container -- enough for at least one and maybe two 3-pass shaves. Aside from the residue, you also get a chance to sample the scent -- in fact, getting rid of the scent from the container is no easy task. You can make requests -- which I did -- but they can only provide what they have on hand as an empty. I got 4 different containers with a very nice note apologizing that they just didn't have an empty for the soaps I requested. But I wasn't disappointed at all, I've got a B&M, Noble Otter and a Wholly Kaw container in addition to this one. It's an interesting way to sample some soaps, and while I don't need any more soap, I will probably pick up some Forbidden Fruit -- as I'm sure Adam thought: "hey, why not?".

Great Micromatic Monday, and I hope you find this long post on soap and containers mildly entertaining if not helpful/interesting.
 
camoloc

camoloc

Flintstone65 said:
I had a straight-up Micromatic Monday with a GEM Micromatic Flying Wing with the patented (by the marketing department, I'm sure) "guiding eye" technology! It really was a super smooth shave with a GEM SS PTFE blade on it's 10th shave. 3-passes and a very comfortable DFS result.

Now a word about soap -- I REALLY enjoyed this Ariana & Evans soap Forbidden Fruit. The scent really resonated with me....the apple and brandy notes really jumped out at me, but there's a complexity from the floral and herbal notes that keeps it from being too sweet. The floral and fruit combination really do evoke a Garden of Eden. The lather was not overly slick, in fact it's an easy soap to rinse off, but there was plenty of slickness/glide where the lather is and more than enough protection/cushion. Last but not least is the artwork, the "Fall of Man" by Hendrick Goltzius painted in 1616. I took some art history in college -- I thought it would be a cakewalk, but turned out to be a pretty challenging course -- and I managed to pick up some appreciation for painters and sculptors of the past. To me an interesting part of this particular work are the animals used: the cat (which looks very similar to one of mine), the elephant in the far distance (see Adam's left hand), and there are 2 goats which have been cropped out of the picture on the soap container but are in the original work. Many paintings of this particular scene usually illustrate Eve collecting the fruit and/or offering a whole apple.....this particular work shows Eve having taken the first bite and offering the remainder of the fruit to Adam. The cat's expression is almost priceless....she is looking at the viewer as to if say, "these humans are morons"....I often get that same look from my cats.

proxy.php


This was the first A&E soap I have ever tried, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Most of my soap exploration has been less artisan and more commercially-produced by large manufacturers (e.g., Palmolive, Tabac, Arko, LEA, Haslinger's, Williams, etc) -- but I recently picked up several pucks of Meissner Tremonia soaps (which is another artisan that I really like), and I was looking for a way to store them (aside from a Ziploc-type container), and I discovered something I want to share: Maggard Razor's Empty Containers.

Basically, Maggard Razor's builds their own soap samples of the various soaps they carry by taking a regular sized container and emptying it into small sample containers. Then instead of just tossing out the empty soap containers, they sell them. The price for the containers is really reasonable (IMO), and there is always some residual soap left in the container -- enough for at least one and maybe two 3-pass shaves. Aside from the residue, you also get a chance to sample the scent -- in fact, getting rid of the scent from the container is no easy task. You can make requests -- which I did -- but they can only provide what they have on hand as an empty. I got 4 different containers with a very nice note apologizing that they just didn't have an empty for the soaps I requested. But I wasn't disappointed at all, I've got a B&M, Noble Otter and a Wholly Kaw container in addition to this one. It's an interesting way to sample some soaps, and while I don't need any more soap, I will probably pick up some Forbidden Fruit -- as I'm sure Adam thought: "hey, why not?".

Great Micromatic Monday, and I hope you find this long post on soap and containers mildly entertaining if not helpful/interesting.
Click to expand...


awesome thought about trying A&E but have too many soaps in my mind.

what scent was the empty WK container?

camo
 
GAW9576

GAW9576

GAW9576 said:
I had an excellent shave this morning. Things started off with a little Proraso white balm and a dab of Lubriderm. I was inspired by others to slow down and really concentrate on deliberately apply little to no pressure. I tend to get impatient with the stubborn spots and get heavy handed to try to overcame resistant hairs. Also rinsing with cold water between each pass as @Ron R has been mentioning. I whipped the lather up with hot water and a dab of coconut oil. The lather was drying out a bit on my neck because I was taking it extra slow, so I chilled the lather in the bowl with a splash of cold water mixed in then ran cold water on the outside of the metal bowl. This work very well. The lather stayed perfectly hydrated the rest of the shave. The Henckels Rapide was used for the bulk of the shave doing 3 passes on most of the shave and 4 in some areas. The Schick G was used on a cleanup of the toughest spots on my neck to catch a few stubborn stray hairs. The result was a nearly irritation free shave that was very close. Twelve hours later and I'm still smooth except for each side of the adams apple were I have the most troublesome hairs.

Click to expand...

Micromatic Monday was easy following the above shave. I just duplicated the process but with the a Gem push button Contour.

 
never-stop-learning

never-stop-learning

Demoted To Moderator
Staff member
Micromatic Monday Shave 20200302

Sneaking in with the Sabre ;)

Continuing my 2020 Resolution to stop chasing BBS!

20200302_121213~2.jpg


Prep: Splashed water on face
Pre-shave: n/a
Brush: AP Shave Co. 24MM 2BED Synthetic FAN w/Blue Lagoon Handle
Soap: Haslinger Schafmilch (in an Old Spice cup)
Bowl: n/a (face lathered)
Razor: Blackland Sabre Level 2
Blade: Ted Pella GEM Personna (1)
Post-shave: Dickinson's Hydrating Skin Toner
Aftershave Balm: Duke Cannon w/Menthol
Aftershave: Fine Italian Citrus

WTG, ATG and XTG. Minor touch-up.

DFS++ with zero weepers, nicks, cuts or irritation.

The Blackland Sabre is an awesome SE razor. Good flexibility - the shaving angle can be shallow or steep and the face feel is always smooth and refined, just more or less aggressive/efficient.

The Sabre rocks!

The AP Shave Co. 24MM 2BED Synthetic FAN holds plenty of soap and works really well for face lathering. Nice splay.

Wonderful shave!

YMMV
 
Tanuki

Tanuki

Finally there’s proof. It didn’t clog.

Simple ingredient list -
MMCP
Gem PTFE (5)
Ogallala bay rum/sage/cedar stick
Cremo Cooling
Booster Iced Lime AS

13082C65-3715-4072-B332-7194C53591F9.jpeg


Yet another easy-peasy DFS+ from a Micromatic.

The “brushless” soap/cream mixture was carefully calculated to clog. But the huge ducts in the blade bed were completely unfazed. I don’t know exactly what @GAW9576 has growing on his scalp, but the usual mangy stubble crop on my neck and cheeks didn’t provide enough fiber for the MMCP to notice.

The Booster Iced Lime came in today’s Italian Barber mail call. Much more lime than ice, exactly color matched to lime Kool-aid. Inoffensive in price and scent, I expect I will add some menthol crystals to the bottle and get plenty of enjoyment out of it. A strong but quickly fading blast of iced lime is my idea of a daily driver following citrus or menthol soap.
 
GAW9576

GAW9576

Tanuki said:
Finally there’s proof. It didn’t clog.

Simple ingredient list -
MMCP
Gem PTFE (5)
Ogallala bay rum/sage/cedar stick
Cremo Cooling
Booster Iced Lime AS

View attachment 1069549

Yet another easy-peasy DFS+ from a Micromatic.

The “brushless” soap/cream mixture was carefully calculated to clog. But the huge ducts in the blade bed were completely unfazed. I don’t know exactly what @GAW9576 has growing on his scalp, but the usual mangy stubble crop on my neck and cheeks didn’t provide enough fiber for the MMCP to notice.

The Booster Iced Lime came in today’s Italian Barber mail call. Much more lime than ice, exactly color matched to lime Kool-aid. Inoffensive in price and scent, I expect I will add some menthol crystals to the bottle and get plenty of enjoyment out of it. A strong but quickly fading blast of iced lime is my idea of a daily driver following citrus or menthol soap.
Click to expand...

This is what it takes to clog an MMCP. That was done in a single pass with a different razor. The CP clogged quickly the other razor barely handled it with very frequent rinsing.
 

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Matt76

Matt76

I've had a Micromatic for a few years, purchased from an antique store. I went in looking for straight razors but all the gentleman had was a Gem in a little cream colored case. He charged me $20. Tonight I gave it a whirl for the first time. I found GEM Blue Star blades in the grocery store last week. I have a few other SE blades from samplers but I figured what the heck, I'll try these. The shave was good. 2 passes, cold water, Klar Seifen, neck and head. I had some initial redness but it went away pretty quick. I realized a few firsts happened with this shave.. First time with a SE and first shave with a vintage safety razor. I cleaned up the beard when a DePew, as usual. Happy Monday fellas.

20200302_173338.jpg
 
GAW9576

GAW9576

never-stop-learning said:
Micromatic Monday Shave 20200302

Sneaking in with the Sabre ;)

Continuing my 2020 Resolution to stop chasing BBS!

View attachment 1069547

Prep: Splashed water on face
Pre-shave: n/a
Brush: AP Shave Co. 24MM 2BED Synthetic FAN w/Blue Lagoon Handle
Soap: Haslinger Schafmilch (in an Old Spice cup)
Bowl: n/a (face lathered)
Razor: Blackland Sabre Level 2
Blade: Ted Pella GEM Personna (1)
Post-shave: Dickinson's Hydrating Skin Toner
Aftershave Balm: Duke Cannon w/Menthol
Aftershave: Fine Italian Citrus

WTG, ATG and XTG. Minor touch-up.

DFS++ with zero weepers, nicks, cuts or irritation.

The Blackland Sabre is an awesome SE razor. Good flexibility - the shaving angle can be shallow or steep and the face feel is always smooth and refined, just more or less aggressive/efficient.

The Sabre rocks!

The AP Shave Co. 24MM 2BED Synthetic FAN holds plenty of soap and works really well for face lathering. Nice splay.

Wonderful shave!

YMMV
Click to expand...
Matt76 said:
I've had a Micromatic for a few years, purchased from an antique store. I went in looking for straight razors but all the gentleman had was a Gem in a little cream colored case. He charged me $20. Tonight I gave it a whirl for the first time. I found GEM Blue Star blades in the grocery store last week. I have a few other SE blades from samplers but I figured what the heck, I'll try these. The shave was good. 2 passes, cold water, Klar Seifen, neck and head. I had some initial redness but it went away pretty quick. I realized a few firsts happened with this shave.. First time with a SE and first shave with a vintage safety razor. I cleaned up the beard when a DePew, as usual. Happy Monday fellas.

View attachment 1069615
Click to expand...

Beautiful razors. The Micromatic Clog-pruf looks to be in excellent condition. And the DePews looks amazing to. That's one straight razor I've wanted for many years but has always eluded me.
 
camoloc

camoloc

Saxonbowman said:
Shave two on the CVS carbon-steel blade in the open comb Micro Matic. As I mentioned last Monday I coated the blade with petroleum jelly to see if it would last a week. It did! I got a great shave with no tugging. We'll try again next week.
Click to expand...

glad I'm not the only one who does this. Except I use G96 milspec gun oil cleaner......which works really well. I trust it on any of my metal equipment. passed salt water corrosion test. plus it smells good.

camo
 
GAW9576

GAW9576

camoloc said:
glad I'm not the only one who does this. Except I use G96 milspec gun oil cleaner......which works really well. I trust it on any of my metal equipment. passed salt water corrosion test. plus it smells good.

camo
Click to expand...

I tend to stick with food safe stuff on my razors. Mineral oil or Camellia oil.
 
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