Question on GEM razors (Featherweight, etc)

[Jim99]

Same here. I’ve read about people stropping Gem blades for the first use, and have tried it myself. However, I never noticed the difference and quickly gave up on it. Try stropping it on your jeans first and see what you think prior to spending money on a strop.

 

[Ron R]

Question for you all...

Somewhere I was told (or read?) I should strop the GEM blade before the first shave. I know I read that jeans Work fine for this. As I'm not wearing jeans most of the time, this is an impractical solution.

Would a small strop (2"w x 18"l) be a good idea? Found one for around $10 that had good reviews.

Thanks again for the guidance. [emoji846]

You will have better results if you cork it a couple of times, hand stropping will not hurt anything after you have used the blade.
Hand stropping is a little dangerous but what it does is straighten any curled edges after being used to a finer edge. Leather strop with compounds does not work on stainless steel from my experiences, stropping with a strip of blue jeans with no compound will work also IMO from my cartridge days experimenting.
You should not have to strop with a GEM featherweight razor if hand technique is good because it is a little less aggressive than other GEM razors IMO. Having a strop around for other uses is good idea if your into straight razors or knife sharpening.
These are spent blades for visual purposes only.
Have some great shaves!

 

[mrdoug]

As compared to a safety bar, yes. But the 1912 is pretty mild

Despite a lot of hemming and hawing, and walking away from some opportunities due to a fear of it's OC look, I finally decided to give the 1912 a shot.

Cpool222 has a handful for sale in the BST for dirt cheap, all of which look really good. I grabbed one this morning. (Yea!)

Figure if I don't like it, I can PIF the razor without loosing much of anything. Now it's time to wait and cross my fingers. [emoji16]