Schick B1 Repeater In The 21st Century!

[mjclark]

I received my C1 yesterday. I pulled out the plunger and couldn’t push it back in—panic that I had a bad mechanism, but a minute adjustment of the head to the body lined up the blade slot and the head and then it worked perfectly—the plunger went back in and a vintage blade came out and displaced a blade that was already in the head—there is a stack of vintage blades in the magazine!

Fantastic! I love the way this stuff is working in the 21st Century.
As mentioned before, these razors are so beautifully made.

 

[Peter's coin]

Does any know the thickness of the OEM blades? That would help in selecting a modern blade. As stated above, I have some OEM, but don’t have calipers to measure them. I’ve seen moderns at .25 mm, and thinner ones at .22mm.

 

[TomCan]

Got my first injector shave today with a B1 repeater!!
Modern Schick blade (yellow pack) and the usual cream..very nice, little effort needed to get a top notch shave.
Not really shocked at the level of shave using a stiffer blade than a DE. The angle required was a no-brainer but it looked funny to me in the mirror The weight of the razor makes it a keeper.
sigh..am I into buying injectors now too?

 

[Peter's coin]

Awesome to read the OP’s and your shave reports. I’m going to use a repeater for the first time tomorrow. I have a C1 loaded up and a B1 is in my mailbox when I get home.

 

[mjclark]

Got my first injector shave today with a B1 repeater!!
Modern Schick blade (yellow pack) and the usual cream..very nice, little effort needed to get a top notch shave.
Not really shocked at the level of shave using a stiffer blade than a DE. The angle required was a no-brainer but it looked funny to me in the mirror The weight of the razor makes it a keeper.
sigh..am I into buying injectors now too?

Awesome to read the OP’s and your shave reports. I’m going to use a repeater for the first time tomorrow. I have a C1 loaded up and a B1 is in my mailbox when I get home.

Great stuff! The B1 is an unexpectedly awesome shaver for sure.
I’m very interested in hearing comparisons between the A, B and C Repeaters.
Which is most aggressive?
Which is smoothest?

I loaded up a NOS Repeater blade from one of the original magazines.
The whole Repeating mechanism worked like a dream and the blade, which must be at least 75 years old, gave a truly superb shave.

For the first couple of strokes it was slightly tuggy as you might expect from a new carbon steel blade but it settled in very quickly to become extremely smooth.
And surprisingly sharp.
My skin prefers carbon steel blades to stainless and the result was a really magnificent shave which easily outdid the previous Personna Stainless Blade.
Such an amazing shaving system!

 

[Peter's coin]

That’s awesome all around. Great that everything worked. I tried shaving with my C1 this morning using the vintage blade that was in it, but the blade was ineffective, so I laid the razor aside. I’m going to empty the magazines in the razors and learn their working and loading and then load modern blades and try again. Maybe some of the vintage blades will be good.

I’ll receive my last repeater today or tomorrow and then I’ll have a C1, B1, B2 and A. The A seems complete, but stuck, so I’ll be careful, watch some videos and work on it. I’ll check back in when I have some useful info.

 

[TomCan]

Second day with the repeater and surprised at the closeness!
Shave lasts just as long as some of the best in my rotation. I'll keep going with the current blade to see how many I can get out of it. Very happy!

 

[tylehman]

That’s awesome all around. Great that everything worked. I tried shaving with my C1 this morning using the vintage blade that was in it, but the blade was ineffective, so I laid the razor aside. I’m going to empty the magazines in the razors and learn their working and loading and then load modern blades and try again. Maybe some of the vintage blades will be good.

I’ll receive my last repeater today or tomorrow and then I’ll have a C1, B1, B2 and A. The A seems complete, but stuck, so I’ll be careful, watch some videos and work on it. I’ll check back in when I have some useful info.

post pictures, especially of the A if you are having problems before forcing anything.

 

[tylehman]

i am not sure what those original blades are made of, the seem to be quite rust resistant. nothing like carbon steel gem blades.

 

[Peter's coin]

post pictures, especially of the A if you are having problems before forcing anything.

Will do.

 

[mjclark]

i am not sure what those original blades are made of, the seem to be quite rust resistant. nothing like carbon steel gem blades.

I am thoroughly impressed with the OEM Blades!
Shave #2 on an original Repeater Blade was absolutely magnificent and I am off to work feeling like a million dollars!

I’m interested to see how long one of these blades can go for - the original Schick adverts suggest 4 to 10 shaves...
... I’m also really interested to hear the shave reports from @Peter's coin

 

[tylehman]

i shaved with my A today, the vintage blade had 4 or 5 shaves on it. i did 2 passes and it feels fine. it is not an close as when a use a P74 in my Hydromagic but it looks fine, just can feel a little stubble atg on neck and jaw line. maybe tomorrow i will do one side with the A and one with the B or C to see if i can see any difference. i expect that they are pretty similar.
the blade gap is about the same but the spring that hold the blade in place is taller on the A as compared to the B or C. so maybe the shave angle is a little different.

 

[tylehman]

Hi,

Well, I took my C1 apart to make a new spring (I have a machine shop) and found that the original one is still in there and fine. It had one modern blade which had rotated such that the end of the spring had slipped through the capture slot for the Hydromagic feature of later injector razors. That held the spring down so it looked like it was missing when I peered down the loading opening.

I also figured out that mine will not happily load a modern thin blade. So, I also know how that one wound up twisted and jammed sideways in there. I will have to find some old blades or perhaps try twin blades. Or, just keep on manually loading modern ones.


Stan

do you have a blade carrier? i don't see how they could twist around unless it had a blade just put in there lose.

 

[KQY61]

Hi,

Yes, I do have a carrier. The end of the spring had slipped into the Hydromagic slot in the blade and it wound up twisted in there. There was a single blade. It came to me that way, so I do not know if it was the last blade in the stack, or only one blade was loaded in the carrier.

Stan

 

[rudyt]

do you have a blade carrier? i don't see how they could twist around unless it had a blade just put in there lose.

I bought a Type C that had a jammed blade in there. The blade didn't make it through the slot, but was forced so hard by the injector mechanism that it pretzeled in there.

When I took it apart, it had a carrier in there. Basically, if there's any slop in the mechanism due to age related wear, the blade can misalign with the shot, and if you force it hard enough, the blade bends and it jams hard.

 

[tylehman]

wow is did not know that could happen.

 

[mjclark]

Second day with the repeater and surprised at the closeness!
Shave lasts just as long as some of the best in my rotation. I'll keep going with the current blade to see how many I can get out of it. Very happy!

i am not sure what those original blades are made of, the seem to be quite rust resistant. nothing like carbon steel gem blades.

I’m also very impressed with the longevity of the shave - 24hrs on I’m still looking smart!

And also those OEM blades - they’re a lot lot nicer than the carbon steel GEM and DE blades I’ve encountered before.
Shave #3 on the OEM blade and it’s still spotless, smooth and keen.

 

[tylehman]

ok i did a comparison shave A on the right side of my face and C1 on the left side. *maybe i should have gone with the C3 so that they would have the same style guard??? i used Arco soap and a boar brush and did a face lather.

anyway i did notice that on the first pass WTG the C1 felt smoother, and it seemed to shave a bit closer. the head geometry may make it easier to get a flatter angle?? or maybe the blade had less shaves on it???
on the second pass ATG the C1 felt a little smoother again.

over all after 2 passes both got be to the DFS level, the C1 feelt a little smoother to the touch and i can feel a little something along the jaw line on the A side, not razor burn but i could feel the after shave a little more.

i love the look of the A with my travel brush but i am rethinking which to take on my next trip

 

[mjclark]

ok i did a comparison shave A on the right side of my face and C1 on the left side. *maybe i should have gone with the C3 so that they would have the same style guard??? i used Arco soap and a boar brush and did a face lather.

anyway i did notice that on the first pass WTG the C1 felt smoother, and it seemed to shave a bit closer. the head geometry may make it easier to get a flatter angle?? or maybe the blade had less shaves on it???
on the second pass ATG the C1 felt a little smoother again.

over all after 2 passes both got be to the DFS level, the C1 feelt a little smoother to the touch and i can feel a little something along the jaw line on the A side, not razor burn but i could feel the after shave a little more.

i love the look of the A with my travel brush but i am rethinking which to take on my next trip

Very interesting.
How does the B model fit into this?
Does it shave similar to the C?

 

[tylehman]

ok today i did a comparison of a B1 on the right side of my face and a C3 on the left side of my face.. both have the plain bar guard. i whipped up some ToOBS coconut cream and finished with Clubman Virgin Island Bay Rum AS

doing these cheek to cheek tests has made me think that they were making actual improvements in shaving as well as more refined designs. i would say that after the first WTG pass the B1 was a little smoother than my A from yesterday, but the C3 feels like it has a thinner head and is a little more maneuverable. both felt smooth during the first pass.
after the second pass (ATG) i would day both sided felt very similar, with a slight edge to the C3, however i could feel the burn from the AS a little more on on the C3 side under my mustache on the left side, but i also may did a few extra touch-up passes there to get a trouble spot at the edge of my mouth. easily DFS in 2 passes.
i think that the bar may be a little closer to the blade on the C3, and it takes more rinsing to get the Cs cleaned as compared to the A an B1. however the guard on the C is supported on the ends and is not as susceptible to getting bent like seems to be seen in some B1s and As listed on ebay. i did not notice a rinsing issue on the C1 with the open comb, but i will also mentions that the C1 is often found with bent or broken teeth at the edges of the razor.

when not doing direct comparisons, i thought that they all shaved basically the same, but now i really feel that Cs are the simplest ones to load, and the head geometry makes it a little better shaver. all are great little machines, and i am happy that i have all the different styles that i do.