Schick B1 Repeater In The 21st Century!

[KCGJudas]

When rinsing off the razor how does it prevent water from getting into the magazine and rusting the other blades?

 

[mjclark]

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.

That’s brilliant! So which is the most aggressive or are they all equal in that score?

 

[tylehman]

That’s brilliant! So which is the most aggressive or are they all equal in that score?

i guess i don't really thing about aggressive anymore. i will shave with my Wilkinson empire which is all blade or a rolls razor which is all blade with no guard, and i tend to shave every day so i don't really try to take off thick growth. with this short test i think that for me they got progressively smoother and more efficient as time went on. the newer models seem to be easier to get a better shave with less work. i suppose they may be getting less aggressive as time goes on because the blade gap get narrower, but the geometry and shave angle makes me think that that is not that important... the shaving angle is so shallow, i am not sure how much the guard comes into play.
what's funny is, i think i find the older ones are more interesting. i really like the looks of the original type A with the round aluminum handle body and cap with the gold colored head. it was actually a surprise to me that the shaves were not all more similar.
i have never been fond of gold plated razors because they usually have such a thin wash that gets worn easily and doesn't look as nice. i have found that in my case the soap tends to build up on the back of the blade and is harder to clean up on the type Cs because there is just less space for the water to flow through.

 

[mjclark]

i guess i don't really thing about aggressive anymore. i will shave with my Wilkinson empire which is all blade or a rolls razor which is all blade with no guard, and i tend to shave every day so i don't really try to take off thick growth. with this short test i think that for me they got progressively smoother and more efficient as time went on. the newer models seem to be easier to get a better shave with less work. i suppose they may be getting less aggressive as time goes on because the blade gap get narrower, but the geometry and shave angle makes me think that that is not that important... the shaving angle is so shallow, i am not sure how much the guard comes into play.
what's funny is, i think i find the older ones are more interesting. i really like the looks of the original type A with the round aluminum handle body and cap with the gold colored head. it was actually a surprise to me that the shaves were not all more similar.
i have never been fond of gold plated razors because they usually have such a thin wash that gets worn easily and doesn't look as nice. i have found that in my case the soap tends to build up on the back of the blade and is harder to clean up on the type Cs because there is just less space for the water to flow through.

Thanks again! You’re making want to get all the models myself now!

 

[Peter's coin]

Back with a photo of my just-acquired collection of repeaters, and some remarks.

Type A at bottom, silver B straight bar, gold B open comb in case, Type C straight bar.

I disassembled and cleaned the A and Bs using Scrubbing Bubbles / water rinses, got in the nooks and crannies and then ince they were clean I immersed all parts in mineral oil and wiped off the excess. I emptied the magazines of the original blades and loaded modern blades in each and they each function. I have not shaved with them, yet! Tomorrow!

Some early thoughts:

• Be careful with the original gold-tone blade magazines—they are flimsy and I badly bent the one in the Type A—it was the first I worked on. The original mags were meant to be replaced with each new set of blades and the vintage replacement mags are more robust. I separately bought a vintage mag w/blades in a metal tube and loaded it in the Type A and it works great. I suggest trying to get a few vintage mags as primaries / spares and load your own blades.
• I also studied the Type B loading video on YouTube and it helped, but really all of the online videos fall short in quantity and quality of instruction / demonstration.

The Type C was working well, so I left it and its loaded blades alone for now. Its mechanism is different than the others and I’ll tackle it in future.

 

[mjclark]

View attachment 839496 Back with a photo of my just-acquired collection of repeaters, and some remarks.

Type A at bottom, silver B straight bar, gold B open comb in case, Type C straight bar.

I disassembled and cleaned the A and Bs using Scrubbing Bubbles / water rinses, got in the nooks and crannies and then ince they were clean I immersed all parts in mineral oil and wiped off the excess. I emptied the magazines of the original blades and loaded modern blades in each and they each function. I have not shaved with them, yet! Tomorrow!

Some early thoughts:

• Be careful with the original gold-tone blade magazines—they are flimsy and I badly bent the one in the Type A—it was the first I worked on. The original mags were meant to be replaced with each new set of blades and the vintage replacement mags are more robust. I separately bought a vintage mag w/blades in a metal tube and loaded it in the Type A and it works great. I suggest trying to get a few vintage mags as primaries / spares and load your own blades.
• I also studied the Type B loading video on YouTube and it helped, but really all of the online videos fall short in quantity and quality of instruction / demonstration.

The Type C was working well, so I left it and its loaded blades alone for now. Its mechanism is different than the others and I’ll tackle it in future.

Superb! You must be very pleased indeed.

Are you going to try any of the original blades? My NOS OEM blades in the magazines worked very very well - sharp and smooth and extremely kind to the skin.

I’m also interested to see pics of the simplified Type C mechanism.
How does it work without a spring?

 

[tylehman]

Superb! You must be very pleased indeed.

Are you going to try any of the original blades? My NOS OEM blades in the magazines worked very very well - sharp and smooth and extremely kind to the skin.

I’m also interested to see pics of the simplified Type C mechanism.
How does it work without a spring?

The type A has a spring it just gets compressed when you pull out the drawer for loading the new blade magazine, then pops back up when you close it all back up. It make it easier to load and you don't have to fiddle with parts that you can break or loose. I think you can also easily take out a partial magazine on the type A, while the type B for example is designed to release the spring after the last blade is used.

Sent from my LGUS997 using Tapatalk

 

[mjclark]

The type A has a spring it just gets compressed when you pull out the drawer for loading the new blade magazine, then pops back up when you close it all back up. It make it easier to load and you don't have to fiddle with parts that you can break or loose. I think you can also easily take out a partial magazine on the type A, while the type B for example is designed to release the spring after the last blade is used.

Sent from my LGUS997 using Tapatalk

Thanks - I guess you’re talking about the Type C here (not the Type A) and I must say the only fiddly thing about the Type B is the spring.

So now I loaded a full cartridge of blades into my Type B does it mean that I’m committed to that loaded in there until it’s empty now?

 

[tylehman]

Thanks - I guess you’re talking about the Type C here (not the Type A) and I must say the only fiddly thing about the Type B is the spring.

So now I loaded a full cartridge of blades into my Type B does it mean that I’m committed to that loaded in there until it’s empty now?

yes i meant Type C i was writing everything on my phone when i wrote that, and was not writing what i was thinking.

as it is the Type B is loaded until the end unless you can poke something under to release the spring catch. not something you would want to do all of the time, if the catch wears out then the spring would try to pop out ever time you worked the action. on the B when you are out of blades the spring catches in a slot on the plunger and cause it to pop out.

on the Type A you can unscrew the cap and pull they spring and magazine out if you are careful.

 

[mjclark]

yes i meant Type C i was writing everything on my phone when i wrote that, and was not writing what i was thinking.

as it is the Type B is loaded until the end unless you can poke something under to release the spring catch. not something you would want to do all of the time, if the catch wears out then the spring would try to pop out ever time you worked the action. on the B when you are out of blades the spring catches in a slot on the plunger and cause it to pop out.

on the Type A you can unscrew the cap and pull they spring and magazine out if you are careful.

Thanks again! Your knowledge here is gold!
To be honest I’m happy to stick with the OEM blades in my B1 because they are such superb shavers.

 

[Peter's coin]

Re: bathing the repeaters in mineral oil, I believe it was a wrong turn. My Type B open comb with modern Schick blades loaded jammed badly and I ended up disassembling and cleaning all, including each blade individually, with Scrubbing Bubbles, then water, then alcohol; reloaded the same blades, poured in more alcohol as a precaution and the mechanism then worked. So, no more oil. I’ll probably remove all the oil from the others likewise before working them again.

My first shave with the A was no good—I believe there was not enough blade exposure going with it as automatically loaded—I may have to manually expose more of the blade, we’ll see. Tomorrow I’ll shave with the above B and let you know how it goes.

I’m also going to load one of them with OEM blades and see how they shave.

 

[rudyt]

My first shave with the A was no good—I believe there was not enough blade exposure going with it as automatically loaded—I may have to manually expose more of the blade, we’ll see.

I don't have an A, but have a bunch of Bs and Cs. If the blade retaining mechanism is the same, the blade will have nothing to butt against if you manually expose more blade.

If your razor is well used, there might not be enough compressive force to hold the blade from sliding back, so you might need to gently tweak the head to reduce the gap.

 

[Peter's coin]

Thank you, I’ll check the head and see how it is holding the blade.

First shave with the B open comb was very nice, BBS cheeks, chin and lip, DFS neck. Finding angles was a lot of fun, very strange holding a razor perpendicular to my face like I’m writing on it with a pen.

 

[tylehman]

Re: bathing the repeaters in mineral oil, I believe it was a wrong turn. My Type B open comb with modern Schick blades loaded jammed badly and I ended up disassembling and cleaning all, including each blade individually, with Scrubbing Bubbles, then water, then alcohol; reloaded the same blades, poured in more alcohol as a precaution and the mechanism then worked. So, no more oil. I’ll probably remove all the oil from the others likewise before working them again.

My first shave with the A was no good—I believe there was not enough blade exposure going with it as automatically loaded—I may have to manually expose more of the blade, we’ll see. Tomorrow I’ll shave with the above B and let you know how it goes.

I’m also going to load one of them with OEM blades and see how they shave.

mineral oil may not be the right type of oil, but all the injector blades i have gotten are oiled and i think that there should be some kind of oil or grease on the action of these razors.

i dont really see how adjusting the blade exposer will help, usually they are right up against the back anything forward would be guess work. i would be more suspect of the sharpness of the particular blade, maybe it hit against the edge of the slot when it came out, or the shaving angle. the spring is taller on the A and i find that it is harder to get an angle that shave as well as the B and C.

 

[Peter's coin]

I’ll give the A another try soon. I started to shave with the closed comb C this morning, it wasn’t very close and halfway through impatiently decided to finish with the closed comb B, since I haven’t used it yet, either. Ended up a nice shave, still only DFS on my neck, still learning technique.

 

[mjclark]

I acquired another B1 in better condition than the first and with the OEM leather pouch.
I put a Personna 74 Injector blade in it and this was an astonishingly good shave:

I love how these earlier models shave as well as anything made subsequently.
And look so good too!

 

[rudyt]

I acquired another B1 in better condition than the first

Funny - I did the opposite. I bought a real minty one that was jammed, fixed it, and traded it to someone else for this beauty (which most people will find hideously ugly). FWIW I traded a rhodium replated Bulldog for a battle weary corroded Bulldog. I much prefer the survivor look to the museum look.

 

[mjclark]

Funny - I did the opposite. I bought a real minty one that was jammed, fixed it, and traded it to someone else for this beauty (which most people will find hideously ugly). FWIW I traded a rhodium replated Bulldog for a battle weary corroded Bulldog. I much prefer the survivor look to the museum look.

Kudos Rudy! I like your attitude

These B1s are very sturdy and well made so they are definitely survivors.

 

[mjclark]

So now I have a C2 too!
Compared to the “New” B the “Simplified” C model really is simplified.
There’s no pesky removable spring and instead one side of the base pulls out and pivots open to load the blade magazine while the other side of the handle pulls out and pushes in to replace the blade.

The C2 is certainly smoother than the B1 and the head is thinner and more manouverable. The effective angle is also shallower and closer to the feel of the later safety razors.
There’s not as much blade feel with the C2 as the B1 but it seems every bit as efficient.
With a Gillette Platinum Plus Blade this was an elegant and lovely shave:

 

[back_to_shaving]

Think I found my next vintage razor.

How's the shave on these and do they take regular injector blades?