GEM Days 2b/14: 1914 – Mon 18 Nov 2024

• Brush: Dogwood Handcrafts - Papa Eld with Declaration Grooming B3
• Razor: Ever-Ready 1914
• Blade: Personna GEM PTFE
• Lather: House of Mammoth – Mood Indigo
• Post Shave: House of Mammoth – Mood Indigo

Second luxury shave with the loud 1914. I forgot to mention the handle on these during the first luxury shave this morning. These are tiny (as in short) hexagonal handles that are sometimes called golf-pencil handles. On my model, it seems to be solid brass and quite heavy, giving the razor a lovely balance which lets you guide the entire razor with just holding the neck of the handle in the nook of your index finger.

These golf-pencil handles are divisive. I’ll talk more about them when we reach the 1924/MM24 schism tomorrow.

Mindigo was my first Mammoth soap and it’s just lovely. Great SLS.

This was shave four of my run through all 14 generations of GEM-style razors:

1. 1906-1953: GEM 1912/Star Cadet/Junior/Damaskeene
   • FLS
   • SLS
2. 1914-1927: 1914 ← We are here
   • FLS
3. 1924-1933: Shovelhead
4. 1930-1932: Micromatic Open Comb Gen 1 (Bumpless baseplate)
5. 1932-1941: Micromatic Open Comb Gen 2 (double-edge Micromatic GEM blades)
6. 1940-1943: Micromatic Clog-Pruf
7. 1945-1946: Micromatic Clog-Pruf Peerless
8. 1947-1950: Micromatic Flying Wing/Bullet Tip, with guiding eye until 1948, with plastic knob in the last year
9. 1949-1953: GEM Jewel/Streamline/Ambassador (The beginning of the end IMHO)
10. 1950: New GEM Feather Weight, renamed to “Slim-V Flat Top” in 1953, British version sold as “Natural Angle” by Ever-Ready
11. 1955-1958: GEM V-Slim “Heavy Flat Top” (G-Bar, shiny chrome), New V Natural Angle Heavy Flat Top (E-Bar, less shiny nickel)
12. 1958-1965: Push Button
13. 1965-1973: Contour
14. 1973-1979: Countour II (The last GEM razor)