Hey Fellow Wet Shavers!

Well, I just want to say Hello and let folks know what I'm up to here. I just inhereted my Father's Gem Micromatic shaver and hope to put it into use. I am NOT so sure I want to go to a straight razor, due to time constraints. I DO hope to find some pointers on safety shaving like; whether I should even bother with Dad's old Gem shaver or go buy a better one and what brand/styles are best for a fine light beard, what soap to use for sensitive skin, aerosol vs. mug soap, single vs. double edged blades, etc. Any helpful info. is welcome. Thanks for a great site.

Karl

Hi Karl, and welcome to SRP!

While I don't have any experience with Gems, I do know that you have come to the place to get info. If humans have shaved with it, there will be folks here who know about it. :) I have seen the odd Gem come up in the Shave of the Day thread, so I know there are some guys here who use them.

So apart from keeping an eye on the forum, do some digging in the wiki ("Library" link above) and when you have questions, ask away.

Good luck

GEM single edge razors are great. I have 7-8 different GEM's, all great shavers. Granted, I don't use them much anymore since i mostly straights. Many will say that single edge razors are as close as you can get to straight edge without using one. Personally I much prefer them to Gillette double edge and I tried most every model of them.

A lot of the discussions here regarding preparations, soaps, and brushes of course applies to all wet shaving. You can learn a lot. Another site you might want to consider is badger and blade, a sister site which is more focused on safety razors.

I've got two different Gem single edge razors. I only use them every now and then because I use the straight almost exclusively. You can get Gem single edge blades at walgreens. Just be careful about your angle, and they're excellent shavers. The fact that it's an heirloom, to my mind, makes it worth any amount of trouble to learn to use.