Trying to Identify old GEM

[cmur12]

When I was recently looking for a G-bar, I answered a sales post on another forum for the wanted G-bar. When the seller e-mailed me photos, I saw that the razor was much older, possibly a lather catcher of some sort. I told the seller that it was much older than a G-bar, but he still sold it to me for the same price, and I have had it sitting around.

Someone over on SMF just posted photos of an old GEM just like mine, asking that it be identified. One person said that it looked like a 1912 GEM. I've looked through old threads here, but I see a lot of variety and none exactly like mine.

Here's the thread at SMF. (I just checked the rules for this forum and didn't see anything that said I shouldn't do this.)

www.shavemyface.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42745

Can anyone here tell me definitively what this GEM is?

Many thanks!

- Murray

[spinyeel]

It is a 1912 with a short handle. I have one myself. It might have been sold as part of a travel kit at some stage.

[wchnu]

Mar 31, 2010 1:21:16 GMT -5 spinyeel said:

It is a 1912 with a short handle. I have one myself. It might have been sold as part of a travel kit at some stage.

Yup 1912 .... very good shavers.. some of the best


Fuzzy

[HoosierTrooper]

I'm a little confused. I have three of these, two with the same ornate handle in Murray's pictures and the third is smooth gold without the pattern. All three have the same lenght handle, which looks the same as this one. I thought all the GEM 1912's had the same short handle. Is this not correct?

[Possum]

Definitely a travel GEM. The handle is the shorter one. Can tell by the thickness of the area of the handle between the two grooves. On the travel razor with the ornate handle the area is larger than the one on the regular version of the ornate handle.

Another way to tell the difference is the length of the back of the razor head that comes down to handle. The travel razor has a shorter distance to where the handle attaches.

The travel handle is about 3/8" shorter than the regular handle.

[cmur12]

Many thanks for the replies!

I like the shorter handle, so the travel version of the famous 1912 would be well suited to me. Now I just need to take it for a spin!

Thanks again -

- Murray

[cmur12]

Well, a couple more posts at SMF, including a photo, would indicate that I have a 1912 GEM Aristocrat, made around 1920.

I don't have the resources to verify it, but it sounds good to me.

- Murray

[Possum]

Murray,

I would not be so quick to call it an "Aristocrat" especially considering the source on SMF. The guy who made that statement has been banned and is considered by some especially Dr. Moss to be a troll.

I checked the Waits Compendium and saw no reference to any GEM being called an "Aristocrat". What you have is a GEM travel razor. You will find that it is a great shaver.

As for the year of manufacture, that is hard to tell because Waits does not give any info on the travel razor period. But it could be possible that near 1920 could be correct.

[cmur12]

Hi Bryce -

My read on the ban was that the poster had an attitude problem. I don't know what he knows about razors, but I can accept that my razor isn't an "Aristocrat."

Another poster provided a photo of two 1912 GEMS, showing a smaller one that he identified as the travel version. What do you know about that?

- Murray

[Possum]

Thanks for the clarification on the ban.

As for the travel and regular versions I don't see anything in the Waits about that. I have GEM travel razor and it has the short head and handle. The regular GEMs will not fit in the nice metal case that came with the razor.

As for the "Aristocrat" designation, I would not count that out until Dave chimes in on it. I think that he knows about as much about SE razors as Waits (Dave don't let my praise go to your head now! )

[Admin]

i read the whole aristocrat ting for the first time over at SMF last night i think. ive never heard it called that before, so im with bryce.

gem manufactured a LOT of their smaller travel razors in the 1920s during our short lived post war prosperity when everyone was out doing everything.