Closed Passaround : Neo Gam slant DE COMPLETE

Neo Gam - Day 2

Second shave with this lightweight. Same Voskhod blade, Truefitt & Hill No. 10 shaving cream.
This time I tried to shave the left half of the face with one side of the Neo-Gam and the right half with the other side. Oh my… that takes a bit of concentration. I wish the two sides of the razor were a different colour. That would make it easier, but at the end of the day I don't think the effort is worth it. Overall another great shave, even just under the nose. No cleanup with injector required. Not a drop of blood and the alum block and aftershave still don't hurt. Maybe I'll try a Feather blade tomorrow. This thing is so much fun. I can't believe no one else wants to have a go.

GUYS !! OVER HERE !! FUN !!
 
Day three with the Neo-Gam

As planned I used a fresh Feather blade today. Unusually for me, I face lathered with De Vergulde Hand.
I was trying to be aware that the head is different, depending on which side you are using, but at the same time I tried to be relaxed about it. I just shaved on and when I thought that the head looked ‘odd' on my face I turned it around and it usually looked better. I tried not to analyse what ‘odd' means, but rather get on with it instead. This worked surprisingly well for me. The Feather blade did its job well, yet it was tamed nicely by the Neo-Gam. Not nicks, no irritation, no stubble left anywhere. Easy four pass BBS shave.
The alum block was a bit more vocal than on the first two shaves and the aftershave (Indian Old Spice Fresh Lime) gave a warm afterburn. I don't mind - I actually like the sensation.
So, we have another Feather tamer here. Quite impressive for an old razor like this. Maybe tomorrow I'll start paying attention to why I prefer one side of the head to the other, depending on pass direction and where on the face I'm shaving. Or maybe I'll just go with the flow again. Derby blade tomorrow? I don't think so.
 
riverrun said:
Made by Hermann Zaiss in Solingen. Waits claims post WW2 for the Neo-Ras. Made in Germany was used after the war as well, before West and East Germany became independent countries. Any other hints? Like 3 DM on the box?
Click to expand...
Another thought on this. The Solingen factories were heavily bombed in 1943. I wonder if Waits or anywhere else has info on when production restarted afterwards.
 
I just found an interesting German Wikipedia article about Hermann Zaiss. Apart from making razors, he was mainly a missionary and evangelist. Died in 1958 in a traffic accident.
 
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riverrun said:
Day three with the Neo-Gam

As planned I used a fresh Feather blade today. Unusually for me, I face lathered with De Vergulde Hand.
I was trying to be aware that the head is different, depending on which side you are using, but at the same time I tried to be relaxed about it. I just shaved on and when I thought that the head looked ‘odd' on my face I turned it around and it usually looked better. I tried not to analyse what ‘odd' means, but rather get on with it instead. This worked surprisingly well for me. The Feather blade did its job well, yet it was tamed nicely by the Neo-Gam. Not nicks, no irritation, no stubble left anywhere. Easy four pass BBS shave.
The alum block was a bit more vocal than on the first two shaves and the aftershave (Indian Old Spice Fresh Lime) gave a warm afterburn. I don't mind - I actually like the sensation.
So, we have another Feather tamer here. Quite impressive for an old razor like this. Maybe tomorrow I'll start paying attention to why I prefer one side of the head to the other, depending on pass direction and where on the face I'm shaving. Or maybe I'll just go with the flow again. Derby blade tomorrow? I don't think so.
Click to expand...

Thought it'd tame the feather.

Wondered how well it'd shave if it was just a standard and not the slant?

Would it be better if metal and not plastic? Would the weight affect the shave for the better or worse. I don't think a heavier handle would suit the super lightweight head but maybe a little more heft wouldn't go a miss as a whole?
 
Here's a picture of the creator of this razor, from the web site of the, well, sect or church he founded...
zaissbuch.jpg

That kind of moustache was once fashionable in Germany I believe. :D
Unfortunately his biography is currently out of print...
 
Neo-Gam Day 4

Second day with the Feather blade. T&H Lavender shaving cream.
Now this was interesting. As I mentioned before, I decided to use it as a standard non-slant razor. That was easier than I thought. I held the razor close to the head, so the head was in the standard DE position and ignored the rest of the handle, which was easy as it was hidden behind my hand most of the time anyway. Sometimes I had to rotate the razor 180 degrees as the handle was getting in the way, but overall with the help of open eyes and open ears it was quite a simple thing to achieve.
I did pretty much the same four pass routine I did yesterday, just not at a slant. At the end of the shave I was surprised. Alum and after shave complained not at all. No nicks, no irritation. Feather blade completely tamed.
Now for the billion Deutschmark question: was the shave as good as when using it as a slant? Surely not?
Surprisingly - yes, it was. A very close BBS shave on par with yesterday's shave. But with less complaints from alum and after shave. Impressive. Now what does that mean for the ingenious head and handle design? I must conclude that it is a mere gimmick. It's a very good, mild yet efficient razor, but I'd might prefer a standard model as a regular shaver. But the slant wins for its gimmicky show-off coolness. I wouldn't mind owning a Neo-Lux and an Ebor, but more about those later..
 
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