What's new

Scanning Electron Microscope Blade Edge Images

Not to mention that the only platinum to be found is in the name. I wonder how can they get away with this? Are these blades made by Gillette?

American express has a platinum card that is not made out of platinum, Vegas movie studio platinum is not on a platinum disk. There a lot of things that have platinum in the name, including astra and lord platinum blades.

Sorry, already mentioned before me.:001_wub:
 
and Jayne Mansfield was not a "Platinum" blonde.....
 

Attachments

  • $$(KGrHqVHJCsFChZ9Kf13BQy)jW,)Vw~~60_57.jpg
    $$(KGrHqVHJCsFChZ9Kf13BQy)jW,)Vw~~60_57.jpg
    62.9 KB · Views: 497
Could you post scans of a blade as you used it through 3 or 4 shaves to see the wear of the edge? You might want to do that in a new thread.
 
You're correct, I miss spoke. In general, it looks like Gillette seems to mean platinum when they say platinum. Other companies, not so much.

To be fair the Lord claims "Platinum Class" which'd allude to performance matching a Platinum razor while not necessarily having any itself.
Much like the distinction between Chocolate and Chocolaty. One is Chocolate while the other has characteristics of Chocolate while not necessarily itself being real Chocolate.
 
I never understood the whole "Platinum" thing in razor blades besides the obvious precious metal appeal. I mean why do I give a rat's *** if the blade has platinum in it? I would shave with carbon steel blade if it performed well and didn't corrode so much. Really, all these marketing gimmicks have little to no effect on me in the razor blade business. I refer to everything in the name of the blade as just that, the name of the blade. So when I say Astra SP (Super Platinum - does that mean it has some of that extra rare "super-platinum" in it? I couldn't care less!) I mean a Russian blade in a green and white wrapper (well, I guess they changed that now and I haven's seen the new wrapper, but you get the point). Expecting any of the wrapper mambo-jambo to indicate anything other than the desire of the manufacturer to make it more appealing to the consumer is unreasonable in my life experience and so I gave up on that a long time ago. Platinum, chromium, gold, whatever... I know the blade is good or bad based on my experience and that's what's going to make me buy it or not buy it. I find all blades from Egypt to be in the mild category, which means to me they shave okay, but require a bit of pressure (very light, mind you, but not zero like a sharp blade would) and don't last as long as a better blade. This is true with Sharks and Lord Platinum (or whatever). It is also true with many other "lesser" blades like Derby, Dorco, Walmart Wilkies, Bolzano, Merkur, Rapira, etc. The "better" class of blades usually requires no pressure and lasts at least 4 shaves. Those are Gillette 7 o'clocks of all colors except green, Feathers, Polsilver, Perma-Sharp Super (Probably my favorite Russian blade), Personna Super (Lab, med, I feel no difference, so I buy labs for $13/100 on ebay. These are in my top 3 go-to blades).

So, it is very interesting to see the elemental composition of the blades, but as was stated before, there is little to no correlation of any of this info to my preferences. The most interesting blade to see under 150X magnification, was Feather for me. I see how rough the secondary bevel is and understand why the blade feels so rough sometimes, even on the first shave. I think these blades were designed with Feather razor in mind. That razor does not expose much of the secondary bevel. When used in a more aggressive razor like a Fatip the Feather does not feel very good in my experience. I no longer have my Tech, so I couldn't test the Feather in that, but in general I think the Feather blades are overpriced for what they are and I will not buy them again. In fact I just did a 3:1 trade of some of my Feathers for a Derby and Ladas. I get fine shaves from these blades and the only downside to them is maybe one fewer shave than with Feathers. Still, I like Feathers and now seeing the pictures of them up close I can see they are unique in the market with their double bevel.

My poor man's Feather is Super-Max SP (again with the Super-Platinum). They feel almost as sharp as Feathers to me and just as rough at times, but they last a long time and provide really good shaves. I did not see a scan of those. Wonder if I can send one or two in for some scanning. I have a few used ones and plenty of new ones. Please let me know.

To your first point, I totally agree that this information has no real value in an individual choosing a blade. Your face is the only real judge of how good a blade is. As I stated early in this thread, I started taking these images as more of a training exercise to help me become more familiar with some equipment in my lab. I posted the result here because I though some would be interested in seeing these blades a little differently than they probably ever have. The reception has been pretty positive, so I have continued to scan blades and post the results.

Secondly, there's a scan of a Super-Max Titanium on the first page, but I don't have any of the SP blades. I'll gladly scan anything anyone would be willing to send me (within reason), just understand that when a mount these blades to work with them, they'll basically be ruined. Please don't send me your last Personna 74 or something like that. If anyone is interested, just PM me and we'll talk.
 
I scanned the Bolzano Superinox today and it is a rather interesting looking blade. I can make out 3 distinct bevels. I think this is the first blade I have seen this with.

Bolzano Superinox:



 
I scanned the Bolzano Superinox today and it is a rather interesting looking blade. I can make out 3 distinct bevels. I think this is the first blade I have seen this with...

Just curious if you could scan the blades cross-section. I have seen cross-section pictures of Feather blades and they look rather interesting. If I remember correctly the edge they put on them is convex. One can also measure the cutting edge angle which could tell you more about why some blades work better in particular razors and some don't.

Another idea, in case you are not fed up, would be to scan pairs side by side, like you have done before. Only this time scan these pairs:

1. "Yellow" vs "Black" Feathers ( will have confirmation that they are actually the same blade)

2. eBay vs NA distributor Feather blades.

3. Blue/white vs Red/Yellow Shark Super Chrome

and so on. I am sure other members here have other suggestions.

Can you scan larger objects? Like a razor head, and find the chemical composition?

Just don't rock the boat.:laugh:
 
Cross-sectioning is doable, but will take some time. I'm doing a lot of these scans either on my lunch break or before I get started for the day, so it doesn't interfere with the real work we do in my lab.

In order to successfully cross-section a blade, I need to mount it in bakelite, then cut the blade in half, and sand/polish the cut end. This all take a fair amount of time and man-power. I'm not saying I won't do it, but its not on the schedule right now.

As for the other comparisons, I can do the black/yellow feathers, because I already have the blades, but the others I do not. The feathers that you've seen in this and the other threads here were all Yellow packs.
 
Looks like those Blue Blades were corrosion free. And the grind bevel looks barbaric compared to some of the other newer blades.
 
While the razor itself seems to have peaked in terms of functional design, I guess I am glad that blade technology had continued to improve.
 
Steve, do you have any interest in scanning NOS blades? I could send you a Gillette Spoiler and a few older Wilkinsons if you are interested.

Dex
 
Top Bottom