Wilkinson Sword Chromium/Light Brigade - Was this just marketing for the US Market?

[mjclark]

For the record, on it’s second shave the 1981 British Wilkinson settled in and has become beautifully smooth.
Now it IS as smooth as the 1970 New Wilkinson and outrageously sharp.
Another phenomenal shave!

 

[Goatywoaty]

Interesting! Do you have a photo of the outer packaging on your 1981 Wilkie?

 

[mjclark]

Interesting! Do you have a photo of the outer packaging on your 1981 Wilkie?

These came in a carton, maybe for medical use?

 

[Goatywoaty]

Thanks for that. So that blade and wrapper looks the same as the the blades attached here, so we can date those to about 1981 too! (give or take 10 years lol) I really can't wait to do some proper tests on the Wilkies. I'm just stuck at the moment doing one blade for Feb!!

 

[haiti222]

From an older thread:
Vintage Wilkinson Blades


In 1970, Colgate Palmolive assumed marketing and distribution responsibility for Wilkinson Sword in the US for a period of time. The Mountainside NJ address was part of Colgate Palmolive. See the snippet view of the first article in this Google Book search result. https://www.google.com/webhp?source...8#q=mountainside+nj+colgate+palmolive&tbm=bks

Wilkinson later bought a small blade manufacturer and did its own packaging through them in the U.S.

Blades were often shipped in bulk to the U.S. and packaged here.

I think that they were not making special blades for the U.S., but just packaging them and putting legal advertising copy on the wrappers that was different than the UK market where W-S had much more market share.

Around 1976, W-S bought a small blade manufacturer in NY/NJ called UFI and shut down UFI´s double edge production and started repacking UK blades themselves in the US rather than using Colgate Palmolive. Here is an NLRB case about the changes: UFI RAZOR BLADES v. DISTR | 610 F.2d 1018 (1979) | 2d101811457 | Leagle.com

UFI also made Sears Blades. This thread discusses when W-S bought UFI. Sears-Roebuck Super+ Platinum

 

[Goatywoaty]

Very interesting info haiti222, thanks for taking the time to post that! Looks like Wilkie were supplying every Tom, Dick and Harry back in the day!

 

[haiti222]

Wilkinson never got the full traction in the US it deserved. Here is an ad from the Colgate Palmolive days:

They had a second wind in the US in the early 80's. They had beautiful product at the time. The Colours disposables in all the colors of the rainbow. Their well designed twin blade system, in a beautiful red and black color scheme with a sexy design for the handle, and the Retractor, also in red plastic. Here is an Aussie commercical for it:

 

[Jopete]

I guess the one's I have are the newer one's since they have a Barcode ? The packaging looks old, haven't really tried these yet ,are these suppose to be one of the good ones?

 

[mjclark]

I guess the one's I have are the newer one's since they have a Barcode ? The packaging looks old, haven't really tried these yet ,are these suppose to be one of the good ones? View attachment 862225 View attachment 862226 View attachment 862227

We think yes! It’s becoming clear that all the “Chromium” blades have a formidable reputation.

I thought a search of British Wilkinson adverts from 1971 might be helpful since presumably those blades in the UK would be the same blades as the LBs in the US.
No DE blade ads came up but guess what Wilkinson started making at the same time in the early 70’s?
Yes... the Bonded Blade!
And the Bonded Blade is also billed as having a chromium edge.
It’s certainly not an actual Light Brigade but it is a big 42mm long British Wilkinson with a chromium edge.
And that means some superb shaving.
It’s a very sharp, very smooth and easy shave but will that blade last for 30 shaves?

 

[mjclark]

And I just saw an eBay listing where the Wilkinsons box has a silver label saying “Premium Chromium Edge” but the packaging has the 1980’s Atlanta address.
So it does look like the 1980’s Wilkinsons are also Chromium Edge Blades.

 

[Goatywoaty]

I was reading some posts on another forum yesterday and a chap mentioned that Chrome is the main alloying component in steel to make it "stainless". Hence ALL stainless razor blades contain Chrome. So looks like this Wilkinson "Chromium" thing is just marketing, all their blades contain Chrome!! Lots of posts indicate that all UK Wilkies were very good quality in 70-80s, the very last production in the 90s wasn't as good....

 

[mjclark]

I was reading some posts on another forum yesterday and a chap mentioned that Chrome is the main alloying component in steel to make it "stainless". Hence ALL stainless razor blades contain Chrome. So looks like this Wilkinson "Chromium" thing is just marketing, all their blades contain Chrome!! Lots of posts indicate that all UK Wilkies were very good quality in 70-80s, the very last production in the 90s wasn't as good....

More and more interesting!
One of the big things about the Light Brigades and Personna 74s is their longevity - so will these other British Wilkinsons also go for 30 shaves?

And what do the late-90’s inferior British Wilkinsons look like?

 

[mjclark]

Google turned up the US Wilkinson chromium edge patent too:
US3743551A - Razor blades and methods of manufacture thereof - Google Patents

 

[Goatywoaty]

More and more interesting!
One of the big things about the Light Brigades and Personna 74s is their longevity - so will these other British Wilkinsons also go for 30 shaves?

And what do the late-90’s inferior British Wilkinsons look like?

I'm not sure, I bet they look like yours in post 13 - the diagonal lines, wilkie logo at the top and made in England on the bottom. That seems to be the design used all the way from the 70s! I wonder if they are even inferior?! If they are, it could be that as the years went on, they tried to cut costs with cheaper steel? They just kept the printing the same as no point in changing that and alerting people that they had changed the blade? Who knows lol. What does seem like a definitive is that all UK blades are awesome. I wish we could date the bloody things!

 

[mjclark]

Here’s what the 90’s British Wilkinsons look like:
Wilkinson Sword, made in England
No diagonal lines or lower script, just the logo like the modern German ones.

 

[SGWB]

For what it's worth, last Summer I spotted on eBay a carton of 100 Wilkinson Sword Chromium Edge blades packaged for the German market. It was a black carton without artwork but had "Chromium Edge" printed in German. The same seller had a similar package of 100 Super Sword Edge blades.

 

[thisted]

For what it's worth, last Summer I spotted on eBay a carton of 100 Wilkinson Sword Chromium Edge blades packaged for the German market. It was a black carton without artwork but had "Chromium Edge" printed in German. The same seller had a similar package of 100 Super Sword Edge blades.

I saw those and I have some of those same ones. I think they were actually made in Germany though. They come in individual packets that are labelled 10 razor blades for 3.75 DM. Maybe you can date those by the price? The razor blades do not say Made in England on them. One side says "eisegeharet rostfrei" and the other side says "Die neue Wilkinson." The outer case says Chromstahlt eisegeharet. Excellent blades where ever they are from.

 

[mjclark]

Both on shave #6 the 1970 New Wilkinson blade and the 1981 Wilkinson blade with the diagonal stripes are both equally and amazingly sharp but the New Wilkinson is noticeably smoother:

The 1970 New Wilkinson does look like a very good candidate for the UK market equivalent of the Light Brigades.
The research continues...

 

[TADIII]

@mjclark, I think you are zeroing-in on it. My still-on-the-hangcard tuck of the New Wilkinson blades was packaged in the USA, with the Mountainside address, so, probably just before, or concurrently with the Light Brigades.

Tom

 

[SGWB]

I was reading some posts on another forum yesterday and a chap mentioned that Chrome is the main alloying component in steel to make it "stainless". Hence ALL stainless razor blades contain Chrome. So looks like this Wilkinson "Chromium" thing is just marketing, all their blades contain Chrome!! Lots of posts indicate that all UK Wilkies were very good quality in 70-80s, the very last production in the 90s wasn't as good....

I don't think that is true. I believe the Chrome was applied to the blade edges because it is harder and more wear and corrosion resistant than stainless steel. That's why so many modern blades have platinum/chrome/titanium coatings. These coating technologies were invented from the late 1960s into the 1970s.