Amazing Shave! (Personna 74)

[sandmountainslim]

After being given a few blades a few months back I finally decided to try out a Personna 74. I loaded the blade up in my Bull Mastiff Old Type, lathered up with Van der Spice and went to work!

WHAT A BLADE!!! That has to be the sharpest and smoothest shave I have EVER had! I have heard men say that a P74 can last up to 30 shaves so I plan to leave it in my razor a few weeks and see how far it will go!

I couldn't top off the inaugural shave just any old way so I finished up with 70's era Shulton Old Spice in the Ship's Wheel decanter.

Wonderful shave!!

does anyone know when the P74 production stopped? Mid-70's?

Thanks

Wp

 

[dpmtherrien]

Nice going. Be sure to let us know if that blade holds up that long.

 

[Stubblefield]

does anyone know when the P74 production stopped? Mid-70's?

Yeah, sometime in the 70's, I have seen a few ads dated 1971-1972.

There are a few threads in the blade forum on the 74; a few are attempting to see how long they can shave with the blade. I can only manage 15 shaves.

 

[haiti222]

A book about health and beauty aids published in 1978 lists them as available (the Personna 74 Tungsten Plus). Also, the Tungsten Plus has a barcode on the back, so it's post 1975......Phillip Morris, who had been financing a lot of the innovation and marketing of ASR in the 70's spun them off in a management buyout around 1978-79 (a sale to BIC fell through).......Around that time, the blades started to decline. They put out blades in a red package where the back still mentions the tungsten being in the blade. The titanium coating was no more. I think it is the combination of the Titanium coating with the tungsten that makes the 74 so good. ASR store brand blades of the same time did not have the titanium coating, but platinum and were judged to be not as good in blind tests (both at ASR and Consumer Reports).

 

[Straight Arrow]

This is one blade that appears to be universally revered. The only variation is how many shaves a guy can get out of it and that seems to vary from a whole lot of shaves to a helluva lot of shaves.

 

[pelicano]

So far I've gotten 12 shaves out of it with no sign of dulling, which makes it very economical for me.
I get 2 shaves out of every other blade I've tried.