Cloud "nanosized nitrogen-alloy" blades

[mblakele]

I am certain that I was not the only member to see a new brand of blades appear on ebay tonight, in BIN form with option to make an offer.

You are viewing on a brand new double edge shaving razor balde made in Shanghai China & great price for 100 pieces sale lots.

Long-lasting nanosized nitrogen-alloy film coated edge for enhanced comfort, these replacement Cloud’s New Nitrogen Stainless Blades provide one of the cleanest, closest & smoothest, irritation-free shaves yet. Razor blades are mild and forgiving, highly recommended to beginners, new wet-shavers and for gentlemen with a very sensitive skin.

Certainly the author has a much better command of English than I of Shanghainese. But I wondered if this nitrogen process is simply good old nitriding, or if Guangzhou has come up with something new for us? Something to do with solid-solution strengthening of nitrogen into an austenite phase, perhaps? I wanted to find out.

In the end I placed an offer that I felt was modest, well under the BIN price. It was accepted - a bad sign? I unbelted the agreed sum. Stay tuned to this thread for further bulletins.

 

[GreekGuy]

I took a look at them. The packaging certainly looks very good, as if they actually paid someone to design it. I've never heard of the "cloud" brand before. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on them when they eventually arrive

 

[thekinge]

I have not seen this before. Could you please post the link since its a BIN?

Also, thanks for being the frontline soldier! Let us know how it shaves!!

 

[Talal]

i can only find the single edged version on ebay.. can you post a link please?

 

[mblakele]

The BIN page I used was http://www.ebay.com/itm/181059105653 and it shows two more available as I write this, still $25 per hundred or "make an offer". But the seller page http://www.ebay.com/sch/Shaving-Hair-Removal-/31762/i.html?_sac=1&_ssn=thewebmart2012 might be useful too. It shows a new BIN listing with price for smaller lots. The prices still sound high when you consider that well-known blades such as Astras are available for less money, but suggests that the seller is trying.

The price I paid was low enough that I will not much care if they turn out to be garbage.

 

[Talal]

The BIN page I used was http://www.ebay.com/itm/181059105653 and it shows two more available as I write this, still $25 per hundred or "make an offer". But the seller page http://www.ebay.com/sch/Shaving-Hair-Removal-/31762/i.html?_sac=1&_ssn=thewebmart2012 might be useful too. It shows a new BIN listing with price for smaller lots. The prices still sound high when you consider that well-known blades such as Astras are available for less money, but suggests that the seller is trying.

The price I paid was low enough that I will not much care if they turn out to be garbage.

thanks for this, do let us know how it worked out for you

 

[Kramerica]

But, with it being made in China there is a decent chance it is stamped out of depleted uranium, coated with lead slag, and misted with mercury runoff from a coal burner.

I've given up on anything made in China being quality, all I ask now is that it isn't actually toxic.

::shakes head slowly:::

 

[mblakele]

Three little words: Chinese badger hair. I am happy with the quality of my TGN finest knot, and I presume it is Chinese. Apple manages to have some nice products made there, too. But getting back to the topic....

Ebay tracking says that the Cloud blades have gone through sorting in Guangzhou. I suppose they are in a container now? I will be sure to post whenever they arrive, and relate my experience with the blades. I am thinking about sending out samples to interested members too, but please no PMs yet.

 

[Talal]

i almost bought a pack myself, as they have certainly caught my attention. do let us know when they arrive im curious how they will work out for you..

 

[Kramerica]

All joking aside, it will be interesting to see how they perform. Please do post your observations!

 

[talibeard]

They also have a website in English:

http://www.cloud-cn.com/aboutus_en.htm

They seem to have no connection to another Shanghai-based blade factory; Flying Eagle is making various Gillettes (like the Thai and Vietnamese Super Thins; quality blades!) and some under their own flag. When the quality of Cloud blades is just as good you could be in for a nice surprise. Keep us informed!

 

[Lucidor]

Interesting (blasted autocorrect)! Be sure to let is know more!

 

[thekinge]

Three little words: Chinese badger hair. I am happy with the quality of my TGN finest knot, and I presume it is Chinese. Apple manages to have some nice products made there, too. But getting back to the topic....

Ebay tracking says that the Cloud blades have gone through sorting in Guangzhou. I suppose they are in a container now? I will be sure to post whenever they arrive, and relate my experience with the blades. I am thinking about sending out samples to interested members too, but please no PMs yet.

+1. It's virtually impossible to buy a badger brush whose badger knot is not from China. They do manufacture a lot of products that we use everyday, albeit at a very high cost to their environment.

Back to topic, do post your observations on how the blades perform, with some background information of your face & beard type

 

[mblakele]

They also have a website in English:

http://www.cloud-cn.com/aboutus_en.htm

They seem to have no connection to another Shanghai-based blade factory; Flying Eagle is making various Gillettes (like the Thai and Vietnamese Super Thins; quality blades!) and some under their own flag. When the quality of Cloud blades is just as good you could be in for a nice surprise. Keep us informed!

My benchmarks right now are Astra and Gillette Silver Blue blades. I have tried the Vietnamese-labelled Super Thins, and was disappointed. My notes say "2-3 shaves, B+", putting them just below Crystals in my system. But I have not tried the Thai-labelled blades, and some say they are much better.

Anyway thanks for the link. There is some interesting reading on it, mentioning nano-nitrogen again.

Shanghai Cloud Blade Manufacturing Co. Ltd., with the total are of 12 acres and workshop more than 7000 square meters, situated at Songjiang District of Shanghai, is a professional blade-manufacturing enterprise integrating the development, design, manufacture and sale of various of blades.

Company was founded in the year of 1999, with the initial total investment of 10 million CNY. At present, company has owned five automatic production lines and a professional faculty including PHD, five undergraduates, three senior engineers, 15 technical staff and 40 general workers. Its production capacity could be 21 million pieces of blades per year.. In 2004, company imported the advanced magnetron sputtering system, and developed Nano-Nitrogen technique to strengthen the cutting-edge of blades. With the special Nano-Cr, CrN alloy and Teflon coatings deposited on the cutting edge, the strength and sharpness of the blades have been improved significantly, together with the durability.

Company has developed the advanced inspection technique and the quality control system, and administrated the production process following strict ISO9001 international quality certification system, to gurantee the product quality rate of 100%. After nearly 10 years rapid development, company has formed three major brands, such as “CLOUD”, “LEAD”, “YIZUN” and covered three blades, the hair-cutting blade, the razor and the eyebrow razor.

Apparently the Yizun brand includes a single-edge blade, and the Cloud brand includes disposables and cartridges - an Atra clone? Note the "Gillette" logo on the handle. They also seem to have a mostly-plastic DE razor, and a line of disposable-blade hair shapers that might do as shavettes.

While I am waiting for the blades I thought I would research the nanoscale nitrogen hardening processes. Google books turned up a brief mention in a 2011 work with a Chinese author: http://books.google.com/books?id=Zf5PC_efNO8C&lpg=PA370&ots=XxlLlZZB3C&pg=PA370#v=onepage&q&f=false. I cannot copy the text, but it simply mentions nano-scale nitride-hardening as a technically possible option. The authors seem to be academics, but I wonder if there is some connection to the company?

I also wonder if some razor blades or cartridge blades are already nitrided using a more mature process like gas or plasma? If not why not? Possibly the gas process does not work well for razor blades. The plasma process ought to be more suitable, but requires more investment and was relatively unknown until the 1960s. Possibly Gillette and other blade makers have tried it but did not find enough advantage to justify the cost.

I found some references to nitrided saw blades, and Wikipedia mentions scalpel blades at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_nitride - but TiN is rather different. The most relevant item seems to be http://www.google.com/patents/US20060201001, a 2006 Philips patent for nitride-hardened cutting blades, contains a drawing of a 4-5 blade disposable or cartridge razor. Does Philips sell anything like this?

Gillette has http://www.google.com/patents/US20060130612, a 2007 patent on colored blades for cartridges, from pale yellow to pink to deep blue. The overview mentions nitrides but from context I think they are used as a coating rather than a diffusion treatment process. The patent also has a nice diagram of the blade manufacturing process, where nitriding could fit into the hardening process - or maybe into "other operations", where coatings seem to fall.

 

[HoosierTrooper]

The single edge blades look intriguing.

 

[Fuzzy Chops]

I am certain that I was not the only member to see a new brand of blades appear on ebay tonight, in BIN form with option to make an offer.



Certainly the author has a much better command of English than I of Shanghainese. But I wondered if this nitrogen process is simply good old nitriding, or if Guangzhou has come up with something new for us? Something to do with solid-solution strengthening of nitrogen into an austenite phase, perhaps? I wanted to find out.

In the end I placed an offer that I felt was modest, well under the BIN price. It was accepted - a bad sign? I unbelted the agreed sum. Stay tuned to this thread for further bulletins.

Maybe CBN (cubic boron NITRIDE) polishing/lapping?

 

[talibeard]

The single edge blades look intriguing.

Agreed. It is not a bad thing when we get a couple of more options there!

 

[Lucidor]

Wetshaving Doomsday clock set back a few minutes?

 

[mblakele]

According to USPS tracking my blades are stateside now. So they may be here sooner than expected - depending on how customs feels about it.

Time to start thinking about the shaves.... I should use widely-available soaps and creams, no vintage stuff. I think AoS Sandalwood, Arko, and VdH will cover a good range. The soaps are all in stick form, whether they came that way or not. I will start a fresh blade with the first soap, and change soaps when I change blades. Usually I get 3 shaves per blade with Astra blades, or 4 shaves with GSB blades.

I have been using my BRW NEW exclusively for a few weeks now, and that will not change. The brushes will be mid-range and will rotate daily: Rooney 3/1 in Super, Simpson Colonel in best, and a TGN 22-mm finest re-knot. If the Cloud blades turn out to last three shaves I may want to add or remove a brush.

These plans are subject to change if the blades are unusable, of course.

 

[talibeard]

I'll stay tuned!