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Has the Quality of Personna Lab Blue Blades Gone Down?

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I just bought a new 100 pack of the lab blues and noticed the new packaging. With the old packaging I used to get like 10-15 shaves a blade now with theses new blades I am getting like maybe 5 shaves. I have only used a couple new blades so maybe they are duds.

Anyone else seeing a difference?
 
I do feel the quality went down hill. The ink on them is awful. They look like they are made in some third world slave labor shop. For a USA blade they can do better. These may die off as they now have Schick and Wilkinson and may just focus on private label manufacturing. Just a theory. However I concur with your assessment. I was getting two to three shaves in my 34C with them. I still have 75 of them left and will give them a whirl in my Slim and FTSS to see how they are. The Israeli operation will continue to make them as well as Crystals. With a huge company such as this anything can happen. They are the only razor blade manufacturer in the US and it would be sad to see it go. Gillette sent everything to
St Pete in Mother Russia. Schick and Wilks went to Deutschland.
 
Interesting thanks and yes it would be sad if they shut down. I did hear a rumor a couple years ago that they were shutting down but don’t know what’s happened


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I just had a pack arrive to me in the mail today. Worst ink job I have ever seen on a blade. They would have been better off to not put any ink at all. If this brand did not have such a good reputation and I saw a blade like that in a sampler pack I would not even dare to shave with it. I have read that the brand was purchased by the company that owns Shick and Edge. Apparently the new ownership is cutting costs (hence the plain white paper wrapping with no logo). But as far as I know the blades are the same quality as ever before but since I have never shaved with the old version I cant compare. In fact tomorrow will be my very first shave EVER with a Personna blade. I normally use Astra SP and Dorco ST-301

Regarding the manufacturing being sent overseas you can see why it is happening, because of the Labor Unions in USA make the cost of doing business too high. And since the blades are made by giant machines it doesnt matter so much which country the machine is located in. Its sad that USA is losing jobs but it is the fault of the greedy Labor Unions and their unreasonable requests. They have completely destroyed the manufacturing industries of the USA.
 
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I have a box of 100 in the older predominantly blue box. The lettering looks the same as yours does though, as if the printing machine maintenance guy went on strike. I may throw one in my Rockwell this weekend just to see how it performs in that razor. Haven't used a Personna lab in well over a year if not more, and all I remember is they didn't feel sharp enough for me.
 
The amount of labor in razor blades is so small it's impossible to quantify, it only takes a handful of people to run a production line that produces an enormous number of blades. Even if they are running old, non-computerized equipment it doesn't take many people.

Most companies that complain about labor costs have 15 times or more of the management staff of Japanese companies......
 

Rhody

I'm a Lumberjack.
I just had a pack arrive to me in the mail today. Worst ink job I have ever seen on a blade. They would have been better off to not put any ink at all. If this brand did not have such a good reputation and I saw a blade like that in a sampler pack I would not even dare to shave with it. I have read that the brand was purchased by the company that owns Shick and Edge. Apparently the new ownership is cutting costs (hence the plain white paper wrapping with no logo). But as far as I know the blades are the same quality as ever before but since I have never shaved with the old version I cant compare. In fact tomorrow will be my very first shave EVER with a Personna blade. I normally use Astra SP and Dorco ST-301

Regarding the manufacturing being sent overseas you can see why it is happening, because of the Labor Unions in USA make the cost of doing business too high. And since the blades are made by giant machines it doesnt matter so much which country the machine is located in. Its sad that USA is losing jobs but it is the fault of the greedy Labor Unions and their unreasonable requests. They have completely destroyed the manufacturing industries of the USA.
Yup I'm sure this is the fault of labor unions. If only they would work for a dollar a day all our troubles would be over. Plus va and most probably tn where these blades might be made are right to work states anyway so thus is a rant based on nothing. If these are bad blades they are probably from the China mfg. Not all personas are made in the USA.
 
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It's not only the cost of wages that presents a problem but the additional payroll costs, regulations, taxes, etc. that companies have in the U.S. in contrast to companies in certain countries. Some years ago I represented a company that had two clothing factories in the U.S. They found the cost of producing the identical garments with the same quality of workmanship and materials was 30% cheaper in foreign factories even with extra shipping costs. After five years they closed both U.S. factories.
 

Rhody

I'm a Lumberjack.
It's not only the cost of wages that presents a problem but the additional payroll costs, regulations, taxes, etc. that companies have in the U.S. in contrast to companies in certain countries. Some years ago I represented a company that had two clothing factories in the U.S. They found the cost of producing the identical garments with the same quality of workmanship and materials was 30% cheaper in foreign factories even with extra shipping costs. After five years they closed both U.S. factories.

Regulations like minimum wage and workers compensation insurance to be sure .corporate profits have been more than fine over the last 20 years .
 
These are still my favorite blade. I get 7 amazing shaves from them. I just tested a feather blade. They can't make it past 4 shaves with out dieing. Ymmv
 
I like the blues a lot! I cannot comment on recent changes/quality as I am still working through blades from my stash. Sad to hear that recent quality may have deteriorated.
 
Today was my very first shave with Personna Lab Blue and it resulted in razor burn, more razor burn than I got yesterday with an Astra SP on its 3rd usage. Pictures and more information here:

Critique my 2 pass shave (pictures)

I was using a Parker 22r (an extremely mild razor)
 
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Regarding the manufacturing being sent overseas you can see why it is happening, because of the Labor Unions in USA make the cost of doing business too high. And since the blades are made by giant machines it doesnt matter so much which country the machine is located in. Its sad that USA is losing jobs but it is the fault of the greedy Labor Unions and their unreasonable requests. They have completely destroyed the manufacturing industries of the USA.

I’d argue that workers being able to collectively negotiate fair wages and benefits for themselves, or the labor or trade unions that represent them, are not the reason why jobs like this are being shipped outside of North America.

The simple answer is corporate greed. I’m not implying that there’s something innately ‘wrong’ with wanting to increase profits, but all too often that greed means eliminating decent-paying North American jobs and moving shop to a third-world country that has no labor laws where they can pay children pennies an hour, all in the name of profit. If the items you’re making are still in demand, as ASR’s USA-made Personnas are, the cost of the item (in this case a sub-$.10 razor blade) to the end-consumer may have to go up a penny or two. I’m 100% positive that those of us who enjoy using USA-made Personna blades would pay 10-11 dollars per hundred blades instead of the 8-9 they’re currently selling for, especially knowing that the extra penny or two per-blade was going toward making sure one of my fellow brothers or sisters can continue to have a roof over their head and food on their table.

It’s not the workers, or the unions that represent them, that coerce corporations into moving their factories to third-world countries where they can pay their new workers pennies an hour. This all happens for the exact same reason that so many US-based corporations are “incorporated and headquartered” in Delaware, Nevada, and Ireland - loopholes that pad their pockets.

I’ll get down off of my soapbox now. I’m not really a fan of Personna blades either; they’re a decent middle-of-the-road blade, and you could definitely do worse at twice the price, but they’re just not for me.



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One good thing I can say about the blades is that they use only the bare minimum of packaging, also no wax paper.....the blades are wrapped only in plain white paper and come in a paper box similar to the box that band-aids come in. So i do admire their environmentally friendly packaging. I really want to like these blades, I appreciate that they are made in the USA.

Will try it again tomorrow in a different razor. Sorry if I offend anyone with the anti-labor-union comment. Didnt mean to get off track on that tangent, the main focus of this thread was to determine if Personna Lab blues have gone down in quality ever since the new management took over.

I think that Gillete and Schick are bitter rivals in the multi-blade cartridge razor market. They are like Coca Cola versus Pepsi.

Its interesting to me that Shick bought out Wilkinson Sword and Personna. I wonder what was the reason for them to acquire Personna?

How do you guys feel about wax paper wrapped blades compared to paper wrapped? Or redundantly wrapped blades like Volkshod that are wax paper and then another layer of paper on top of it? Or the ones that come in a plastic box like Feather? The plastic box ones are certainly the least environmentally sound
 
I think that Gillete and Schick are bitter rivals in the multi-blade cartridge razor market. They are like Coca Cola versus Pepsi.

Its interesting to me that Shick bought out Wilkinson Sword and Personna. I wonder what was the reason for them to acquire Personna?

How do you guys feel about wax paper wrapped blades compared to paper wrapped? Or redundantly wrapped blades like Volkshod that are wax paper and then another layer of paper on top of it? Or the ones that come in a plastic box like Feather? The plastic box ones are certainly the least environmentally sound

Have you ever used a modern Schick blade? They’re made in Germany, just like the Wilkinsons are, but they’re not nearly as impressive. I’d take just about any Gillette blade over either, particularly a Russian, but I am a little biased.

The reason blades are wrapped in waxed paper, often with extra blobs of wax to keep the blade in place, and also often with another paper wrapper outside of the wax blobbed waxed paper, is to keep the blades sharp. Blades that are slopping around in a miniature envelope, with no wax or blobs, can be inconsistent in sharpness due to the blade edges rubbing the paper during shipping. I’d take excessive wax blobs over none. I also realize that the environmental impact of a plastic blade container is higher than paper, especially post-consumer, but the upside is that you have a handy, as well as safe, way to store used blades.



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pretty sure the Schick Super Chromium sold in south america are made in china, you are right about them being not impressive.

The ones I got from Try a Blade were German, at least according to Try a Blade. I believe they were Schick Premiums, which are made in Germany.
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These are the ones I have:
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I hadn’t seen them available anywhere, but they’re available on many sites (including eBay) for $12-13. They might work great for some, but I don’t remember them leaving much of an impression on me.


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The ones I got from Try a Blade were German, at least according to Try a Blade. I believe they were Schick Premiums, which are made in Germany.
proxy.php


These are the ones I have:
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I hadn’t seen them available anywhere, but they’re available on many sites (including eBay) for $12-13. They might work great for some, but I don’t remember them leaving much of an impression on me.


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Oh, I got confused I thought you where talking about Shick multi cartridge blades such as the Schick Quattro. That is the last multi blade shaver that I have used: Shick Quatro and also Gillette Fusion 5 blade.

Wow, its been a long time since I used a multi-blade plastic razor. I still have the Schick Quattro in the medicine cabinet. I bring it when travelling on an airplane since TSA has outlawed DE blades. Has a terrorist ever hijacked a plane with a DE blade? They also have bullwhips illegal too. Has a terrorist ever hijacked a plane with a bull-whip?

TSA sucks. Millions of gallons of shampoo wasted by them.

Update: Regarding these Shick Premium DE blades....what other blade would you compare them to as far as being similar to it? I never even heard of Schick branded DE blades before.
 
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