I have lots of unused, sealed Valet Autostrop blades. I get great shaves from them. I just strop them the way Autostrop meant them to be before each shave. No problems. 7-10 shaves easy.
Is it ok to use vintage NOS blades?
- Thread starter puffinshart
- Start date
I don't see '74' marked anywhere on the package. Thumbs up or down on these? They are 40 years old.
Good luck
For the most part, 74s sold in packages marked as such have only arrows on the blades. Ones sold in packaging as you've pictured will mention Tungsten on the back of the card and the blades themselves will be labeled as Personna 74.
I prefer them to 74s. Much smoother and a big thumbs up from me. Much cheaper per blade too even though they don't last as long as 74s.
I was bumming a little when I read Mouser's reply. I am glad that they would be suitable for my first venture into DE shaving. I've used a straight razor quite a bit over the last dozen years, but I've never experimented with DE.
Thanks for letting me know.
Assuming they weren't stored in a humid place all these years they're more than suitable as i find vintage blades are superior to modern blades and plenty of others agree. I think you will have fun experimenting.
So the blades don't say Personna 74 on them?
Hello, I prefer special sharpeners for blades, and I give Rolls to the master for sharpening.
Attachments
Negative. They are marked with 'Made in USA', 'D O', and arrows.
Ken the 74's arrow design was different and only after production of 74's ended did the remaining leftovers end up in some of the successors packaging but again easily spotted due to the arrow design difference vs the later SPC arrow design like in the photo above. Based on what I see on Ebay sales of the few that do pop up, they go for more than I think they should be because I think a lot of people also assume they're buying 74's when in fact they aren't.
Smoothness better than longevity imo
Dale, I'm referring to the ones no longer stating Personna 74 in the package branding but mention Tungsten on the back and the blades are actually marked " Personna 74". I used to have an old thread from here comprehensively explaining the many different packaging and blade markings bookmarked. Ill try to find it and repost it. Meanwhile, I have some of every different 74 offerings from the introductory individual samples to the final ones as described above that even came in dispensers of 20.
The Strange Evolution Of Personna 74* Packaging
I find it kind of odd that ASR (American Safety Razor) essentially made their "super blade" invisible by changing the packaging over the years, but, for whatever reason, that's exactly what they did. As you can see in the first picture, ASR clearly touted the fact that their blades were...
www.badgerandblade.com
I know what you mean Ken but you can easily spot 74's from non-74s just based on the arrow design difference on the blade itself regardless of the packaging.
74 Arrows will look like this:
Non-74 Super Platinum Chromes look like this and in the photo posted above by the thread starter:
There was an in between Super Platinum Chrome that looks like this from my collection and can fool you into thinking its a 74 and there is no way to really know until you remove the blade from the dispenser:
100% agree.
Oh! I see what you're getting at and yes.
Sorry, I was chasing a different point.
No worries Ken I figured we might be.
- Thread starter
- #59
How do you sanitize/do you sanitize vintage NOS blades?
Before my recent (and first) DE shave, I wiped the blade off with a kleenex. I then put the blade in the razor, and the razor into an isopropyl alcohol bath for about 5 minutes. The shave went well, and I had zero skin irritation afterwards.
