is there anything as confusing as 7 o clock blades

[Bobby1979]

7 o clock permasharp is excellent

 

[Wogus]

I've not tried any of the 7:00 blades, but the Gillette Nacet has become my every day favorite blade. No confusion - only one Nacet.

The Nacet has a permanent spot in my bathroom and in large part specifically because, as you point out, there's no second-guessing what you're getting when you're ready to buy more: it's either a Gillette Nacet, or it's something else. Personna blades, on the other hand???
......

To answer your question, IMO Personna’s blade line-up is far more confusing than the 7 O’clock blades!

Personna branding/packaging is enough to test the patience of Job, in my opinion. If I didn't love Crystals (aka Personna Israeli Blues) and Lab Blues as much as I do, I'd send someone, somewhere, a sternly worded email.

 

[craigq]

I agree, so many offerings. So far I've tried the Gillette - 7 0'Clock - SharpEdge - yellow's and I liked them. However, I like Derby Extra's & Premium's so I might be odd.

 

[haggis]

I've tried a few but lost the will to sort them out. Does anybody really know what time it is?

 

[luv2shave]

The Nacet has a permanent spot in my bathroom and in large part specifically because, as you point out, there's no second-guessing what you're getting when you're ready to buy more: it's either a Gillette Nacet, or it's something else. Personna blades, on the other hand???
......

Personna branding/packaging is enough to test the patience of Job, in my opinion. If I didn't love Crystals (aka Personna Israeli Blues) and Lab Blues as much as I do, I'd send someone, somewhere, a sternly worded email.

Thankfully they make a single type of injector blades and the awsome Gem PTFE blade both of which are excellent blades. I use the Personna blade wrapped in a white paper only which comes out of a blue box of 100 blades from Amazon. Good blade too.

I've also Purchased a 100 Nacet blades from the Italian barber black Friday sale for 9.99 only. I had A red and green colored boxes Nacet blade with a green alligator on it from Malaysia a few years ago. They were pretty impressive. Need to dig out those alligators and compare to the new Nacets when they arrive !

 

[aldomarino]

Nothing at all confusing about Personnas. Get the medical Prep blades. That's all you need to remember. These 7 o'clocks with all the colors and countries, impossible to keep straight.

 

[mikelz777]

I haven't used any in a long time but my impressions from memory are that I loved the 7 O'clock yellows and I liked the blacks. I seem to recall that I wanted to save both as favored blades and use up some of my lesser blades before getting back to them.

 

[cryhavoc]

just as the heading, was thinking of trying 7 o clock blades, looking at various reviews (even here on B&B) they must be the most confusing thing to purchase, read quite a few reviews and still no further forward, blacks, yellows, greens etc, they are all liked and disliked in equal numbers, so its either try them all, or just avoid them completely

Compared to Persona blades, the 7 O'Clock blades are pretty straight forward.

 

[CzechCzar]

just as the heading, was thinking of trying 7 o clock blades, looking at various reviews (even here on B&B) they must be the most confusing thing to purchase, read quite a few reviews and still no further forward, blacks, yellows, greens etc, they are all liked and disliked in equal numbers, so its either try them all, or just avoid them completely

I imagine quantum physics

 

[Jopo]

I've not tried any of the 7:00 blades, but the Gillette Nacet has become my every day favorite blade. No confusion —- only one Nacet.

But wait, there's more!

 

[mata_66]

Not that confusing:

Russian 7 O'Clocks:
Yellows= Platinum
Greens= Stainless

Indian 7 O'Clocks:
Blacks= Platinum
Greens= Stainless

All four variants are very good blades, you can't go wrong with any of them.
In my experience I prefer:
1) Indian Blacks (AKA "Super Platinum)
2) Russian Greens (AKA "Stainless")
3) Russian Yellows (AKA "Sharp-Edge)
4) Indian Greens (AKA "Permasharp")

Apart the premium 7 O'Clock line, Gillette produces in India two more economical lines:

Gillette Goal, both Platinum or Stainless Steel (awful in my book but at least they have a cool packaging!)

Gillette Winner, both Platinum or Stainless Steel (never tried these but they don't promise anything good)

Gillette also produces in India one of my favorite blades, the extremely underrated "Saloon blade":

 

[ivan_101]

The answer to the question in the thread. And it is a short one. Personna.

 

[JAHE]

Gillette also produces in India one of my favorite blades, the extremely underrated "Saloon blade":

What ist the reason a Gillette blade names Wilkonson Sword? Aren't they different companies?

Gilette produces these blades in China and India don't they? Does their packaging vary - and what about the performance?

 

[bluesparkuk]

What ist the reason a Gillette blade names Wilkonson Sword? Aren't they different companies?

Gilette produces these blades in China and India don't they? Does their packaging vary - and what about the performance?

i think Gillette bought the Wilkinson sword company

 

[mata_66]

What ist the reason a Gillette blade names Wilkonson Sword? Aren't they different companies?

Gilette produces these blades in China and India don't they? Does their packaging vary - and what about the performance?

It's a long story of dismissals, merging and buy-outs. To make it short in 1986 the Swedish Match company bought Allegheny Ludlum Industries, owner at the time of Wilkinson Sword. In 1989 Gillette helped Eemland Holdings finance a buyout of the Swedish Match consumer products division, which included Wilkinson Sword. Gillette owned 22% of Eemland. In 1992 the European Community anti-trust commission ordered Gillette to sell its interest in Eemland so Eemland sold Wilkinson Sword to Warner Lambert, owner of the Schick brand. In this agreement Gillette held the rights to use the Wilkinson Sword brand in some parts of the world, surely India and China but I don't know others.

 

[Ivo4u2]

I tried most and like the black and greens but from Gilette I prefer silver blue or platinum. In general gillette makes very good blades just give them a try and find the one which matches with your razor.
Lol and of course also try other brands (Ron R has a nice cheat sheet regarding sharpness)

 

[mata_66]

"Perma-Sharp" is also another intriguing story dense of mysteries, brand-crossings, and very different blades around the world.

 

[Mempho]

I was confused before I started reading this thread. Now I see God created 7 O'Clock blades to punish us for our sins.

 

[mata_66]

Come on it's very plain and straight

Made in India (Green since 2002, Blacks since 2003)

Made in Russia (I believe these were introduced around 2007-2008)

As a historical note, "7 O'Clock" was an old British company founded by Jack Gaisman, same Gaisman who founded the Auto-Strop Company (Valet razors).

I have one of the british-made SE 7 O'Clock razors - it was an early razor by none other than inventor Henry Jacques Gaisman, president of Auto Strop. The 7 O'Clock TM probably went over to Gillette during the period that Gillette infringed Gaisman's Probak blade patents and were forced to "buy out" Auto Strop (it was actually Auto Strop's takeover of Gillette). I wish I could lay hands on one of the blades for this razor to compare with an original Valet blade. The NOS Valet blades fit the blade receiver but extend beyond the stops. I can engineer a de-spined Gem blade to fit properly, the shave is quite mild. Makes me think that the original 7 O'clock blade was slightly smaller or else the cutouts were placed closer to the center of the side edges.

For some undocumented reasons (I unleashed my google-fu hounds with little success) the brand was acquired by an Indian company in 1986. In 2002 Gillette merged with this Indian company to launch a premium line of razor blades in what was then the biggest market in the world (4 billions blades/year). The 7 O'Clock Super Platinums (Blacks) were the first platinum-coated blades ever produced in India.

 

[mata_66]

For some undocumented reasons (I unleashed my google-fu hounds with little success) the brand was acquired by an Indian company in 1986.

I've actually found some news if anybody is interested:
In 1986, Gillette join-ventured with Calcutta-based Poddars to create ISP (Indian Shaving Products). That triggered off a storm in the Indian blades industry.

"For even before ISP's blades hit the market, the fur has been flying in and out of court, ISP crossed swords last fortnight with some 25 individuals before the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Commission on an unfair trade practice charge. The case is still pending, but it climaxes a series of earlier legal battles that ISP and Gillette have been furiously fighting. Gillette put blade industry heavyweight Harbans Lal Malhotra (HLM) in the dock on patent infringement charges in the Delhi High Court (the case has been resolved) after the latter applied for a compulsory licence to manufacture the US firm's products. Gillette also faces a challenge from the Bombay-based Everkeen Blade Company which has applied to the registrar of trade marks to strike off the Gillette brand name from the register, arguing that it has not been used in the country for 20 years, ISP staved off another challenge from a small Wiltech India shareholder on its brand name (the shareholder has since appealed to the Supreme Court) and faces a similar legal joust this month with a consumer society in the capital."

I don't have clear what's happened later, maybe Gillette officially took a step backward from ISP to only return in 2002.