Personna questions

[Mysterio]

Hey guys. Back about 8 or 9 years ago when I was just getting into wet shaving I really stocked up on blades and creams/soaps like a crazy person. I've settled on Feathers as my blade of choice and I've been thinking about putting up a BST post to swap some of my blade stockpile for Feathers. Personnas always seemed kind of confusing as to where which varieties were being manufactured and which were the best quality, and from what I've read the Israeli plant has now closed? Since I know Feathers tend to be a bit more expensive my initial thought was to try to swap my blades 2 for 1 for Feathers, but if the older Personna blades are considered harder to come by now I was wondering what the community thought would be fair. (This is not a make-me-an-offer post, I'm just looking for some feedback on what I've got here).

I've got two full 100 packs of 8-year-old Personna lab blues and another pack that's "mostly full", probably about 90 blades left in it. I have a 100 pack of reds that's missing 2 5 packs, these are the ones that say "assembled in Mexico" but at the time I got them I was told that those were Israeli made even though the packaging doesn't mention Israel at all. There is some dot matrix printing on the reverse of the packaging that I guess may be Israeli print. Finally I have a full 200 pack of "Platinum Chrome Super Stainless" that say "made with Swedish steel" but the packaging doesn't specify where they were made. They are also about 8 years old.

What do you guys think? Is anything here particularly sought after at the moment? Should I look more for a 1:1 exchange for Feathers or is my "2 Personna per Feather" exchange rate more reasonable?

Thanks!

 

[Quaznoid]

The unsolvable mystery of Personna.

 

[Rhody]

The unsolvable mystery of Personna.

Mexico? That’s a new one
Not sure about the red box but I don’t think you’ve got the Isreal reds there. As for trade value I’ve got nothing for ya there sorry.

 

[musicman1951]

Nobody is crazy enough to trade Feather blades for Personna 1:1. Feathers are expensive.

 

[Mysterio]

Mexico? That’s a new one
Not sure about the red box but I don’t think you’ve got the Isreal reds there. As for trade value I’ve got nothing for ya there sorry.

Not so new.... from a 2012 thread on this very forum it was already being discussed, but I don't know how legit it was without anything on the packaging to back it up...

Personna Red "Israelis" Made in Mexico now?

When I started wetshaving back in 2008, I found that the Personna "Red Pack Israelis" were by far the best blade for me. I used them regularly for about a year, and for a variety of reasons I stopped wetshaving for about a year. When I started up again in mid-2011, I ordered a few packs of the...

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[Tirvine]

I still have about fifty PIRs myself. Even though my horizons have expanded and introduced me to blades I like better, they are still pretty fine blades. So I just use them, not holding onto them for as long as I could but still getting sone decent value. The nice thing about most DE blades is that you 180 blade stash cost about the same as a not over the top steak dinner. Think of it as two steak dinners where each time you only ate half and give the leftovers away if you don't want to shave with them.

 

[BigJ]

Personna may be the most confusing brand in ‘traditional’ wet shaving!!

Too bad I really like the ‘reds’ and ‘labs!’

 

[Mysterio]

Nobody is crazy enough to trade Feather blades for Personna 1:1. Feathers are expensive.

That's really what I thought, my gut instinct was more like 2:1. Keep in mind I haven't bought a single blade in over 8 years because I'm so stocked up so I have no idea what the market looks like now. I saw a post somewhere where someone said the old lab blues in the original packaging with the blue wrappers were going for somewhat of a premium now, but that was just one person's comment so I didn't know how much weight to give it.

This is the weird dot matrix writing on the "assembled in Mexico" reds. I can't tell if it's just a misaligned dot matrix printing or if it's supposed to be Israeli. No idea.

 

[ivan_101]

Personna may be the most confusing brand in ‘traditional’ wet shaving!!

Too bad I really like the ‘reds’ and ‘labs!’

A close second (if not equally confusing) is Super-Max.

 

[Mouser]

I don't use modern blades anymore and when I did i hated Feathers but 3 Personnas for 2 Feathers seems more reasonable. Just guessing.

 

[South Dakota Guy]

That's really what I thought, my gut instinct was more like 2:1. Keep in mind I haven't bought a single blade in over 8 years because I'm so stocked up so I have no idea what the market looks like now. I saw a post somewhere where someone said the old lab blues in the original packaging with the blue wrappers were going for somewhat of a premium now, but that was just one person's comment so I didn't know how much weight to give it.

This is the weird dot matrix writing on the "assembled in Mexico" reds. I can't tell if it's just a misaligned dot matrix printing or if it's supposed to be Israeli. No idea.

From what I have read, the Personna Platinum Chrome blades made in Israel destined for the US Market were shipped to Mexico for packaging in the red tucks and red wrappers. This was always the case as far as I know. I do not know if Personna is continuing to do the same with current production German manufactured Personna Platinum Chrome blades for the US market. As far as I know, Personna doesn't manufacture blades in Mexico.

 

[Multum in parvo]

That's really what I thought, my gut instinct was more like 2:1. Keep in mind I haven't bought a single blade in over 8 years because I'm so stocked up so I have no idea what the market looks like now. I saw a post somewhere where someone said the old lab blues in the original packaging with the blue wrappers were going for somewhat of a premium now, but that was just one person's comment so I didn't know how much weight to give it.

This is the weird dot matrix writing on the "assembled in Mexico" reds. I can't tell if it's just a misaligned dot matrix printing or if it's supposed to be Israeli. No idea.

I can’t speak/write either but if at all this looks more Arabic than Hebrew.

 

[pdieten]

From what I have read, the Personna Platinum Chrome blades made in Israel destined for the US Market were shipped to Mexico for packaging in the red tucks and red wrappers. This was always the case as far as I know. I do not know if Personna is continuing to do the same with current production German manufactured Personna Platinum Chrome blades for the US market. As far as I know, Personna doesn't manufacture blades in Mexico.

This is the right answer. No blade factory in Mexico. Just a packaging operation.

 

[Lefonque]

Personna blades confuse the heck out of me. I liked the Israeli Red which are sometime blue that were made in Israel but I am told are now in Germany that also can be confused with the ones that are made in America that also have the labs and so on……

 

[never-stop-learning]

The Personna Israeli Platinum Red is one of my favorite blades. Stocked up on 400 of them when the move from Israel was announced.

The USA made Med Prep is similarly excellent and still available.

YMMV

 

[cyberdog]

I loved the Personna Red blades, they were the smoothest blade in my Timeless 95 OC and a few others, with a couple of St Petersburg blades. - Also expensive and somewhat difficult to find today, and wish I had grabbed a couple hundred before they became scarce and the price went up.

I just bit the bullet and bought a package (200) of German Personna blades. Good news is they're still super smooth, but didn't realize just how sharp they now were until noticing the weepers most of the way through the first pass, and dialed down the Rex. The German blades may possibly be sharper than a Feather out of the wrapper.

 

[raydoc]

Recently got two tucks of Personna made in Germany as a gift from Crystal blades manufacturer. I wrote about a quality control concern, might have been the odd blade that slipped thru QC, could happen with ANY blade maker. The German blades are just fine. Again, prep and technique are #1 and #2. Just my opinion.

 

[Tirvine]

It is bizarre that the Personna site mentions none of the various blades regularly discussed here. Is it possible that the various blades sold as Personna are something else but operating under a license to use the Personna name? It is not only confusing, it is opaque.

 

[stoof2010]

The big box on the right I believe are the new German made reds. But for a bit they did have similar boxes and the German made ones had gold on the box.

So this is what currently available last I checked:
-Blue IP crystals platinum + on blade
-Red IPs red box or white plastic for European market but made in Israel platinum chrome on blade
-lab blues personna super on blade. Box says comfort coated made in USA
-med prep - same as labs but cleaned for medical use
-New German reds I call them. Identical blade as the red IPs but made in Germany platinum chrome on blade.

I don't know whether they're still making Israeli reds in Israel, but my last pack had recent date codes. Either 2020 or 2019 on plastic wrap so may have gotten the last stick they had.

 

[stoof2010]

These are from my listing I bought the Israeli from but now they are German. That's what the German tucks look like.

These are what European Israeli made red IP look like.

These are what the bulk German reds look like

This is what the newest box of lab blues looks like.

Sorry I don't have a better pic from front but the blue boxes are the older lab colors from 2013ish and the white box are med preps.

So alas I guess they really did stop making the reds in Israel because that was my guy that got them directly from them. Curious if the crystal blue IP are still available.

This is the 200 pack of German IP. Similar to original posters but with gold band and platinum on it.