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Vintage Blue Gillette Blades, good or bad?

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I am not sure if the quality was better. Yes, they need now produce cheaper blades, but the machinery and technology got much better. I have one Gillette blade from 1920something. It is not flat. It shows typical production defects of wrong roll milling. But hardened carbon steel is harder than stainless. So the material might be a reason for longer durability.

I have a reprint of a German catalog from 1912 from a store similar to Sears & Roebucks. It has lots of no-name copies of Gillette razor sets and even one closed comb razor. The price of a no-name blade is 0.20 Mark. In Germany we have official statistics of the average annual income since 1891. I think it is the best way to compare prices here in Germany. ( Durchschnittsentgelt – Wikipedia - https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durchschnittsentgelt ) 0.2*(39000/1164) = 6.70 Euro = USD 7.40 per blade. So one blade in 1912 cost as much as 100 blades now.
By all measures, the quality of vintage blades were better. I'm talking about stainless blades from the 60's through the 70's or so. No doubt they can make them better today, but to just make them as good would put them out of reach of practically their entire market base. We, guys who wet shave as a sort of hobby, are a small fraction of men who shave with DE razors.
 
Tried today this blue blade with date code V4 in an post-1921 Old Type. Heavy tucking only slightly better than the yellow blade. I stopped after shaving one cheek WTG and reloaded an ASP. Oh what a bliss!

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Apparently the Trac II was just easier for the impatient and unskilled to use, and that was enough....


One cannot halt progress. It was not as simple as just making a cartridge razor. It had more to do with the fact that Bic had introd a groundbreaking disposable and Gillette, remembering well that that were caught flat footed by Wilkinson in the early 60's, went into R&D overdrive. We know now (through the memoirs of a retired Gillette exec.) that Gillette mgmt. still considered the co. a DE blade maker even into the 1980's!!! They thought disposables were more or less a passing fad. They were wrong as time has shown.

Of course people want convenience today as we don't chop wood to have a hot shower or use horses to farm. That said, I think the "hypermilers" have proven that if anything the modern DE blade is just as good as those of the "Golden Age". Technically, the alloys used today, as well as the coating/sputtering processes, are light years ahead of anything in the 60's & 70's. I for one embrace progress as I have crapped in an outhouse, chopped wood & used a musket. I have no desire to return to the old ways. 🤣
 
By all measures, the quality of vintage blades were better. I'm talking about stainless blades from the 60's through the 70's or so. No doubt they can make them better today, but to just make them as good would put them out of reach of practically their entire market base. We, guys who wet shave as a sort of hobby, are a small fraction of men who shave with DE razors.

Remember three or four years ago when Gillette brought some Brazilian-made Platinum Plus blades to Walgreens? Those matched the standards set by the '80s vintage US-made Platinum Plus blades. At about a dollar per blade if you bought them nine at a time. Needless to say there was some profit-taking there, but in terms of inflation-adjusted purchasing power that was about the same price they were in the '80s. And they really are outstanding blades.

One cannot halt progress. It was not as simple as just making a cartridge razor. It had more to do with the fact that Bic had introd a groundbreaking disposable and Gillette, remembering well that that were caught flat footed by Wilkinson in the early 60's, went into R&D overdrive. We know now (through the memoirs of a retired Gillette exec.) that Gillette mgmt. still considered the co. a DE blade maker even into the 1980's!!! They thought disposables were more or less a passing fad. They were wrong as time has shown.

Gillette's R&D went into overdrive before Bic, they seemed to always be looking for a way to prevent people from handling sharp edges going all the way back to inventing the blade dispenser. The Techmatic came first, then Wilkinson came out with the bonded system, then Gillette had the Trac II, and the Bic disposable still didn't come out for a couple more years after that and Gillette responded immediately with the disposable equivalent of a Trac II. I think Gillette hated that they had to be in the disposable market, if I remember right from a news article. They were hard on the profit margin. But guys insisted on buying the things at the time.

Of course people want convenience today as we don't chop wood to have a hot shower or use horses to farm. That said, I think the "hypermilers" have proven that if anything the modern DE blade is just as good as those of the "Golden Age". Technically, the alloys used today, as well as the coating/sputtering processes, are light years ahead of anything in the 60's & 70's. I for one embrace progress as I have crapped in an outhouse, chopped wood & used a musket. I have no desire to return to the old ways. 🤣

Been there done that. I agree with you. It's one thing to be a Luddite but you have to pick your spots.
 
It's not about whether there's better steel, technology and whatever, it's about do they use it. Take guys who hypermile today's blades. What would you say? One guy out of a couple hundred get 20+ shaves out of modern blade? Whereas one guy out of couple hundred say they don't get that out of a vintage stainless one. That's one good objective piece of evidence. Ask those couple of hundred guys if they get a closer, smoother shave with that much longer lasting blade. Listen, I didn't start out a proponent of them. I log my shaves every day, I saw my own experience with them becoming overwhelming, then I started asking why.
 
It's not about whether there's better steel, technology and whatever, it's about do they use it. Take guys who hypermile today's blades. What would you say? One guy out of a couple hundred get 20+ shaves out of modern blade? Whereas one guy out of couple hundred say they don't get that out of a vintage stainless one. That's one good objective piece of evidence. Ask those couple of hundred guys if they get a closer, smoother shave with that much longer lasting blade. Listen, I didn't start out a proponent of them. I log my shaves every day, I saw my own experience with them becoming overwhelming, then I started asking why.

I think some guys have a mindset that vintage must be better, so they get more mileage out of those blades. The only way to do a fair comparison is to do a double-blind study where the reviewers have no idea which blade they are using until after the evaluation is over.
 
I think some guys have a mindset that vintage must be better, so they get more mileage out of those blades. The only way to do a fair comparison is to do a double-blind study where the reviewers have no idea which blade they are using until after the evaluation is over.

It was done once:

Keeping in mind that vintage GPPs were probably the best blades Gillette ever made in the USA. (Comparing them to Personna's and Schick's blades of the era is left as an exercise for the reader.)
 
Sorry for that rant. I get better shaves and almost no weepers. I've kept a daily shave log since 2013 and when I go back to check it leaps out but blades, I believe, are the most YMMzv part of our thing.
 
Comparing one blade with one other blade is statistically not really significant. From the test results and my experience of blade aging I would have said that both blades are about the same.

I learned from this comparison two things:
1) There are good old blades, so I should try a few more.
2) I should again use a blade until it is uncomfortable. My shaving improved a lot since I started in October and so might have blade life time.
 
It's not about whether there's better steel, technology and whatever, it's about do they use it. Take guys who hypermile today's blades. What would you say? One guy out of a couple hundred get 20+ shaves out of modern blade? Whereas one guy out of couple hundred say they don't get that out of a vintage stainless one. That's one good objective piece of evidence. Ask those couple of hundred guys if they get a closer, smoother shave with that much longer lasting blade. Listen, I didn't start out a proponent of them. I log my shaves every day, I saw my own experience with them becoming overwhelming, then I started asking why.

That is your subjective reasoning and not based upon any scientific canvassing or lab tests. Who were the hundred guys?

I have used a boatload of "Golden Age" blades. e.g., Personna 74, Schick Plus Platinum, WS "The Blade" & Gillette Platinum Plus. Yes, they were very good blades, but I could never really get more than seven great shaves from one. Personally, I just think there is way too much confirmation bias at play here, but I have a question for you: If Gillette et al, in theory (as you inferred earlier) does not utilize their best current technology for DE blades then by your argument they are still using "old", i.e., "Golden Age" technology for current DE blade production therefore relegating all current blades to be equal to "Spoilers", Plus Platinum, etc., right?

:wink:
 
always wanted to try vintage blades.. well now i changed my mind. no need for a below par shave just to try some blade
 
Tried today this blue blade with date code V4 in an post-1921 Old Type. Heavy tucking only slightly better than the yellow blade. I stopped after shaving one cheek WTG and reloaded an ASP. Oh what a bliss!

View attachment 1042939
I would say that is a 1950 blade. I have used 1974 Blue Blades, and Gillette had changed the logos and design on them from the traditional format shown in your picture. Also, they had added PTFE coating to the regular Blue Blade by then, not just the Super Blue Blade. If it were 1975, it would have the PTFE patent number 3071856 on the blade.

 
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Have four more for test.

Rotbart Be-Be from Germany. Because of the mentioned patents it should be from the 1930s. Few, small spots of rust.
Gillette Thin Blade. Date code Z2.
Lame Gillette Française traitée. Date code S4.
Silver Astor Stainless Blade. Made in greece.
 

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Have four more for test.

Rotbart Be-Be from Germany. Because of the mentioned patents it should be from the 1930s. Few, small spots of rust.
Gillette Thin Blade. Date code Z2.
Lame Gillette Française traitée. Date code S4.
Silver Astor Stainless Blade. Made in greece.
The only ones that might be worth trying are the Astors.
 

Columbo

Mr. Codgers Neighborhood
Just an aside here on the technology. My understanding is that Gillette had effectively perfected shaving blade manufacturing by the mid 1960s, with the introduction of the coated stainless steel blade. And my recollection is that the blades were not exactly cheap then as adjusted for inflation. I’m guessing 80 cents to a dollar each as adjusted to today’s prices. And I know from using them that they really don’t degrade much if reasonably stored.

What pushed Gillette, and the industry generally, to the cartridge system more than anything else was that Gillette’s patents and IP on DE shaving were running out, and there was not much further they could do with it. The laws of market maturity were threatening Gillette’s future profitability. Disposable cartridge and multi-blade shaving systems allowed Gillette to pursue new ‘technologies’, and at potentially much higher profit margins. My understanding is that it only costs Gillette 7-10 cents today to make a cartridge that they then retail for $2-4. We can today buy economy DE blades for less than Gillette’s cartridge cost. So Gillette was right.

But I agree with the other old timers on the old carbon steel blades. They may have shaved better when new, but all are going to suffer from some degree of edge oxidation at this point, regardless of how well they were honed.
 
Used this morning the Astor blade and it was indeed good. I will continue to use it the next days. Any idea on how old it is?
Looking at the wrapper and the fact that it says stainless and not super stainless I would guess early to mid 60's roughly give or take.
 
I’m a single pass, twice a week guy these day. Basically a blade a month now. Nothing comes close to a vintage Spoiler, and this haul of vintage Spoilers will likely get buried with me!

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Oh, and Bogey, just because I claim they're not using the best of modern technology it doesn't follow that I'm therefore saying they're using the best of the old. I'll never convince you and you'll never convince me so let's drop it.
 
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