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Vintage Scottish-Aussie Triple Life Perma Sharps

I took possession of a box of vintage Perma-Sharp blades (NOS) here in Australia last year, and did a wee bit of research on same. A previous Forum post on Scottish Perma Sharps (link below) was very helpful in this regard, and I guess this is a follow-up post on a variant blade.

Scottish Perma Sharps

Here are photos of my blades:





The back of the box is marked Perma-Sharp Mentone, Victoria (Australia). However, the blade is clearly marked "Made in Gt. Britain". The price on the box is marked in pre-decimal currency, dating it to pre-1966.
Hence, whilst these blades were distributed and sold in Australia, I postulate that this blade was made in Perma-Sharp's East Kilbride factory in Scotland, during the period 1962-1965, and is a predecessor of the highly regarded "Scottish Perma-Sharp" blade of the mid to late 1960's.

Have trawled background posts on vintage perma-sharp blades in this Forum (many thanks to previous contributors), the following post is instructive:



I find this article very interesting, in that it states that Scottish Perma-Sharp employed some of the engineers that developed the original stainless steel blades for Wilkinson Sword. See the following photo of these early Wilkie blades:



Note that these first stainless Wilkies are marked Triple Life, as are the early Perma-Sharps in question.

There are subsequent variants of the Scottish Perma-Sharp blade during the 1960's and early 1970's, some of which as seen in the following photos:











See below an advertisement from the Australian Newspaper Sydney Morning Herald dated 22 Aug 1965:



Note that the price listed is the same as my box of blades. However, whilst the box and the label are very similar, the box in this ad does not have the "Triple Life" marking.

Regarding the employee testing of the blades, this indeed seems to be true, as evidenced in the following article from a US newspaper (Evening Independent) dated 23 April, 1964.

 
Last edited:

ajkel64

Check Out Chick
Staff member
Thanks for the information on these blades you have gone to considerable trouble and I found it quite interesting. Now the question is are you prepared to use one?
 
Awesome background info! It was a thoroughly entertaining read! I wish i had shave breaks at work hahaha. Wonder what their take on YMMV was?
 
Indeed - imagine how good it would be to have an allocated shave break at work!
Regarding the Wilkie query, I'm not suggesting that Wilkinson Sword made the blades; more that the design was very similar, given the post advising that Personna employed some ex-Wilkie engineers, and also the similarity in packaging.
 
I took possession of a box of vintage Perma-Sharp blades (NOS) here in Australia last year, and did a wee bit of research on same. A previous Forum post on Scottish Perma Sharps (link below) was very helpful in this regard, and I guess this is a follow-up post on a variant blade.

Scottish Perma Sharps

Here are photos of my blades:





The back of the box is marked Perma-Sharp Mentone, Victoria (Australia). However, the blade is clearly marked "Made in Gt. Britain". The price on the box is marked in pre-decimal currency, dating it to pre-1966.
Hence, whilst these blades were distributed and sold in Australia, I postulate that this blade was made in Perma-Sharp's East Kilbride factory in Scotland, during the period 1962-1965, and is a predecessor of the highly regarded "Scottish Perma-Sharp" blade of the mid to late 1960's.

Have trawled background posts on vintage perma-sharp blades in this Forum (many thanks to previous contributors), the following post is instructive:



I find this article very interesting, in that it states that Scottish Perma-Sharp employed some of the engineers that developed the original stainless steel blades for Wilkinson Sword. See the following photo of these early Wilkie blades:



Note that these first stainless Wilkies are marked Triple Life, as are the early Perma-Sharps in question.

There are subsequent variants of the Scottish Perma-Sharp blade during the 1960's and early 1970's, some of which as seen in the following photos:











See below an advertisement from the Australian Newspaper Sydney Morning Herald dated 22 Aug 1965:



Note that the price listed is the same as my box of blades. However, whilst the box and the label are very similar, the box in this ad does not have the "Triple Life" marking.

Regarding the employee testing of the blades, this indeed seems to be true, as evidenced in the following article from a US newspaper (Evening Independent) dated 23 April, 1964.


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This is definitely the blade that I was referring to... thanks a million for the great post, very helpful and informative. Even though I have more blades than I'll ever use, I wish I could find some more of these. Thanks again!!!
Cleave
 
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This is definitely the blade that I was referring to... thanks a million for the great post, very helpful and informative. Even though I have more blades than I'll ever use, I wish I could find some more of these. Thanks again!!!
Cleave

Thanks for your kind words, Cleave.
Enjoy your Aussie-Scottish Perma-Sharps - wonderful blades and a testament to the men of East Kilbride.
 
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