What Is The Best Vintage Blade To Use With A Vintage Razor?

[Juanmosey]

Try a Rexall. I see lots on Ebay. I have one but haven't tried it yet.

 

[JimmyCB]

If you are like me, and a bit of an immersive history buff, you might purchase a vintage razor for the experience of what it was like to use it 'back in the day'.

The thing is, we will almost always put in a modern blade for that 30's or 40's or 50's beauty. That is because usually that is what we have to hand.

Should we be using blades that most match what was actually available and used at the time that razor was made? I would assume this will give the most authentic shaving experience with it, in how it actually performed. A feather in a 1948 Super Speed may not actually give the results that a 48 Super Speed owner got.

Should blades from the time period be used with that specific razor, if they can be had? Or are there modern alternatives available more readily that would match the real shaving experience of a vintage razor? Any Carbon stell being made still without exotic modern coatings?

This was inspired by an exchange on a previous thread. I think there is some interesting stuff here to be discussed, for the community members who want to get the 'real' experience with a vintage, and also achieve maybe more accurate and authentic shaves.

Any thoughts?

I recently bought some vintage (late 1950s or early 1960s) PAL injector blades from the 'Bay to try in my 1960s PAL adjustable injector razor. Using these vintage blades in my PAL was a fun experiment, but the vintage blades were inferior to modern injector blades. The packing with the vintage blades doesn't say they are stainless steel, so I'm guessing they aren't. The first 2 shaves with the PAL blades were good, but the blades started to pull significantly on the whiskers by the third shave and were ready to replace. I normally get 7 to 10 shaves from modern Schick or Personna injector blades in the PAL. My conclusion is that the PAL is a great razor, but use modern blades for best results.