What were Gillette THIN blades?

[chrisf8657]

One thing that I am constantly curious about is the Gillette THIN blades from the 40's to the 80's (Red/White/Black pkg)

Where these razor blades that didn't pass QC for Blue Blades, not sharpened as good, etc.?

Seems kinda weird that Gillette would have two blade lines going...

I guess the question is how are these different from the Blue Blades outside of coating (obviously lacquered instead of blued)?

 

[mblakele]

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...ng-of-Gillette-Razors-and-Razor-Blades-(1956) and http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/445472-Manufacture-of-Safety-Razors-and-Blades-(1938) have a bit to say about how the blades were finished at the UK plant. Apparently both types were lacquered after hardening. The blue blades used a different mix of gas in the hardening stage. Aside from that they sound pretty similar.

Sometimes different brands are purely for market segmentation.

 

[haiti222]

Although I would agree that thin blades were mainly about the marketing, and were sold as the lowest cost blade by Gillette, I did find that the United States Code of Federal Regulation defined Thin blades as .004 inches thick or less, and that it was an unfair trade practice to call a blade a thin if it was thicker than that. https://books.google.com/books?id=5...HfptAQA#v=onepage&q=thin razor blades&f=false

Thins were also made by Schick in the early 60s before stainless during the short time they made Krona, non-stainless blades. I see others made thin blades in the pre-stainless era as well. Note their low pricing as well. https://books.google.com/books?id=u...2_jgv6#v=onepage&q=schick krona thins&f=false

 

[mblakele]

Fascinating stuff. Such a specific rule about thin blades leads me to wonder about its origin: perhaps misrepresentation by some blademaker or another? Or was the rule a product of lobbying?

In 1939 Popular Mechanics ran what looks like a fairly early ad for the thin blade, alongside the blue blade: https://books.google.com/books?id=X9wDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT11. Another version ran in LIFE the same year: https://books.google.com/books?id=G0kEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA44.

The thin blades were about half the price of the blue blades, but promoted as a good value on the basis of cost per shave: "less than one cent per day".

 

[haiti222]

Fascinating stuff. Such a specific rule about thin blades leads me to wonder about its origin: perhaps misrepresentation by some blademaker or another? Or was the rule a product of lobbying?

In 1939 Popular Mechanics ran what looks like a fairly early ad for the thin blade, alongside the blue blade: https://books.google.com/books?id=X9wDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT11. Another version ran in LIFE the same year: https://books.google.com/books?id=G0kEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA44.

The thin blades were about half the price of the blue blades, but promoted as a good value on the basis of cost per shave: "less than one cent per day".

Thanks for that. The Thin appears to be a response to several thin blades already on the market. Google Books Snippet view shows that Consumer Reports (Research) for 1937 and 1939 discusses several Thin blades on the market. I also found a snippet of a Schick Injector ad from 1939 where the injector blade is double the thickness of a DE and triple the thickness of a thin blade. Thin-Flex, Windsor Super-Thin, & Ward's Super-Thin were blades cited in a 1941 marketing textbook referring to sales activity in 1936. This example was still being used in 1956 in a revised version of the text book. They also are mentioned below as good blades.

Most importantly, archive.org has a text version of the 1939 Consumer Reports discussing razor blades. It says the Thin blade came into general distribution in 1937. Fascinating discussion (scroll to page 25): http://archive.org/stream/consumersdigest1939eastrich/consumersdigest1939eastrich_djvu.txt

This article mentions that Thin Blades were thought of as a quality improvement at the time by many. It also repeats many of the negative stories we have heard about that famous New England corporation.........

 

[MisfitWy23]

Most importantly, archive.org has a text version of the 1939 Consumer Reports discussing razor blades. It says the Thin blade came into general distribution in 1937. Fascinating discussion (scroll to page 25): http://archive.org/stream/consumersdigest1939eastrich/consumersdigest1939eastrich_djvu.txt

This article mentions that Thin Blades were thought of as a quality improvement at the time by many. It also repeats many of the negative stories we have heard about that famous New England corporation.........

Interesting article, thanks. I'm not too familiar with the history of the organizations, but I think Consumers Digest was/is different than Consumer Reports.

I found this part particularly interesting:

It h°s been reported that a metallurgist made himself a razor blade of nitrided (spe-
cially treated) steel and that he has used this blade without sharpening for two years. In this connection it has been re-
ported that a patent for nitrid-
ing razor blades was assigned to one of the large blade man-
ufacturers. The assistant sales manager of this concern, in a letter to a consumer organiza-
tion about the nitrided blade, wrote "work on this has been abandoned for the time being."

Reminds me of the story about someone buying a car that gets 100mpg, and when they write about it agents from the car company come and secretly steal the experimental device that they accidentally left on the car that allows it to get such high mileage. Especially considering they don't give any names or other corroborating evidence.

Is there anyone from the EXCALIBUR club using vintage high carbon blades?

 

[haiti222]

Interesting article, thanks. I'm not too familiar with the history of the organizations, but I think Consumers Digest was/is different than Consumer Reports.

I found this part particularly interesting:Reminds me of the story about someone buying a car that gets 100mpg, and when they write about it agents from the car company come and secretly steal the experimental device that they accidentally left on the car that allows it to get such high mileage. Especially considering they don't give any names or other corroborating evidence.

Is there anyone from the EXCALIBUR club using vintage high carbon blades?

You are right about the magazine. The predecessor to CR also did a blade review that year....

In the 70's Wikinson Sword got a patent on a nitrided steel process.... http://www.google.com/patents/US3838512

 

[mblakele]

You are right about the magazine. The predecessor to CR also did a blade review that year....

In the 70's Wikinson Sword got a patent on a nitrided steel process.... http://www.google.com/patents/US3838512

Current state of the art seems to be DLC: US6684513 by Gillette, filed 2000 and published 2004. I believe this is used on some Gillette cartridge blades, along with an adhesion layer and then the usual PTFE coating. Perhaps one day we will see this on some DE blades too.

Thanks for the http://archive.org/stream/consumersdigest1939eastrich/consumersdigest1939eastrich_djvu.txt link. The gents at Consumers Research were quite vehement about blade quality. Of course:

Proper preparation of the
face for shaving may be of
some help in dealing with the
problem of poor blades — or
increasing the life of a good
blade. A study of shaving
technique indicates that the
most important factor in pre-
shave operation is the time of
lathering. Three minutes of
lathering, using hot water
with soap or cream, was
found to be the minimum time
that will allow a satisfactory
shave.​

Watch out for typos in the OCR text: I tripped over several.

 

[rff000]

Thanks for that. The Thin appears to be a response to several thin blades already on the market. Google Books Snippet view shows that Consumer Reports (Research) for 1937 and 1939 discusses several Thin blades on the market. I also found a snippet of a Schick Injector ad from 1939 where the injector blade is double the thickness of a DE and triple the thickness of a thin blade. Thin-Flex, Windsor Super-Thin, & Ward's Super-Thin were blades cited in a 1941 marketing textbook referring to sales activity in 1936. This example was still being used in 1956 in a revised version of the text book. They also are mentioned below as good blades.

Most importantly, archive.org has a text version of the 1939 Consumer Reports discussing razor blades. It says the Thin blade came into general distribution in 1937. Fascinating discussion (scroll to page 25): Full text of "Consumers' digest"

This article mentions that Thin Blades were thought of as a quality improvement at the time by many. It also repeats many of the negative stories we have heard about that famous New England corporation.........

Here's a nice PDF:
https://ia800502.us.archive.org/35/items/consumersdigest1939eastrich/consumersdigest1939eastrich.pdf

 

[Cal]

Here's a nice PDF:

That's one great PDF rff000, thank you.

The blades article (from PDF page 25 through 28) is fun. I've downloaded the file (all 420 pages of it) for future reading enjoyment on its various different subjects.

 

[rff000]

The non-blade articles are much stranger than the one about blades. A review of the latest 78-RPM records, an article about how bad salads are for your health, and the latest in tube radios. I hadn't realized that the PDF is for all the 1939 issues.

By the way, you can take the address and substitute another close year, like 1938, and get the volume for that year; e.g. https://ia902307.us.archive.org/2/items/consumersdigest1938eastrich/consumersdigest1938eastrich.pdf


I'll leave it to others to try all the other years until you hit one that doesn't work or get sick of reviews of ancient appliances from the 1930's!

 

[SGWB]

For what it is worth, I like the vintage Gillette Thin blades much more than vintage Gillette Blue.

Also, the Schick Krona Edge blades look to have been nitrided, judging by some of the patent numbers on the packaging. I don't have it in front of me at the moment, but I'll look it up later.

 

[Saxonbowman]

For what it is worth, I like the vintage Gillette Thin blades much more than vintage Gillette Blue.

Also, the Schick Krona Edge blades look to have been nitrided, judging by some of the patent numbers on the packaging. I don't have it in front of me at the moment, but I'll look it up later.

I'll have to agree with the small sample of blades I've tried. The Thin Blades seem to have held up much better than the Blues. From what I remember from the '60s the Blue Blades, or at least the Super Blue Blades held up better than the Thins when they were new.

 

[SGWB]

...Also, the Schick Krona Edge blades look to have been nitrided, judging by some of the patent numbers on the packaging. I don't have it in front of me at the moment, but I'll look it up later.

Patent US3203829
"Also, where a reducing atmosphere of hydrogen and nitrogen is used in the baking step, especially at baking temperatures around 600 700 F., it appears that a hard thin layer of nitrided steel is formed on the facets and bevels forming the cutting edges of the blade, which is abrasion resistant and imparts additional durabality to the blade."
Patent US3203829 - Razor blades

I'll have to agree with the small sample of blades I've tried. The Thin Blades seem to have held up much better than the Blues. From what I remember from the '60s the Blue Blades, or at least the Super Blue Blades held up better than the Thins when they were new.

Thank you for that. I had been wondering if it was a case of initial quality differences or better preservation. The Super Blue blades I've tried are in one of the stamped metal dispensers and, I suspect, not as well protected as the Thins in their waxed paper envelopes. They were just very dull. I have some older, standard Blues that will come up in rotation (eventually) that I hope are better preserved.

 

[Saxonbowman]

...
Thank you for that. I had been wondering if it was a case of initial quality differences or better preservation. The Super Blue blades I've tried are in one of the stamped metal dispensers and, I suspect, not as well protected as the Thins in their waxed paper envelopes. They were just very dull. I have some older, standard Blues that will come up in rotation (eventually) that I hope are better preserved.

The Blues that I tried were older than the thins and were also in paper envelopes. I had thought that the coating applied to the Super Blue Blades would have helped preserve them but it sounds like it didn't. Unfortunately I haven't found any to try.

 

[Quaznoid]

Three Thin blades were included free with my new SuperSpeed in 1973. The entire package was less than $2. I seem to recall the blades were in a red and white wrapper. I had zero experience w shaving at the time but I don’t recall being unsatisfied w them.

 

[MUDHOLDER]

I just received a aristocrat razor (1946 i think) in a little brownleather box with a brass blade holder 12 blades ,the thins. I am disinfecting one now to give it try. Not sure if thats smart but if i start getting weepers with every stroke ill know it was a dumb idea. The blades were not individualey wrapped in anything just 12 blades in the case. They do seem to have a coating of some kind of oil. I will post how they worked out. Keep it fun keep it Zen

 

[ShaverAZ]

In the right razor, Thins provide a great shave. Nothing I'd pay extra or spend an inordinate amount of time tracking down though.
Yesterday I installed a Treet black Beauty in one of my Gillette Old types. The shave was indistinguishable (close, smooth and irritation free) from the Thins & will be my g-to blade for my Old Types. In every other razor, they're rough & irritating ...

 

[Multum in parvo]

In the right razor, Thins provide a great shave. Nothing I'd pay extra or spend an inordinate amount of time tracking down though.
Yesterday I installed a Treet black Beauty in one of my Gillette Old types. The shave was indistinguishable (close, smooth and irritation free) from the Thins & will be my g-to blade for my Old Types. In every other razor, they're rough & irritating ...

If you like the Black Beauties have a look at Treet Carbon Dura Sharp (yellow wrapper, the blue ones are SS). I find them even smoother than the blacks.