I picked up 500 of these German "Schick Premium" DE blades on fleabay the other day from a Russian seller. Rather strangely these are 125 blades per pillar, 25 packs of 5. So I obviously bought 4 pillars.... just because. I think these are NOS blades from mid-late 1980's Solingen manufacture. As a graphic designer from years ago there are some font clues in there (the "Premium" is not in Arial or Helvetica but Swiss721BT which helps date it somewhat) as well as general color & design clues. The proof in the pudding will be the country of manufacture - if they state 'Made in West Germany' then that virtually confirms pre-1990's date as the wall came down in October '89. Anyone got any ideas? Not able to find much about them. The only image I could find on Google was the one in the eBay listing. No mention of them over the road either, although at least one other person thinks late '80s or early '90s manufacture.
Okay, the blades have arrived. Luckily, I went to the post office before shaving, so glad I did. A nice parcel of these NOS blades were waiting. I am able to date thes blades to between 1993 and 2000. Unfortunately the are marked 'Made in Germany' so they are post-reunification, however they are branded Shick, but are addressed as manufactured by Wilkinson Sword. It also has "A member of the Warner-Lambert Group" printed on the rear of the pillar. According to the Pfizer website, Wilkinson Sword was aquired by Warner-Lambert in 1993, and Pfizer took over Warner-Lambert in 2000. So these blades are somewhere between 11 and 18 years old. I would guess that it would have taken some time to get the packaging redesigned, new address and company details etc, so I imagine they are from 1995-96. I have not received any provenance from the eBay seller at all, but I imagine that they are from a deceased estate. I feel privileged to hold what is likely to be the largest single holding of these blades and report on them to the B&B community. A further 125 were sold by the eBay seller - lucky person who got these! Jumped into a shower after throwing my Muhle Pure Badger brush into the sink soak. Lathered up with TOBS Jermyn St cream, and loaded the blade into my Fatboy dialled on 6 which is my normal setting. Immediate thought was 'oooh, it's sharp' quickly followed by 'great blade feedback'. Yes, the blade sung nicely and was a pleasurable shave. Noticed that the blade did not appear to show any signs of overt smoothness, however it was absolutely and totally devoid of any roughness. I would go as far as saying these may be uncoated blades, however the performance was more than satisfactory. As when testing all blades, I do my normal 2-pass (WTG+XTG) shave, then wash off and then apply an Alum block to test for irritation and weepers. Nothing major to report, other than one spot from a previous zit which I had given the tiniest of nicks to. Gave the alum 30 seconds on my face and towelled off (no rinse). Result was a normal DFS - BBS on cheeks as I get with many blades, just that roughness under my chin as normal. I find that ATG is the only way to get that and only with the sharpest of blades, not something that I do with a first-time use of a previously-unknown blade. To put them in perspective with my 2000-vintage NOS Bleue Extras, I would say the Blue Extra is a slightly better blade. Smoother during the shave, similar sharpness, slightly closer result. Still, the Bleue Extras are coated with PTFE, these are not. By no means disgraced at all, the performance for what these are is simply excellent, and just goes to show how much we have lost with so many blades going the way of the dodo. If you see them, grab them. Definitely worth a buy.
