And, at that, we pretty much explain (or have a working theory for the existence and peculiarities of the Dorco STD-301.
I assume a single line for the initial blade manufacture and possibly the grind. From there, some blades go on to get either no coating or a "Stainless" coating. These ultimately end up at the Dollar General/Family Dollar. The rest get a "Platinum" coating. Some, I would guess, stop there and become the ST-300/ST-301 blades we all know and tolerate. The rest is a bit fuzzy but ultimately involves the Prime Platinum vs. Titan destiny.
It's probably worth noting that the ST-300 and ST-301 packages read "NEW! Platinum", so adding that coating is a relatively recent change.
Back when I first started really looking at the STD-301, someone (
@wchnu?) pointed out that he considered them a daily driver. I can only assume he uses them in a razor with good blade clamping. It's amazing the difference that a few hundredths or thousands of a millimeter of coatings make to a blade.
A final thought on blade economics... Neal, as you pointed out, these are not cheap blades, particularly in comparison to their better performing cousins. I can only assume that either a) they represent a huge profit source, b) the production quantities are low compared to their other blades, or c) that dispenser is freaking expensive.
Thanks for indulging my thought experiments.
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