I have There are times when I find razors at yard sales and flea markets that still have some blades with them. They shave wonderful. To me they seem to be a little sharper to start off with but don't seem to keep an edge as long. I guess todays alloy holds up better long term.
I've had some great luck with vintage blades. Some, like oldfat1 says, don't seem to last as long.The Thin's are awesome for about 4 shaves. Others may be rough the first shave but settle down and last for a long time. I've been averaging 10 shaves with a Spoiler in my Slim. Some older Wilkinson's I have not been impressed with, others rock.
i actually tried a circa 1908-1910 gillette 3 hole blade today. i got a bunch of them in a blade holder that came with one of my razors. a little honing, a little stropping and they work OK, not amazing, but not bad either.
Chris, how are these? The seller I bought my Schick DE from threw in a pack of these and I am thinking of giving them a go.
I thought they were OK, certainly much better than Merkur blades. I really haven't used them enough to have an informed opinion. I tried them a few times mainly in my Krona and a Sticky and the Krona makes every blade shave well, the Sticky I'm not that used to yet. The all chrome ones are very classy looking though. I have one I used stuck in the trim above my sink to display.
Vintage Blades In my opinion, the term "NOS blades" or "vintage blades" is too broad to allow an answer to your question. I've been wet shaving for about 55 years and I have little good to say about any of the blades that I tried prior to 1958 when Gillette came out with the coated "Super Blue Blade". From my point of view, that was the first of the "new generation" of blades that made shaving become tolerable. Any blade older than 1958, in my opinion, fits into the same catagory as thumbscrews, the rack and the iron maiden, in other words, a device of torture. Seriously, until the Super Blues and their coated successors, I used to use a blade only once and, even then, I dreaded shaving because it was just flatly uncomfortable. I even switched to an electric for a while, but in hot weather I couldn't stand to use one of those (no air conditioning then). With the introduction of the coated blades, it made shaving a pleasure. My shaving gear in those days consisted of a Superspeed, an Ever Ready pure badger brush and Colgate, Williams or Old Spice soap in an Old Spice mug and Old Spice after shave. Guess what? . . . Using a Super Blue Blade, I can still get a good, comfortable shave with this same gear. Monkey, in answer to your question, those Super Chromium blades should work ok. Regards, Tom
i really want to shave with a blue blade, just to try it out. but i dont mean that by just taking one out of the pack tomorrow; i mean that if i had one in 1950s condition.
Keep in mind, Dave, there is a lot of difference between a "Blue Blade" and a "Super Blue Blade". Regards, Tom
Don't forget, y'all, I have four MIB Super Blue Blade dispensers if anyone wants to give one of the classics a spin. :happy088
Thanks, Guido. I have a few myself but, being 50 years later, I'll stick with PTFE coated stainless blades rather than those silicone coated carbon steel guys. They were a huge improvement over their predecessors, but we've come a long way since then. I've said before, I kind of enjoy trying out different old razors from the collection and I like to use various brushes, creams, soaps and AS's, and my daily razor is about 30 years older than I am, but I draw the line at going back and using old blades . . . Been there, done that. It's Dave that has the curiosity and the guts to be experimenting with old type blades. Regards, Tom
