Razor blade coatings

Imagine a blade manufacturer that wants one. I can't.

 

Usually it doesn't. My dive knife wouldn't rust after being immersed in salt water all day long. All I had to do was rinse it off at the end of the day. Salt water is very corrosive. Immerse a carbon steel knife in salt water for 20 mins and pull it out and it will start rusting right away.

I have never seen a stainless steel razor blade rust. Even the carbon steel blades didn't rust when I used them.

 

It is stainLESS not stainFREE.

The better the stainless is the less it will rust, but they all rust.

 

Here is an interesting article:

http://www.gilletteadjustable.com/contact-us.html

It says in part:

"After discovering in his test lab that shavers could not tell the difference in blade sharpness, he was responsible for break-thru research that determined that blade sharpness was not a critical factor in receiving a good shave; rather a reduction in drag by hair clinging to the blade causing pulling was needed. This Drag Theory lead to the development of coated razor blades and specifically the Organosiloxane Gel coated Super Blue Blade (1959)."

The truth might be that there is more than one reason blades are coated. For example, to enhance blade longevity when in use and to reduce drag.

That website has an incredible wealth of information about Gillette adjustables, much more than I have seen anywhere else.

 

I just acquired 5 sealed packs of NOS Autostrop “Rustless” carbon steel blades. I opened one pack and unwrapped one to use. The blade was immaculate. What coating do you think was used? How old do you think they are? I’m going to soak them in barbicide for 10 mins before using.


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This Popular Science article from the February 1970 issue, page 60 gives a very good description of blade coatings and their purpose:

https://books.google.com/books?id=VQEAAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA61&pg=PA60#v=onepage&q&f=true

Notice that the article says that "Gillette's Platinum-Plus blades are five for $1", or 20 cents each. It also states that a pack of five Wilkinson premium blades are 79 cents, or just under 16 cents each. Fifty years later, Gillette Rubie and Gillette Platinum blades, both premium products, are about 25 cents each. That is amazing, and means they are far more affordable than they were 50 years ago.

Here is an example of the equipment used to sputter coatings onto razor blades, in case anyone is interested:

https://www.svs.co.uk/razor-blade

Also, Bruce Everiss' excellent article on razor blade manufacturing:

https://www.bruceonshaving.com/2010/11/09/how-double-edged-razor-blades-are-made/

 

I came across this article and thought some folks might find it interesting to read.
https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/razor-blade-coatings-market.html

 

So are Gillette “Platinums” GSBs with a Platinum coating?

 

A lot of the blades out of that facility are made on the same machines, I'm not sure what they have going on now because a company that makes machines that make DE blades came out with a new fully automated machine that is much smaller and cheap compared to the big monsters that were traditionally used, so I'm assuming some companies will find it better to get these new machines because the machine does everything down to packing the blades. But PPI in Russia used to run 4 machines with one back up from what one of their employees stated. So different brands are made on the same machine but with different coatings, and some are the same just different names and packaging, it's been awhile since reading anything but if I remember permasharp and sputnik are the same exact blade.