Okay, I posted in last weeks haul that I got a bunch of Gillette Platinums for a very good price. They came in today and they different from the ones I have been using. They are in a blue cardboard box, are individually wrapped in wax paper, and are made in Russia. Have any of you guys used these? If so, what are your thoughts on them?
I have tried the russian gillettes. The ones I purchased, were in a red package. I must say, these were the absolute worst blade i've used. Hopefully yours are different, but have something else in standby just in case. Here's a pic of the blades I tried.
I haven't tried those but if they are anything like the Sputnik blades, which I believe are also made by Gillette in Russia, they should be pretty good.
I got a good deal on what I thought were the blades commonly known as "Swedes". It turns out that these are made in the same St. Petersburg plant that the Gillette 7 o'clock "Sharpedge" (yellow pack) blades are made in. I just put a fresh "Swede" in my razor, so I will not get to the new russians for at least a week.
I've tried the Russian Gillette Platinums in the blue pack pictured. They're different to the Swedes. The printing on them is completely different for a start. They have the same kind of printing and presentation as the Czech Gillette Silver Blues but obviously they're made in St Petersburg, not the Czech Republic. I've just used one blade but my first impressions were that it was sharp and smooth but maybe not as long living as a Swede. It didn't feel anything like a Swede to me. I got 3 good shaves and then I left it for a week or so and when I tried it again it was a bit rough, but it might have been my prep wasn't so good that day. I've now tried the Russian 7 o'clock and I think there's a family resemblance with this blade.
The Sputniks are made in the Gillette factory in St Petersburg. Gillette only owns 80% of Petersburg Products so they still make private label blades for the Russian & East European market. There are many, many brands made in the Russian plant as it's one of the biggest in the world. In my experience most of the different packaged blades are actually different blades. The Red INOX Russians are old stock & quite bad. Regards, Paul
It's possible, but they produced these blades from their Czech plant, so there very good counterfeits if they are. What do the outer packets look like? Regards, Paul
This is the best I have right now. I just took the last two pictures with the computers webcam. They show the box, the paper wrapper, and the blade itself laying on the wax paper inner wrapper. The blade is not gold as it looks in the picture. It is a normal silver color. The first is a close up of the back of the box that I found on another site. That article provided no help other than this picture......
Hey, these are the ones he gave me. Apparently, he did not like them, so he gave them to me. I personally think they are okay, but not worth what he paid (50 cents per blade!!). Eagle and a couple other guys got some of these blades in the packages I sent them. Maybe they will chime in on this old thread and tell us what they think...........
Was there ever a verdict on what these blades were? Are they a new blade, Gillette "St. Pete's Blue" ? Or a known blade in generic packaging?
Just had my first shave with these blue pack (Russian?) Gillettes yesterday. I need to shave a couple more times with one before I could give a full review. But first impressions are they are sharp. The shave was very smooth and it knocked down the whiskers well. I did get a few more nicks and weepers than usual I think due to too much pressure. My normal blade is the Red IP. So far this Gillette surpasses the IP in performance, but as I said I can't pass judgement yet. If they are indeed .50 cents per then I won't be purchasing replacements when these are gone.
Shave #2 today. A decent enough shave but a noticeable decrease in effectiveness. Lots of touch up required to achieve smoothness. I ended up throwing it away and won't even try for a third shave out of it. That first shave sure was pretty good, but I can't see where these would be worth it to buy. Red IP's still tops on my leader board.
