I picked up some vintage DE blades recently and decided to try one for a shave. My only previous experience with vintage DE blades has been with what I would consider relatively new (younger than me) (Personna 74, Gillette Spoiler, etc.) blades. The brand is Taylor Made and according to the packaging they are "surgical steel", "honed in oil", and "unconditionally guaranteed". I'm not sure how many years of shelf life the guarantee covers but it sounded safe to me. The blades are black (carbon?) and labeled Newark New Jersey USA. I wasn't able to find anything online about the company or the brand but I didn't spend too much time looking. I seemed to keep coming up with golf clubs by the same name. I looked at one closely under magnification and it appeared that there was a coating of some sort that was partially coming off. I'm not sure if it wasn't dried oil. Anyhow, this morning I popped one in my Parker 80R and got a surprisingly good shave. I had a few days of growth so the first pass was a little tuggy but not any more than any new middle of the road blade would be. Second and third passes were smoother with only the slightest hint of harshness. Obviously not as good a shave as a new premium brand DE but more than good enough to use them again. I would be curious if anyone knows how old this brand might be.
