It seems like every other time I buy a vintage razor I end up getting a pack of old, vintage Gillette "Blue blades". Question: Does anyone have any experience actually using these blades and if so, how do they work compared to more modern offerings (I'm assuming these blades are often 50+ years old). I also noticed that the packaging was sometimes different, as you can see below. Small differences - but still different: Let's call the pack on the left A and the one on the right B Here are the backs: Pack B to the left and pack A to the right The blade wrappers. From Pack B on the left and from pack A on the right.
I tried them once and they were horrible! Cool, black blade, but the shaves were extremely harsh. Maybe, I need to improve my technique!
Thanks, it appears I have discovered a new packaging that not even Mr-Razor have. The pack in the first photo, to the right, is not featured anywhere on his site. Those "S" and "P" letters are not seen on any other packages and they are printed on the box. Selling it here for 12,000!
I get good shaves from them and Planofman acquired an *ahem* LARGE stock of them a few years back. If you know what to expect from carbon blades going into the shave, they can be interesting if not fun.
did you strop then in any way? I've been told to put them in a baby food jar, put one finger on to apply pressure, twist a few times. does this work?
You can stop them and it can lengthen their use, but not really long enough (imo) to make it worth doing on a regular basis. I have an old Twinplex stropper and a Aloxite DE stone that help maintain the edge. The jar thing I'm not convinced about because I don't see how the cutting edge meets the sides of the jar for honing when the blade is held flat against it; the edge doesn't come in contact with the glass, know what I mean?
I have tried them three times, because I have also ended up with many packs of them. The first time was awful. Crazy dull. As in unable to cut hair dull. So when I happened to get a nicer pack, I tried again, with a little stropping. Once again, awful. Better than the last time, but still like using a steak knife. So when I got a pack that looked to have just left the factory, I tried yet again. Used a couple different vintage blade hones, plus stropping. It was the best one yet, but still awful. Imagine the dullest, worst blade you have ever used. It was worse than that. I thought that old blades were just unusable. But I have honed and stropped other vintage blades to get successful shaves. The key being that they were all thicker SEs of various types. And I have had some old injectors that were still good as is. I just think that technology has moved so far past the Gillette Blue, that our experiences relegate it to the used blade safe of history. I don't think they were as sharp as modern blades at the best of times, then add to that decades of oxidation. I feel that the carbon steel they are cut from did not age well. And because of that I don't think it can take a good edge any more. I am not a metallurgist, absolutely none of this may be the least bit true. But I have tried, with considerable effort to get a shave out of these blades, and I have doubts that it can be done with a less than perfectly preserved specimen. That being said, try them! At least for a couple strokes. Then you can say you did it. That is 99% of the reason I tried. Not because I thought I would get any kind of use from them, but just to say I did it. Honestly, I will probably try it again the next time I get a razor with a sealed pack of Blues.
Achim over at Mr-Razor was kind enough to write me back and he thinks that the "S" and "P" on the package might be "Service Pack" and a pack issued during WWII. I'll check the razor blades to see if their date code can help.
sort of like schrotinger's cat there; open to see if they are valuable ruin the value because they are opened i'd just set aside the unusual packaged ones.
I seriously doubt there is any real value in old razor blades. But I actually AM saving the nice, unopened ones that are still in their plastic wrapping just for display purposes. Display? Who am I kidding? It's for me
