Vintage Blade Recommendations

Looking at getting myself some vintage blades
is there any that you wouldn’t recommend or after a certain age ?
i’m willing to try anything really

within reason

What do you have in mind?

I'd say any vintage stainless steel blade can be tried, but I'd avoid using any vintage blades which are carbon steel eg old Gillette Blues.

I think stainless steel blades were first released in the 60's, so any SS blade after then as long as they were stored properly should be fine.

It's not vintage but I'd recommend getting a selection of new Carbon Steel blades made by Treet.

Carbon Steel blades seem to go under the radar, the good ones are a delight to use. They have a slightly different feel to other blades during the shave.
 
A lot depends on where you plan to get them from, and the reliability of the source. Some that I've seen on a certain auction site definitely wouldn't pass muster. As @donnie_arko says, the carbon steel blades are probably best avoided. When they rust, and depending on the make and wrapper, the rust will often show through, but I have some old Gillettes which look perfect on the outside but are badly rusted when unwrapped.

You will probably be OK with vintage stainless, but not all proclaim whether they are that or not, and you may have to do some research to find out. Certainly the old British-made Wilkinson Sword blades were extremely good, and I've used a good number of those in the days when I could go into any good chemist and buy them. I can't say that I remember them as shaving especially well compared to a good modern blade, but they did last longer, and give a decent result, for quite a few more shaves than I'd expect from ones today. In 1971, when my annual pay was £507, blades were a relatively expensive consumable, so longevity mattered.

My main interest in old blades nowadays is in the wrapper designs, which put most modern ones to shame, but I hope that you manage to find what you're after.
 
The vintage English Wilkies are good; I've never found any that were downright poor, and some I have which were made for the Spanish export market, I think in the 1980s, are really excellent. Gillette did some good stainless blades, like the Super Silver and Platinum. The Personna 74s are also nice, but tend to be expensive and are really not worth what many sellers are asking.
I have a few UK-made stainless blades which are also very good. Two that come to mind are Perma-Sharp Supreme and Eversharp Super Stainless. I think one or the other of these was made at a factory near Glasgow, but can't remember which.
 
The vintage blades I like in order of preference would be:
1. Gillette Platinum Plus (US) 70s - the very best DE blades ever made I think. I've only got a couple of packs of these but quite a lot of the others.
2. Personna 74 (US) - almost as good as are the next ones also.
3. Wilkinson Sword (UK) 70s & 80s
4. Gillette Platinum (UK) 60s & 70s
I've also got a bunch of Schick Ultra Platinums and Perma-Sharp similarly packaged which aren't quite as good as the above. It's fractional though. I would understand any one putting any of these in a different order.
Also, late Gillette Bleue Extra (France) and Gillette Thins (US) are polymer coated carbon steel blades (so theoretically they don't rust in storage) and my packs of these are still excellent blades. I might have been lucky though.
Also, again, all the Gillette Platinums I have up to and including Swedes are very good.
All of these are better than any modern blade I've tried in their mix of smoothness and sharpness but most of all longevity. I think this simply reflects just how big and competitive the market was in the 60s and 70s. I'm totally happy using new Gillette Platinums, PermaSharps, Iridiums, etc.
 
In the days that every chemist was selling DE I used to acquire a tack of ten Perma Aharps that lasted up to three or four month, but as above it was dear in the same way that current Gillette carts are.

Despite this I think that the current Russian Gillette blades are few leagues over what we had in the 70's and are sharper, last as long and god how cheap they are compare to anything I used to buy then. I think the urge to use vintage blades is 90% nostalgic tbh.
 
Buy
In the days that every chemist was selling DE I used to acquire a tack of ten Perma Aharps that lasted up to three or four month, but as above it was dear in the same way that current Gillette carts are.

Despite this I think that the current Russian Gillette blades are few leagues over what we had in the 70's and are sharper, last as long and god how cheap they are compare to anything I used to buy then. I think the urge to use vintage blades is 90% nostalgic tbh.
+1 to this.

Buy them to try Mike but don't fall for the Internet mythology of them providing better shaves (although I accept they will work for some individuals). I would expect the likelihood of the modern PPI plant producing worse blades than yesteryear to be very low.

Except Sputniks. They're shit.
 
Last edited:
On several other forums there are a few ol' farts, Flat Earth types, who would rather be repeatedly gang raped in a Third World prison than use a DE blade made past the 1970's as in their opinion any & all DE blade tech cased when modern razors came into play. :rolleyes:

The mythology increases the prices of a finite product which in turn reinforces their belief, i.e., "If they weren't great they wouldn't be so expensive!". It's like trying to discuss evolution with a zealot.
 
I shaved with a Russian PermaSharp blade this morning and had a really great shave. I like using the old blades as well as the new blades. It’s not 90% nostalgia because if they weren’t excellent blades I would just gaze at them fondly and never use them. But I also agree with so much of what has been said. The price stamp on my mid 70s Platinum Plus packs of 10 blades is $1.89 which is about $10 in today’s money. So that makes today’s Russian blades fantastic value for money and the best of them are truly great blades. But then I bought most of my old blades at car boot sales and the like so they were also as cheap as.
The only way to find out whether you‘re one of the people who thinks the best blades of the past deserve at least a bit of their mythical status or whether you’re one of those people who think it’s just a load of self serving cobblers is to try them.
But actually if some old fart gets a lift to his or her morning by shaving with a razor and blade from their teenage years I find that a warm and happy thought.
 
I shaved with a Russian PermaSharp blade this morning and had a really great shave. I like using the old blades as well as the new blades. It’s not 90% nostalgia because if they weren’t excellent blades I would just gaze at them fondly and never use them. But I also agree with so much of what has been said. The price stamp on my mid 70s Platinum Plus packs of 10 blades is $1.89 which is about $10 in today’s money. So that makes today’s Russian blades fantastic value for money and the best of them are truly great blades. But then I bought most of my old blades at car boot sales and the like so they were also as cheap as.
The only way to find out whether you‘re one of the people who thinks the best blades of the past deserve at least a bit of their mythical status or whether you’re one of those people who think it’s just a load of self serving cobblers is to try them.
But actually if some old fart gets a lift to his or her morning by shaving with a razor and blade from their teenage years I find that a warm and happy thought.
Good right up mate.
there’s no nostalgia with me unfortunately i’m just trying to pair old with old and new with new however you do have a great point.
some of the modern russian blades are my favourites so i guess the ruskies are doing something right lol
 
Almost anything stainless made in the UK e.g. Wilkinson, Gillette, Perma-sharp will serve you well as a starting point, bar one obvious exception - Wilkinson Sword Edge in blue and red packaging (uncoated, so very rough).

The main risk associated with buying vintage blades is poor storage conditions, damp in particular, leading to deterioration. As a result, where possible buy sealed packs

The main thing is to be patient and get a good price, say 30p or less per blade, rather than collectors prices of £1 or more per blade in some instances
 
Last edited:
The vintage English Wilkies are good; I've never found any that were downright poor, and some I have which were made for the Spanish export market, I think in the 1980s, are really excellent. Gillette did some good stainless blades, like the Super Silver and Platinum. The Personna 74s are also nice, but tend to be expensive and are really not worth what many sellers are asking.
I have a few UK-made stainless blades which are also very good. Two that come to mind are Perma-Sharp Supreme and Eversharp Super Stainless. I think one or the other of these was made at a factory near Glasgow, but can't remember which.

Perma-sharp were indeed made in East Kilbride and Personna not so far away in Hillington
 
I've used vintage Gillette blades, some of them brought from the gentleman above (@SeanC ) and find them to be better than the modern counterparts, longer lasting for sure.
I like to use NOS blades because of this and the packaging is also retro and cool.
As has already been said, you need to buy your NOS blades from a trusted source or you will be playing Russian roulette.
I am using vintage French Gillette Nacet blades and am finding them to be a very good blade.
I also have Gillette Bleue (French), Gillette Super silver (French), Gillette Spoiler's, and another Gillette blade, Gillette Platinum plus, all great blades, well worth keeping an eye open for these.

Paul.
 
Back
Top Bottom