Wilkinson Sword Blades - Codes and Designs

Dear Mr Bogey,

You obviously have far too many of those useless, terrible, old and out-of-date, English-made Wilkinson Sword blades. I do feel sorry for you. Please send me a PM and I will provide you with my address so that you may post them to me for safe disposal. No thank you necessary - civic duty and all that, what, what!

The Obliging Gairdner....:D
 
I honestly think we tend to concentrate too much on the blade & not the packaging. What was the No. 1 magazine for men in the U.K. during the 60's & 70's so as to search for ads?
Dear Mr Bogey,

You obviously have far too many of those useless, terrible, old and out-of-date, English-made Wilkinson Sword blades. I do feel sorry for you. Please send me a PM and I will provide you with my address so that you may post them to me for safe disposal. No thank you necessary - civic duty and all that, what, what!

The Obliging Gairdner....:D

Some of these I own and some are photos I have found on the Internet. I just love an historical mystery and the Wilkie blade sequence is very enigmatic. Perhaps some of you fellas could help out by linking to some old British magazine ads. I can't seem to find any on the Internet and find it hard to believe that literacy is something recent there. :p ;)
 
I honestly think we tend to concentrate too much on the blade & not the packaging.

. I just love an historical mystery and the Wilkie blade sequence is very enigmatic. ;)

In my posts I'm just wanting to narrow things down regarding the one type of blade and not trying to understand the whole bunch of em. Packaging is all over the board and generally I feel better relying on how what's printed on the blade looks instead of the wrapper or dispenser. Wrappers can have different scripts and colors to purposely mess with people's heads. Plus there's Chromium this and Super Sword that and they are just not all the same for each label.

I know that when NTS cautiously tried looking down into that murky rabbit hole he got the spins and almost puked, and then hadda go sit down.
 
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In my posts I'm just wanting to narrow things down regarding the one type of blade and not trying to understand the whole bunch of em. Packaging is all over the board and generally I feel better relying on how what's printed on the blade looks instead of the wrapper or dispenser. Wrappers can have different scripts and colors to purposely mess with people's heads. Plus there's Chromium this and Super Sword that and they are just not all the same for each label.

I know that when NTS cautiously tried looking down into that murky rabbit hole he got the spins and almost puked, and then hadda go sit down.

You have a point, however I don't think they intentionally tried to deceive people per se. The blades are more deceiving IMO. For example, I am now looking at a LB blade that says NEW CHROMIUM EDGE. A later Chromium blade says nothing apart from the co. name & MADE IN ENGLAND. Go figure.

There's a method to my madness. Bletchley Park didn't have results overnight. ;)
 
"1956 Developed double-edge razor blade using Swedish stainless steel rather than a brass base, which revolutionized the market for razors[7]

1961 Swordsmiths, manufacturing "Wilkinson Sword" razor and razor blades and wide range of "Wilkinson Sword" garden tools." [8]


http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Wilkinson_Sword

Their purported first blade from 1956:



According to the following website "The very early dispenser lid card did not have the word 'stainless':

http://wilkinsonrazors.blogspot.com/

Note: There may possibly have been an earlier blade made in Germany.


27 Feb. 1970 ad announcing the 'newest...' blade:


https://books.google.com/books?id=6lAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=wilkinson+sword+light+brigade&source=bl&ots=rGpKdQp6Ed&sig=lZ9PIUHWdeI5AvJQ_TCB13aVXfA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEsQ6AEwBGoVChMI2Z_S99qWyAIViVGSCh2GXwoi#v=onepage&q=wilkinson sword light brigade&f=false

dodgy, you are right.......it is an endless rabbit hole with little primary historical source info. As a 'Hail Mary' I fired off a few e-mails in a query for primary source info, however I am not optimistic to say the least. I am leaving.............the Matrix. :eek:
 
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Just a note that I have tried several of these NOS blades here & the Sword Master XCN Chromium shaves like a tweaked, tuned & perfected LB. It feels as if they eliminated the initial hardness of the LB through coatings/sputterings, if that makes sense. Of course, this is all so very subjective.

That said, a collector in the U.K. whom I e-mailed is snail mailing me a list of the Wilkie DE blades and the years of their introduction, so he says. I hope it's not a bust. I am however optimistic as one of his names is..............................Wilkinson. ;)

Update: Just for info purposes (if anyone gives a damn), I have shaved several times using the New Chromium, the later silver placard Chromium, the XCN Chromium, the Super Sword-Edge & finally the Stainless Steel with the end result being that now I actually cannot denote one iota of difference in each as they all shave simply marvelous. Any subtle difference I may have noted before is I believe mere randomness. Ironically, some of these blades even have the same writing on them as others do, hence fruitless to go by that. As well, these blades seem to work in a plethora of DE razors, something few blades do well.
 
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All I have now in my stash are "New"
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Though these are some of the ones I have had in the past:
8176235974_7679483469_z.jpg


I'll try and dig out the Brazillian ones from the 1980's
 
I stumbled across these Wilkinson Sword DE blades at a car boot sale a couple of years ago. As best I can do to date them is the late 70's as I noticed them being sold along with a W/S Flip top razor. Anybody any ideas on when these were in production?
3e01d7c9cfcc601ebff8f938c55ba125.jpg
 
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I red somewhere that the Ctamlington production line was shipped complete to India where it's still in use, I think I saw it on the B&B wiki site but can't find it now :{ [BLACK HEART SUIT]
The production line was moved to China to Darwin Solingen Sword Shanghai Co. It is no longer mentioned on their website, but appears in Google Searches. Wilkinson Sword was a partner in Wiltech in India, which eventually was sold to Gillette. As mentioned in this thread Wilkinson Sword invested in the Alexandria Blade Co. They also had plants in New Jersey (Closed 70's), South Africa, Brazil, Russia, and a partnership with Dorco...
 
Another variant in the post today:

94c9cedf1b3d9bf5da241e2cc3fdec5f.jpg


Blades are the same as Image 15 in this thread: http://www.theshavingroom.co.uk/community/index.php?threads/wilkinson-sword-blades-codes-and-designs.32421/#post-444743

No 'Made In England' or other detail. Just the logo centred at the top

Wrappers are the same as these (right hand pack): http://www.theshavingroom.co.uk/com...s/vintage-wilkinson-blades.13360/#post-182972

Again just the Wilkinson logo, in a finer type than usual. The inlay card features the code 004/159

I suspect that these are from the near the end of UK production. Possibly by then various combinations of blades and wrappers were being used just to get them used up? The plastic cases are the standard mid / late era ones with notches and a circle on the back.

It has been commented previously that the leading part of the inlay code, usually 005, refers to the number of blades in the pack. As I have packs of 5 using the 004 prefix, I suspect that this is not now the case.
 
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They still sell Wilkies in Brazil that were made there and the prices will make you cry. A friend in California gave me a tuck of three of which I have used two and am hoarding the final one as they are simply fantastic blades. They shave like the old English made ones IMO.

http://www.laminasbarbear.com.br/p-9071095-LAMINAS-DE-BARBEAR-WILKINSON

The price for a hanger of 60 blades converts to $6.65 U.S or 5.10 GBP. Unfortunately, they won't ship abroad. :(
 
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