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Blade Metallurgy from the Golden Era

TomG

TomG

Gentleman Shaver from WA ...
Grand Society
2020 Charity Auction Winner
Tagging my fellow vintage blade lovers - if you haven't already seen it, this is a fascinating article taken from Popular Science Feb 1970, giving details on blade metallurgy and specifically the sputtering process used to provide the chromium and platinum coatings to some of our favourite vintage blades:-

@Monsta_AU , @Mark1966 , @eggbert , @borked , @Nightguard , @SpeedyPC , @Snooze , @Maxime D.



 
Sensational stuff @TomG !

The picture of a Slim just a bonus ;)
 
Wow fascinating stuff @TomG - I wonder if someone in management told the scientists and engineers to stop making the blades last longer cause it is affecting sales ??:confused:
#conspiracy :LOL:
 
Snooze said:
Wow fascinating stuff @TomG - I wonder if someone in management told the scientists and engineers to stop making the blades last longer cause it is affecting sales ??:confused:
#conspiracy :LOL:
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No conspiracy, Mate. Personna’s Famous “74” blades from the same era pretty well perfected the science/art, and lasted for extraordinary periods. They utilised tungsten steel, as evidenced in the name “74”, which is the atomic number of Tungsten. Personna quickly realised that they had made a peerless blade, but a commercial faux pas, and they were discontinued.
 
@TomG do you know what type of steel is used in blades today?
Perhaps a forum only run of REX121 would be fun
 
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TomG said:
No conspiracy, Mate. Personna’s Famous “74” blades from the same era pretty well perfected the science/art, and lasted for extraordinary periods. They utilised tungsten steel, as evidenced in the name “74”, which is the atomic number of Tungsten. Personna quickly realised that they had made a peerless blade, but a commercial faux pas, and they were discontinued.
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Thanks @TomG - I have heard/read that but didn't know if it was factual. Sounds reasonable though - the manufacturers made much more money long -term from the blade sales than the razors. Makes sense they wouldn't want one that lasted forever!
 
Thanks @TomG , very interesting. The prices they were quoting for blades at the end of the article seemed surprisingly high. So is that the offset we have with modern blades, they don't last as long but we're paying (generally speaking) less for them?
 
Pbgoose said:
Thanks @TomG , very interesting. The prices they were quoting for blades at the end of the article seemed surprisingly high. So is that the offset we have with modern blades, they don't last as long but we're paying (generally speaking) less for them?
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Sadly this seems to be the tradeoff of our times, tools are cheaper but won't last 20 years.
 
glenos said:
Sadly this seems to be the tradeoff of our times, tools are cheaper but won't last 20 years.
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Makes a certain type of sense thou. Someone will come up with a better tool tomorrow so why bother making one that will last 20 years.
 
Rami said:
Makes a certain type of sense thou. Someone will come up with a better tool tomorrow so why bother making one that will last 20 years.
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Plus you can just buy used, quality tools form yesteryear
 
Rami said:
Makes a certain type of sense thou. Someone will come up with a better tool tomorrow so why bother making one that will last 20 years.
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Ferret619 said:
Plus you can just buy used, quality tools form yesteryear
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Rami said:
If they do the job why not.
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Ferret619 said:
Well they tend to be more durable, if considering basic hand tools then Vintage is my preference 100%
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Yep, if it is a basic hand tool I would much prefer 'vintage' as they just last and last - some of the gear out of the UK from the 1930s - 1950s is still the best you can get, not sure what happened from the 1960s onwards!

On the other hand though I'm tending to spend less on power tools as the price difference between the house brand from Bunnings and the name brands is often more than the difference in quality - especially when I use them rarely and repairs are almost impossible!
 
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