Durham Duplex Typology

captaincaveman said:

http://www.harborfreight.com/pack-of-10-carpet-knife-blades-98541.html

Wow. With that kind of price and availability, I'm definitely going to give these a try. They'll probably be awful, but the stakes are low. Thanks for the heads-up.

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Tonight my wife was planning on coming home very late. Wanting to waste time after work so I'd be less bored and lonesome waiting at home for her, I went to Harbor Freight and bought the blades. I also went to Rite Aid and bought a new VdH brush, the one that comes in the $13 kit with the green bowl. My old one from 2007 decided to shed big clumps this morning and I've always been happy with it.

Well, I eventually got home. Inevitably I got bored. I was excited about those blades. This morning's shave accidentally left my left cheek at SAS and my right cheek nearly BBS. My neck was, of course, no better than my left cheek. So, in my excitement and boredom I figured another shave to make it right might be a good idea.



Again, no pink lather...but man my cheeks have the worst razor burn ever. It started before the razor ever hit the skin. I had a slight amount of burn this morning, no visible damage but it felt like a sunburn on my right cheek. Well, tonight as soon as I applied my prep to it, I could feel it. I knew it was a bad idea but I couldn't bear to quit. I made a mistake making my lather too, it wasn't up to par, though the new brush was not to blame; it performed flawlessly but I overhydrated. Once I started shaving, the burn only got worse. When I finally quit it felt like a really bad sunburn. The slick, smooth alum block felt like a wire brush. Clubman felt like hydrochloric acid. I'm probably going to have to let this heal through the weekend.

I said all that to say all this: The jury's out on those blades; I can't take tonight's shave as any indication, due to its severe conceptual flaws that would have ruined even the best blade's shave.

I think that I may pick-up a pack of the Gordon blades from HF in the next few days and try my Dorset for the first time after some blade prepping.

I may also shop eBay for some original blades as mjclark suggested, and work with those too, just to try and compare.

Capt. Caveman...
Did you have to do any stropping to the Gordon blade, or try it straight from the pack?

Just curious which way you try them out.

KeenEdger said:

Capt. Caveman...
Did you have to do any stropping to the Gordon blade, or try it straight from the pack?

Just curious which way you try them out.

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I stropped them about the same as I've been stropping the Pathology blades. I did 10 short strokes on each side of each edge, on denim.

Update: Gave those Gordon carpet blades from Harbor Freight one more try. Zero razor burn, even after a million passes. Zero nicks/weepers/pink lather. Just could not get a close shave. Same pulling/tugging as Pathology blades but even less close than them. No pain, no damage, but I won't use them again because no close shave.

I ended up trying the Stanley SS Carpet blade... and it actually worked out fairly well to me after stropping, but it was still short of DFS.

I seriously doubt the Dorset will ever be my goto razor, or even in the top 10, but maybe once a month or so, I would take it for a spin, for old time sake.

I did pick-up an old Duplex Dresser for a dollar yesterday, just to take the blade out of it to hone.

I don't know the maker of the blade, just old and looked doable for a dollar.

Did the original blades have any other holes in the blades, besides the slotted one?

There's two extra 3/32 holes (one at each end of the slot) in the blade out of the Dresser I bought yesterday.

KeenEdger said:

I ended up trying the Stanley SS Carpet blade... and it actually worked out fairly well to me after stropping, but it was still short of DFS.

I seriously doubt the Dorset will ever be my goto razor, or even in the top 10, but maybe once a month or so, I would take it for a spin, for old time sake.

I did pick-up an old Duplex Dresser for a dollar yesterday, just to take the blade out of it to hone.

I don't know the maker of the blade, just old and looked doable for a dollar.

Did the original blades have any other holes in the blades, besides the slotted one?

There's two extra 3/32 holes (one at each end of the slot) in the blade out of the Dresser I bought yesterday.

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All my NOS blades have a small circular hole to identify different sides for honing and stropping, but I was recently sent some earlier pre-W
W2 DD blades that didn't have the circular hole.

Yours have two cirular holes? Are they made by Durham Duplex? Do you have some pics?

The original DD blades are hollow ground as well, making edge maintenance easier.
Perhaps we need a blade typology too.

Also, it breaks my heart to hear of all these bad shaves people are getting from the DD system.
If anybody would like me to hone some of their DD blades to shave readiness for them, just PM me.
I'm in UK so it will take a few days for US mail, but it's worth the wait

My mistake, it has one hole, it just looked like two because of the way I was holding it, and the rust spot in just the right wrong place.

I also now see the Durham engraving on the blade too, and the hollow ground edge sure looks like it would give a better shave than any reworked industrial blade. I'll hone it on my Franz Swaty stone for next time and give that a try.

I also seen a seller on eBay that has replacement blades that came with the new Durham Dressers. They are in a simple brown box, that as far as I could tell, only state that they are made in Sheffield. At $3.69 USD + free shipping, I may try those if I can't get this old original blade up to par.

KeenEdger said:

My mistake, it has one hole, it just looked like two because of the way I was holding it, and the rust spot in just the right wrong place.

I also now see the Durham engraving on the blade too, and the hollow ground edge sure looks like it would give a better shave than any reworked industrial blade. I'll hone it on my Franz Swaty stone for next time and give that a try.

I also seen a seller on eBay that has replacement blades that came with the new Durham Dressers. They are in a simple brown box, that as far as I could tell, only state that they are made in Sheffield. At $3.69 USD + free shipping, I may try those if I can't get this old original blade up to par.

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Yes I've tried those chestnut coloured box Sheffield blades and they are very good and sharp for at least a couple of shaves.

Like these?



... the ones I've bought have Personna blades inside.

pjgh said:

Like these?

... the ones I've bought have Personna blades inside.

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That's the box alright, but mine had generic blank blades inside which I assumed were modern Durham Duplex industrials, since they are based in Sheffield.
It's a bit naughty to send you US blades in a Sheffield box...

That particular seller informs me that he has no idea what blades are in the box and that the picture is for illustration only. Still, I got some Personna blades which I know I am happy with. I think the moral of the story for UK buyers of "dog dresser blades" from a popular online auction site is to check with the seller before buying. You'll more than likely NOT end up with what you were expecting ... or kick up a stink if that sort of thing tickles your fancy.

The box is pretty generic, but yes the Sheffield name is used. If the box stated, say, Durham Duplex and there were Personna blades inside I dare say Durham Duplex might take an interest. I wonder if the Made in Sheffield consortium might be interested: http://www.madeinsheffield.org ... sounds like I'm stirring up a stink

Hmm...yes I was very happy with the blank blades that I got in my Sheffield labelled box.
Curiouser and curiouser...

I do so enjoy discussion and trying of various blades. It's fun!

I don't consider my non-close shave with the Gordon carpet blades a terrible shave, because there was not a hint of irritation, cuts, or other damage. It was a failure but not catastrophically so, and there was no difficulty whipping out the Weck medical to finish the shave. In fact, the Weck worked better than ever after using it. Actually, I could conceivably keep using these blades in the Durham for the first passes then finish with the Weck for an extremely comfortable DFS+.

Anyway, those Personna Pathology blades are decent enough so I'll stick with those when I want to use the Duplex and want a decent shave.

mjclark said:

That's very interesting - I'd noticed a slightly different fit between the black handled and aluminium Dorset heads.
The posts seem marginally further apart in the aluminium version, and the cap will still fit snugly without a blade inserted.
With the black handle version, the posts are slightly closer together and the cap is completely loose without a blade.
I hadn't really given this a second thought until now, but it may prove to be quite significant.

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I tried the cap from my black handled Dorset and it was still a No Go.

TheVez2 said:

I tried the cap from my black handled Dorset and it was still a No Go.

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Oh! I'm gonna hacksaw off the head of one of my straight style DDs and try that then...
...wonder where all those caps have gone...

Ok my capless Durham 300 arrived today.
The head from a post-1911 straight style fits perfectly, so I hacksawed it off and rounded the corners.
Interestingly, this razor has the long comb base plate just like the post-1911 straight styles and only says "Durham" on it (no Duplex). The DuBarry is also open comb, but has an upright head like most DEs and the comb is unique to
For all you Egyptologists, sequence dating puts the open comb angled head 300 somewhere in the 1930s between the 20s DuBarry and the 40s Dorset, although its open comb is less sophiaticated than the DuBarry so who knows?
There's also a version of this razor which the packaging specifically names as the "Model No.300" which is identical except that it has a grey plastic contoured handle.
If anybody has one of those, please post some photos and info!
Anyway, I'm excited to see how this one shaves.
Beautifully probably...

Cool! We'll expect pictures, or we'll all stand here pulling our "Oh, really?" faces

There you go:

And here's the 3 Durham DE geometries:

Wow! Knowing just how well the long combed versions of these play, that does look like a great shave.

Gerroff t'internet and go and shave with it, man!