Is this Personna barber grade or really Lab Blue?

I bought these from West Coast Shaving last year (pack on the left) and unlike the Personna Super "Lab Blues" which have "Personna Super" printed on the blades, these only have arrows printed on the blade.




The packaging sold by other retailers (pack on the right) does state "comfort coated" however. The reason I ask is that I just mowed through a tough 3 day growth with 3 passes and one of the shortest touch up passes I've ever needed for BBS level, and I have a pretty thick beard. Are both packs Personna Supers with different branding, or is the one sold at WCS on the left barber grade? All are USA made.

The ATG pass in the mustache area was one of the smoothest I've ever had. I recently bought a 100 pack of the Personna Lab Blues (the new ones with the poorly printed Personna Super on the blade) and I can't recall if the shave I had was this smooth. I used my EJ DE 89L with Ogallala Bay Rum shaving soap, so I'm going to repeat it with one of the new blades on Wednesday.

The last time I used one of the Personna's with the arrows was last year, about a month after I started DE shaving and I thought it was a tough shave. It says alot about experience and improving one's technique.

Can't answer your complete questions but, I'm using the pack on the left, sold by West Coast as "Lab Blue." Received them a few days ago.

Combined with my Gillette Old, they give me the best shaves I've ever had; in 40 years of shaving.

Let us know how the repeat shave goes, if possible the second shave with this blade was better than the first.

The "barbers" are in a red and black package as far as I know.

Jack19 said:

Can't answer your complete questions but, I'm using the pack on the left, sold by West Coast as "Lab Blue." Received them a few days ago. Combined with my Gillette Old, they give me the best shaves I've ever had; in 40 years of shaving. Let us know how the repeat shave goes, if possible the second shave with this blade was better than the first.

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I think I may be shaving for just one more year than you, and up until last year it was all with cartridges, starting with the Trac 2 and then the Atra and so on.

My favorite blade is usually the Gillette Silver Blue followed by the Astra SP, but today's shave really was amazing with the Personna "arrows" blade. I'm not sure why the pack we bought at WCS doesn't state "comfort coated" like the other one, but it could have something to do with the recent change in ownership of Personna.

Personna was originally made by the American Safety Razor Corp. They sold out to Energizer in 2011., After they filed for bankruptcy, in 2015, Energizer sold to an investment group who renamed the company AccuTec Blades. Note that even though the site is called Personna, the title is Accutec Blades:

http://www.personnablades.com/

It appears that Accutec only has two main descriptions - "barber" and medical" when it comes to the blades we use, so they would even consider the Lab Blue Supers to be "barber" blades.

There are many threads on several shaving forums that try to clear up the Personna Blades picture, but the only links I can find that look what we see on the retail sites are these:

Appear to be the med or surgical preps:
http://medical.personnablades.com/P...Personna&item=Double+Edge+Prep+Blade+100+Pack


Lab Blues (Super) - note the different looking box of 100:
http://beauty-barber.personnablades...m=Stainless+Steel+Double+Edge+Blades+100+pack

The "arrow" blades pack:

http://beauty-barber.personnablades...inless+Steel+Double+Edge+Blades+Carded+5-pack

Both the Med Preps and the Lab Blue boxes have the term "reduced cut force" in their description, while the "arrow" pack of 5 doesn't. What does that exactly mean?

Of course all of this excludes the other Personna's that are made in Israel like the Red Israeli Personna's, the blue Platinum Chrome Personna's which are apparently the same as the Red Israeli pack, and the Crystal Stainless Steel blades which are also Personna's: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/51858-The-Official-Guide-to-Israeli-Made-DE-Blades

Excellent questions.

The same?

Jack19 said:

Excellent questions.

The same?

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The same brand from the same Verona VA facility, yes. The "Now 25% Sharper!" started appearing in recent photos and the claim may or may not be related to the acquisition of the Verona ASR facility by AccuTec.

GoneRetroInOH said:

The same brand from the same Verona VA facility, yes. The "Now 25% Sharper!" started appearing in recent photos and the claim may or may not be related to the acquisition of the Verona ASR facility by AccuTec.

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I bought a box 2 months ago from Amazon.com that doesn't have the 25% sharper notation. Based on the links from the Accutec site I posted above, it appears that the 5 pack with the arrows are the same as the 100 pack box, at least the box without the 25% sharper claim, but why doesn't the 5 pack have the description of "reduced cut force" that both the med preps and the lab blue super "barbers" have?

What I cal 'Barbers' are like the ones in the right side of your picture. I like 'em fine, and they shave me great. Now to keep things interesting like all things Personna already are, they're now all labeled Israel on the package, USA on the blade tabs, and packaged in Mexico. Gotta love Personna!

Have tried both "personna"lly (bad joke I know) they feel very different. my" Barbers" had no personna logo whatsoever, but have the fine print on the dispenser and have arrows and a made in us logo on email, but nothing else, and were a gift from a new shaving friend a few months back, they are sold as "personna double edge" on www.connaughtshaving.com they seem a tad more forgiving than the blue "comfort coated" due to a slight lack of sharpness. Basically, the differences are very much like those between the Astra SS & SP. That's my half a cent.

Jon; R41-13, DE89L, various Vintage Gillettes. Astra, Voskhod, & Croma. Imperial Barber, Kiehls & Body Shop

Jontkk said:

... Barbers" had no personna logo whatsoever, but have the fine print on the dispenser and have arrows... they seem a tad more forgiving than the blue "comfort coated" due to a slight lack of sharpness. Basically, the differences are very much like those between the Astra SS & SP. That's my half a cent.
Jon; R41-13, DE89L, various Vintage Gillettes. Astra, Voskhod, & Croma. Imperial Barber, Kiehls & Body Shop

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I would have to disagree with the "lack of sharpness" in the Personna "arrow" version of the comfort coated blades. Yesterday, I took a shave with the Personna Super Lab Blues with the Personna Logo and the shave wasn't as good as that with the arrow version in the dispenser I bought from WCS (see my original post).

I had the same three day growth, used the same soap (Ogallala) and thought the Personna Super printed blades tugged a little more and while the shave was still BBS, I had several cuts and a few missed spots that I had to go over 10 minutes after the shave. It was still smoother than most blades during the ATG pass in the mustache area.

I'm not sure if this is because I don't have the 100 pack that states "now 25% sharper", or whether the arrow blades were manufactured before the sale to Accutec. Can anyone tell me if their recent purchase of the 100 pack of Personna Super "Comfort Coated" Lab Blues had
very poor printing on the blades? Here's a photo of one my blades that I bought 2 months ago from Amazon (direct). I've read several reasons on this forum for the printing problem, but this seems to be excessively bad printing. The "Made in U.S.A" and "Super" lines aren't even decipherable.

Shaveathon said:

I would have to disagree with the "lack of sharpness" in the Personna "arrow" version of the comfort coated blades. Yesterday, I took a shave with the Personna Super Lab Blues with the Personna Logo and the shave wasn't as good as that with the arrow version in the dispenser I bought from WCS (see my original post).

I had the same three day growth, used the same soap (Ogallala) and thought the Personna Super printed blades tugged a little more and while the shave was still BBS, I had several cuts and a few missed spots that I had to go over 10 minutes after the shave. It was still smoother than most blades during the ATG pass in the mustache area.

I'm not sure if this is because I don't have the 100 pack that states "now 25% sharper", or whether the arrow blades were manufactured before the sale to Accutec. Can anyone tell me if their recent purchase of the 100 pack of Personna Super "Comfort Coated" Lab Blues had
very poor printing on the blades? Here's a photo of one my blades that I bought 2 months ago from Amazon (direct). I've read several reasons on this forum for the printing problem, but this seems to be excessively bad printing. The "Made in U.S.A" and "Super" lines aren't even decipherable.

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Wasn't referring to the comfort coated one, but the Barbers in reference to the comfort coats, which I've found to be sharper and smoother than the Barbers. I'll post pics of my tuck later

Jon - R41.13;DE89LBL, some old Gillettes. Croma, Astra & Vorskhod Blades. Imperial Barber Pre Shave, Soap & Aftershave

Jon - R41.13;DE89LBL, some old Gillettes. Croma, Astra & Vorskhod Blades. Imperial Barber Pre Shave, Soap & Aftershave

Those are considered the "barbers" on many threads, even though they're really the same as the "comfort coated" Super "Lab Blues".

This is from Accutec's 2015 American products catalogue. Everything is in there except the 100 packs above. They have a separate catalogue that includes the Med Preps. It gives you an idea of how many chains around the world must be selling unbranded Personnas which just have the arrows, and even use their own packaging dispensers. Based on the image of the dispenser, it's the same as the one you included above. My dispenser looks like the one on WCS so it was probably manufactured before the sale to Accutec.

I've probably said this a hundred times before, but I figure the best way to buy Personna, is to ignore what they're labelled as, and when you find one that you like, just keep buying that identical package at the same place until you can't anymore.

Cash_Stronomer said:

I've probably said this a hundred times before, but I figure the best way to buy Personna, is to ignore what they're labelled as, and when you find one that you like, just keep buying that identical package at the same place until you can't anymore.

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The one problem with that is that they changed packaging since the sale to Accutec, and for all I know the method of production and grade of materials could have been changed. too. It's possible that the attention to detail that Energizer/Edgewell had may not be the same with the new management. Someone mentioned something about the factory in which they're produced in another thread, but I can't recall the context of the discussion.

Yeah, I suppose there's just no real good way anymore, possibly? And too I guess, I have ended up with a couple of oddly mismatched labels.

You might find this interesting. Tex Products sells hospital supplies and they have a section for American Safety Razor blades. American Safety Razor is the old parent company of Personna. Notice that the Personna med preps and blades are listed as being .004" steel (Parts 74-0002 and 60-0146). The blades with the arrows are thicker at .10" steel. The part number for the arrow blade is also different. I'm not sure if Tek has old descriptions but all blades are listed by Accutec as .004" thickness as per the above chart (http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...rade-or-really-Lab-Blue?p=8213726#post8213726)

Here's a summary of the Personna's on the Tek Products site. The links are below the image. Is it possible that Accutec is now making a thinner grade of steel for the dispenser blades and the Tek Products description is from before the sale?




https://www.tekproducts.com/index.j...=mfr&process=search&ID=,AMERICAN.SAFETY.RAZOR

https://www.tekproducts.com/index.j...37891&ds=dept&process=search&text=razor blade

https://www.tekproducts.com/index.j...27044&ds=dept&process=search&text=razor blade

Shaveathon said:

You might find this interesting. Tex Products sells hospital supplies and they have a section for American Safety Razor blades. American Safety Razor is the old parent company of Personna. Notice that the Personna med preps and blades are listed as being .004" steel (Parts 74-0002 and 60-0146). The blades with the arrows are thicker at .10" steel. The part number for the arrow blade is also different. I'm not sure if Tek has old descriptions but all blades are listed by Accutec as .004" thickness as per the above chart (http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...rade-or-really-Lab-Blue?p=8213726#post8213726)

Here's a summary of the Personna's on the Tek Products site. The links are below the image. Is it possible that Accutec is now making a thinner grade of steel for the dispenser blades and the Tek Products description is from before the sale?

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It seems hard to believe one blade is 25 times as thick as the others. I suspect a misprint or something. A blade a tenth of an inch thick is THICK! Your razor would probably break trying to bend it into the curve.

One thing I find interesting in the catalog page Shaveathon posted are the uncoated blades at 250 per box. I suspect they are the Graham Field blades. I've heard others who looked through microscopes saying all usable blades seem to be coated.

Another thing about that is that some marked as coated are described only as "Stainless Steel" on the package (the Barbers in the 10 blade dispenser). This also backs up what I've been saying about them being coated despite a lot of people believing they aren't coated if they're not specifically marked as such.

MisfitWy23 said:

It seems hard to believe one blade is 25 times as thick as the others. I suspect a misprint or something. A blade a tenth of an inch thick is THICK! Your razor would probably break trying to bend it into the curve.

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I've emailed both Accutec and Tek Products and am awaiting their replies. I wanted to know if the bad printing on the Personna blades was corrected and just in the early Accutec batches and if Tek Products' description was accurate or was from an old catalogue they used from "American Safety Razors" which filed bankruptcy in 2011 and was bought by Energizer.

Energizer moved the Personna blades to it's Edgewell Personal Care Division, who sold to Accutec in 2015. This is now their official site for Personna Blades: http://www.personnablades.com/

To make matters more confusing (like Personna needs that!), Edgewell's site for Personna is still up: http://www.personna.com/product-details/double-edge-blade-refill-cartridges

You are right about the width of the blade in the Tek Products description. I searched for Part 89-0015 and it's listed on Accutec for industrial applications and appears to be a single edge. Tek Products has their part #'s wrong. This blade probably is .10" thick.

http://industrial.personnablades.co...item=Stainless+Steel,+Uncoated+Injector+Blade

Correction to above post (too late to edit):

This blade probably is .10" thick. Correction - this blade is .010" thick. The Tek Products description left out the 0 after the decimal point, making the blade seem 10x thicker than it is. I know this doesn't affect the blades we use, but at least this point is cleared up. Here's the Accutec catalogue listing:


https://issuu.com/moorecreative/docs/2016-specialty-final/23?e=1969360/34684417