Are (some) Vintage Blades better than Modern Ones?

[DORad]

Is there a reason to seek out vintage blades other than collection? Are there some vintage blades that are sharper, or better in any way than what is currently being produced? Durability, smoothness, whatever?

I do think it's cool to see all the ancient blades in the collector forum, but wonder if things were better in the old days. Or is it just nostalgia?

 

[Tathlum]

The vintage stainless steel blades are still good to use. The carbon steel blades not so much.

 

[lasta]

There are gems in every generation. I do think a lot of the popular vintages are over-hyped (English Wilkinsons, US Spoilers, Polish Wizamets etc), but a few lesser known varieties do make it to my top shelf list.

That being said, I think the best ones made in the past 10 years are the best ever.

 

[helicopter]

A legendary blade, the Wilkinson Sword Light Brigade, is amazingly advanced for its time, and would be a top tier blade if it were produced today. But it isn't any better than extremely similar 2020s Wilkinson Sword Classic or Schick blades.

The median blades of decades past won't perform nearly as well as the median modern blade. There has been lots of technology sharing an efficiency improvement over the decades. Amazingly inexpensive blades from India and China, like Flydear SP and Astra SP are significantly better than your run of the mill blade from the 1950s through the 2000s.

 

[Mr Menthol]

There are certain vintage blades that are better than modern blades. The stainless blades of the late 60's,70's and early 80's were the finest. Anything older or made of carbon is just cool for historical collecting.

To me the older blades last longer and are much smoother on my face. Modern blades although acceptable do not perform the same. I started off in this hobby singing the praise of modern blades until I tried one of the premium vintage blades and have not looked back. 90% of my shaves are using premium vintage blades.

 

[geneaut]

Some vintages are among my top faves. Light Brigades, UK Made London Bridges, Schick Platinum Plus, are some of the ones that stand out to me.

That said many modern blades are roughly their equals.

 

[TheBigL]

I have tried vintage blades that worked wonderfully. Vintage Wilkinson and Gillette spoilers are great. In my opinion, there are modern blades that are just as good and are much more available. Finding the good vintage blades requires hunting and high costs. I personally will settle for good and readily available blades.

 

[profusion]

I've got a huge stash of vintage blades built up, but I've only yet gotten to the Schick Plus Platinum. I find it the smoothest blade I've ever used, more so even than the modern Russian Astra SP. Not the sharpest blades I own, for sure. That smoothness comes at a cost.

Longevity with the Plus Plats is also variable. Rarely more than 6 good shaves. Sometimes only four. That's still better than all of my modern blades except the Lab Blues. I get 2 good shaves out of an Astra SP and 3-4 out of a Nacet.

I'm going to be moving on to try Gillette Spoilers in a week or so.