Great work! Happy shaves with them.
Wilkinson Sword Chromium/Light Brigade - Was this just marketing for the US Market?
- Thread starter Goatywoaty
- Start date
My experience with London Bridge blades comes from the white wrapping ones as seen in the pictures above. I have yet to try the ones that come in the dark orange wrapping.
Still so sharp and so smooth it is truly astonishing.
I couldn't agree more. Right up there with the P74 for mine.
Used an early 70s New Wilkinson Blade in the 2011 R41 tonight for a complete head shave. What a blast!
No doubt the New Wilkinson is a phenomenal blade but it does feel different to the Light Brigade.
We still can’t definitively say what the differences are between these blades but my best guess now is that it’s just different recipes for the coatings and the underlying blades themselves are all identical.
Unless of course you know different...
No doubt the New Wilkinson is a phenomenal blade but it does feel different to the Light Brigade.
We still can’t definitively say what the differences are between these blades but my best guess now is that it’s just different recipes for the coatings and the underlying blades themselves are all identical.
Unless of course you know different...
15th shave on my Light Brigade in this Canadian Single Ring:
Full head and face shave - I can honestly say that this was one of the best shaves of my life so far!
Full head and face shave - I can honestly say that this was one of the best shaves of my life so far!
First shave with a London Bridge Blade this morning:
Obviously it’s too early to comment on longevity but man this blade is sharp.
Initially didn’t feel quite as smooth as a Light Brigade but as we’ve discussed in this thread the performance of these Wilkinson blade coatings is very variable after 30years+ storage.
Like everyone’s said though the London Bridge is clearly a great blade straight out of the box.
Obviously it’s too early to comment on longevity but man this blade is sharp.
Initially didn’t feel quite as smooth as a Light Brigade but as we’ve discussed in this thread the performance of these Wilkinson blade coatings is very variable after 30years+ storage.
Like everyone’s said though the London Bridge is clearly a great blade straight out of the box.
1970...a great year for shavers worldwide!
In Great Britain Wilkinson Sword introduced the "New Stainless". Might this be, as @mjclark suspects, the original "Light Brigade"?
Now somebody could argue these are called "Stainless" and the "Light Brigades" are "New Chromium".
The following French advert mentions the "chrome" coating more than once.
Italian ad from 1970. Wait, it was a 6-pack! The description starts with: "With a two centuries experience...."
...maybe they were just a class apart. But.... "There's 200 years of history..."
In Great Britain Wilkinson Sword introduced the "New Stainless". Might this be, as @mjclark suspects, the original "Light Brigade"?
Now somebody could argue these are called "Stainless" and the "Light Brigades" are "New Chromium".
The following French advert mentions the "chrome" coating more than once.
Italian ad from 1970. Wait, it was a 6-pack! The description starts with: "With a two centuries experience...."
...maybe they were just a class apart. But.... "There's 200 years of history..."
@mata_66 In the first ad above, note that at the 1970 indent the ad mentions a "totally new and strengthened edge" - the blade is SS but the edge is something new (chromium?). When the Light Brigades came out the packaging kept the same "new" reference as the above blades. Re: the French ad, I do not have access to a ream of notes I made on these blades, but I thought in the US the thumb-dispenser pack was a 1969 offering with supply channels still clearing into 1970, and featured Super Sword Edge blades. I don't recall seeing the new blades in the thumb pack in the US, at all.
Tom
Tom
It is my belief that they made two blades in succession, first their stainless and then their chromium. WS was a small co. that mainly made garden tools then and was not prepared for international demand for their first blade in 1961. I think the ad dept. got creative with various names for the same blades, e.g., Super Sword, XCR, etc.
Thanks @BigJ 
@Bogeyman, are you suggesting blades from 1961 to 1969 are all the same (stainless) and from 1970 they made a new "chromium" coated version that sold for at least a decade under different names?
Is it very plausible as, like somebody already stated, the slight differences people talk about might have been caused by the state of conservation. 50 years is a lot.
@Bogeyman, are you suggesting blades from 1961 to 1969 are all the same (stainless) and from 1970 they made a new "chromium" coated version that sold for at least a decade under different names?
Is it very plausible as, like somebody already stated, the slight differences people talk about might have been caused by the state of conservation. 50 years is a lot.
Thanks @BigJ
@Bogeyman, are you suggesting blades from 1961 to 1969 are all the same (stainless) and from 1970 they made a new "chromium" coated version that sold for at least a decade under different names?
Is it very plausible as, like somebody already stated, the slight differences people talk about might have been caused by the state of conservation. 50 years is a lot.
The original WS co. didn't really care about selling razor blades all that much as I mentioned earlier. They sold garden implements which is why their blades were sold in hardware stores in the early 60's in the USA. Sure, they may have "tweaked" some things, but they didn't have the huge R&B budget that others had. I think they made two blades, yes. I have used almost all the configurations and the only difference is that the Chromium is a tad better. Just my opinion.
A gent on a different forum posted the ad above, and it seems like an important clue and piece of the history...the NEW blades seem to be produced 1968/1970, and could very well be the UK equivalent of the Light Brigades which were sold in the US Market.
Vr
Matt
I used a Wilkinson NEW blade today on its initial shave, and it seems to me to be as smooth and as sharp as a Light Brigade blade. These appear to have been produced in 1969/1970...same time the Light Brigades were hitting the US market. The Light Brigade packaging also uses the words “New” and “Chromium,” just as the article about the NEW blades does above.
So initial thoughts are that they are indeed the same blade sold in different markets. Time will tell...I am planning to shave every other day with this NEW blade until it’s killed, so I can see if it evolves the same way a Light Brigade evolves!
Vr
Matt
So initial thoughts are that they are indeed the same blade sold in different markets. Time will tell...I am planning to shave every other day with this NEW blade until it’s killed, so I can see if it evolves the same way a Light Brigade evolves!
Vr
Matt
- Thread starter
- #98
Let us know how you get on Matt. I'm convinced they are the same blade, they wouldn't have made a special one just for the USA and not released it here, that wouldn't make any sense whatsoever! They were the same blades just with different branding/marketing. People just love to jump on the LB hype when the truth is that all UK made Wilkies are superb!
Will do! I am 5 shaves in now, and thus far the blade is behaving exactly as a vintage Light Brigade or vintage Wilkinson London Bridge (not to be confused with the Chinese Gillette London Bridge). 6th shave tomorrow!
Vr
Matt
I still have a pack!
Similar threads
- Locked
- Article
- dunadan
- Buy- Sell- Trade
