I cracked into one of these this morning - having not shaved with them previously and since I had now sent them out on PIF, it dawned on me that I should probably give them a go and be the sacrificial face in case they aren't much good.
These blades were purchased via eBay and it would have been almost two years ago. It was a mixed blade offering of these Personnas, a pack of Light Brigades (Wilkinson 'The Blade'), plus a pack of the Schick Plus Platinum and a bunch of other lesser-knowns. I have not seen them since so I would expect that they are pretty rare. By comparison, you can usually find at least one pack of Spoilers and Schick Plus Platinum on eBay at any one time.
These blades come in a 4-pack plastic (styrene) dispenser, with a metal back which is designed to accept used blades. I have sent the 5-pack version out. The Styrene on the 5-packs has been affected by heat or sunlight and as a result has perished.
Getting the blade out was easy, they were not sticky or anything like that. The blades is printed with 'Personna Super Stainless' and the print quality is amazing, nothing like what we get now. I inspected the edges for any rust or imperfections and found none. The grind looked extremely fine and uniform to the naked eye. Just looking at the blade you can tell it is quality.
I loaded the blade into my Fatboy, and had no issues with it not fitting or anything like that. After taking a shower and following my usual scrubbing of my face with a $3 Woolworths Scrub towel, and washing with L'Oreal Men daily facewash, I dried of and prepared Proraso Red in my lather bowl, using the Semougue 730HD. Once lathered up, I took a deep breath and started to shave.
Immediate reaction to this blade was almost identical to the Schick Plus Platinum. A sharp and quality blade, but it just does not glide on the skin like modern PFTE (Teflon) coated blades. Once I started attacking my neck I really felt the sharpness easily slicing through my 3-day growth, which is a marked improvement on the Schick Platinum Plus which had issues on the first shave with a 3-day growth.
First pass WTG was relatively uneventful apart from one small nick on my neck near my Adam's apple. Not sure if it was blade or blade tab which caused it. I did note some tenderness and burning while shaving one particular spot which was pre-existing but shaving-unrelated skin breakout. Overall it was a close and uniform WTG pass and I could have happily stopped there and headed to work.
I was looking forward to my '45-degree XTG' pass which was what made the Schick Plus Platinums really shine. Performance on WTG had been similar but the Personna blades coped better with the longer growth. I lathered up and my Proraso had kind of gone flat and the lather was a little thin for my liking. I whipped it up a bit and proceeded anyway.
XTG felt no different to the WTG pass. Just sharp and smooth as hell. I noticed that it was taking very little growth off my face which means the WTG pass was very good indeed. Again, where irritation was pre-existing I did feel a very uncomfortable burning where the blade passed over it.
I washed off with warm water, and due to the weeper on my neck decided to Alum down - it's also helpful for the skin irritation. I did feel more stings than I was hoping for but put it down to my face breaking out a little lately.
Overall result was a great shave - on par with the Schicks and Spoilers. The Spoilers do much better in ease of use and smoothness/glide, but I feel that the uncoated blades do better in the closeness stakes. Of course these blades demand a better technique and since the Spoiler was my first blade in these vintage blade trials, I will be going back to them now as I am sure I can do better.