Wilkinson Sword “New Stainless” Blades: 1969/70-73. Same as Light Brigade.

These are the same blades as the fabled “Light Brigade”. One interesting feature is the blue writing on the individual wrappers.

I have 180 coming my way from sunny Queensland. I’ll report on them when I have had the chance to use one. 

Nice score Shaun, I'm envious.

(01-07-2021, 04:23 PM)Mouser Wrote: Nice score Shaun, I'm envious.

Yes: I am even a little envious of myself! 
Importantly, today I found some more important information concerning the marketing and chromium content of the Wilkinson "New". 
This makes interesting reading, and significantly adds to the now much stronger claim that the "New" (later changed to simply "5" on the card) was/is the SAME blade as the much-vaunted "Light Brigade", marketed in the USA. Acknowledged resource: The Chemist and Druggist, UK, 1969. Note the reference to the addition of Chromium to the edge of the blade:

Blades arrived today. Some pictorial details. Blade is stamped the same on both sides. Note the blue print on blade wrapper. The original “New” from 1969/70 looked a bit different, but when Wilkinson couldn’t reasonably continue to say the were “New”, the packaging and blade stamp were changed to what you see below, and were sold from around 1971 to 1973.

Shaun, thank you for posting the newspaper article. Pieces like this help us to understand how shaving turned from a chore to a hobby. Researchers like you and Hans are much appreciated by the community.

(01-11-2021, 06:59 PM)chazt Wrote: Shaun, thank you for posting the newspaper article. Pieces like this help us to understand how shaving turned from a chore to a hobby. Researchers like you and Hans are much appreciated by the community.

Oh, not at all. I am very appreciative of a response. I sometimes wonder if I’m not just clogging up disk space, but there is at least a useful archive of these things others can access and read about. That’s certainly one of my intentions!

Retrieved from the National Library of Australia: 

“Pacific Islands Monthly - May, 1973”

Note the blades:

Another image with the price and year “1972” (December?) marked on the pillar:

Some of these are listed for sale now on the well-known auction site.

(01-15-2021, 11:00 AM)churchilllafemme Wrote: Some of these are listed for sale now on the well-known auction site.

The USA-based well-known site? Couldn’t find them. Nor the Australian or Canadian...

(01-15-2021, 01:21 PM)Shaun Wrote:

(01-15-2021, 11:00 AM)churchilllafemme Wrote: Some of these are listed for sale now on the well-known auction site.

The USA-based well-known site? Couldn’t find them. Nor the Australian or Canadian...

They already sold.

Lest there be any doubt that the New and the slightly later packs with the “5” are the same blade (despite the stamp on the blade itself being different) a pillar of New recently sold (20 packs of 3: thank you for alerting me, John) upon which we see the same sword image used. Wilkinson Sword always used a different sword on the different products; here we see it is the same sword. Below you will see the pillar of New with tucks of 3 (blades also in a wrapper with blue print) and under that the the pillar in which my tucks of 5 arrived.



Here we see the ‘early’ New, noting the blue wrapper writing:

Shaun,

This is pretty neat...thanks for posting. I purchased 120 of these “New” blades today based off of this thread, and posted the advertisement in some threads on a different forum. Great little piece of history relating to some of the best blades in existence.

Vr

Matt

(01-21-2021, 07:03 PM)Ols67 Wrote: Shaun,

This is pretty neat...thanks for posting. I purchased 120 of these “New” blades today based off of this thread, and posted the advertisement in some threads on a different forum. Great little piece of history relating to some of the best blades in existence.

Vr

Matt

Very good!

Let me know (and everyone else here) know how you get on with them!

Will do...while waiting for them to arrive, I will use one of the ones I have. I didn’t even know I had a few of these “NEW” blades until I looked yesterday.

Vr

Matt

Bear in mind that storage conditions over the years will or might affect the quality of a blade.

I sure hope these are the same as the Light Brigades... I just purchased 54 of these packs as well!


Vr

Matt

There is no doubt. They are the same blade. They were manufactured at the same time exactly as the LB, and were sold in the UK, the Continent and the USA (and in Australia and parts of South-East Asia) some marketed differently, that's all. The ones you have above I have seen in pictures only. I think I have seen them in French advertising from around 1970.

Looks like you have a lot of these blades now, whoa! I used one just earlier in my Hoffritz slant and it was a quite remarkable shave, I really must say. London Bridge of the right vintage are also considered the same blade. I use them; they are a very good blade indeed! I cannot attest to the newer release of the London Bridge Made in China. Mine are the Made in England by Wilkinson Sword.