Israeli Personna

A lot has been said about the Personna brand, so many reviews, so many questions, so much confusion.

As an Israeli wet shaver who has been using a DE (several of them   ) for almost 6 years now, and most of my blades have been the various Israeli made Personna blades, I decided to write my two cents on the subject, hopefully this will give some clarity.

They are currently 6 different blades been sold in Israel.

5 of them can be seen in the following pic:





The only one not in the picture is the personna platinum chrome, alas I'm down to only 7 blades, need to restock  

From left to Right:

Eddison





I find it sharp but not very smooth, When I first started using the blade it reminded me of the Feather in the sense that it can give me a rough shave and if I'm not careful I might cut myself. Today this is not the case since I started using better soaps like Mitchells Wool Fat and my technique improved. I like to pair it with my mild razors like my RazoRock Mamba.
200 blades, 20 dispensers of 10 blades, cost $12.


ROYAL





Middle of the road blade, goes well with my Muhle R41 razor.
200 blades, 20 dispensers of 10 blades, cost $12.


Tomy





This is one of my favorites, very smooth, nice sharpness, I like to pair it with my aggressive razors like the merkur futur, Muhle R41, My shimmed Merkur 15c.
I find it sharper and smoother than the ROYAL.
200 blades, 20 dispensers of 10 blades, cost $12.


VIKING'S SWORD





Again one of my favorites, similar to the Tomy, a tadbit smoother. I pair it with my aggressive razors.
200 blades, 20 dispensers of 10 blades, cost $12.


Qball





Sharp like the VIKING'S SWORD & Tomy but not as smooth.

Now take a look at the wrapper and markings on the blade, Does it remind you of something ?
Looks like a Crystal blade !

120 blades, 12 dispensers of 10 blades, cost $9.


Personna Platinum Chrome





My favorite Israeli Blade, very sharp and smooth.

200 blades, 20 dispensers of 10 blades, cost $14.





P.S. your mileage may vary

Hi Max,

Any particular place / shop you buy them from ?

There is a shop in Tel Aviv run by a man who is the main distributor for the Personna Blades, the same man from the sharpologist article https://sharpologist.com/2016/12/wet-sha...srael.html.
You can find most blades in stock, try email him before coming just to be sure, better safe than sorry.

Great report! Loved hearing from an Israeli about the blades I enjoy.

Read post #32 in this thread:


https://damnfineshave.com/thread-personn...usa?page=4

Read post #32 in this thread:


https://damnfineshave.com/thread-personn...usa?page=4

Thanks for that.  I read the post #32 you referenced and the Sharpologist article.  They were interesting, and helpful too.  A few months back I moved from using a Timeless .068 with Feather blades almost exclusively to using a Parker Variant or Slim, both with Personna Med Preps.  The Med Preps are made in Verona VA by Personna (now part of Accutek), and they work best for me in the Variant and Slim.  However, I keep hearing a steady drumbeat of good things about the Israeli Personna's - essentially smooth and sharp - so I am about to burn a few bucks and give them a try.

Same factory and same machines does not mean made to the same specs. I don't doubt that some are rebranded, but that does not mean they are all the same.

Just few examples:
- When I bought a Vizio TV from Circuit City (long time ago), the "same" model from Walmart had a few input ports removed. More importantly, they were guaranteed to have no bad pixels from Circuit City but not from Walmart. Translation: when the displays were tested, the best went into the TVs for Circuit City (and probably others), while Walmart accepted the rejects for lower cost.

- When I bought my Char-Broil Tru-Infrared gas grill, the infrared system was a different design for Lowes and Home Depot, for the same model.

- Lincoln Mig welders have some components downgraded if you buy them from a box store vs a welding shop.

- MTD makes almost all consumer-grade riding mowers sold in the USA, regardless of brand. They are certainly not all made to the same specs, though they may share quite a few common parts.

- The BW/Tremec T56 transmission sold in 4th gen Camaros and Firebirds was not made to the same internal specs as the version sold in the Holden Monaro (Pontiac GTO in the USA). They looked identical, but besides slightly different gearing, the F-bodies got downgraded synchros to save a few pennies. Try finding that in the brochure ....

That happens all the time. The customers with buying power often want the specs tweaked a little. Same factory, same machines, different specs.

I am purposely avoiding my own industry, for which I cannot comment .... To be fair, the only factories I've been in were in the US or China, not Israel.

I have red personnas and like them very much.
I got Crystals on a trade and those are completely different story: not uncommon to get a bad one, they dull faster and I just don't like them. I should probably bin them but that is hard for a frugal guy like me.

ps: anyone worked at a factory? if you have a batch of "dubious" product chances are you have a "market"/buyer for that, and another for the "high quality"/uniform ones. That happens everyone, otherwise we wouldn't need six sigma and all that.

Same factory and same machines does not mean made to the same specs. I don't doubt that some are rebranded, but that does not mean they are all the same.