- Joined
- May 22, 2016
- Location
- Perth
I've just scored a box of Vintage Perma-Sharp blades (NOS), and have done a wee bit of research on same.
Here are some photos:
The back of the box is marked Perma-Sharp Mentone, Victoria. However, the blade is marked "Made in Gt. Britain". The price on the box is marked in pre-decimal currency, dating it to pre-1966.
Hence, whilst these blades were sold in Australia, I postulate that this blade was made in Perma-Sharp's East Kilbride factory in Scotland, during the period 1962-1965, and is a predecessor of the highly regarded "Scottish Perma-Sharp" blade of the mid to late 1960's.
Have trawled some other Forums for information (thanks to TSR and B&B). The following post is instructive:
I find this article very interesting, in that it states that Scottish Perma-Sharp employed some of the engineers that developed the original stainless steel blades for Wilkinson Sword. See the following photo of these early Wilkie blades:
Note that these first stainless Wilkies are marked Triple Life, as are the early Perma-Sharps in question.
There are subsequent variants of the Scottish Perma-Sharp blade during the 1960's and early 1970's, some of which as seen in the following photos:
See below an advertisement from the Sydney Morning Herald dated 22 Aug 1965:
Note that the price listed is the same as my box of blades. However, whilst the box and the label are very similar, the box in this ad does not have the "Triple Life" marking.
Regarding the employee testing of the blades, this indeed seems to be true, as evidenced in the following article from a US newspaper (Evening Independent) dated 23 April, 1964.
A shout out to @Snooze, who also scored a box of these blades. And thanks to @Nightguard, who has some of the later Scottish Perma-Sharps, and provided a photo for this post.
Would be very happy for others to contribute, I think @Mark1966 and @Monsta_AU have some experience with this range of blades.
Cheers,
TomG
Here are some photos:
The back of the box is marked Perma-Sharp Mentone, Victoria. However, the blade is marked "Made in Gt. Britain". The price on the box is marked in pre-decimal currency, dating it to pre-1966.
Hence, whilst these blades were sold in Australia, I postulate that this blade was made in Perma-Sharp's East Kilbride factory in Scotland, during the period 1962-1965, and is a predecessor of the highly regarded "Scottish Perma-Sharp" blade of the mid to late 1960's.
Have trawled some other Forums for information (thanks to TSR and B&B). The following post is instructive:
I find this article very interesting, in that it states that Scottish Perma-Sharp employed some of the engineers that developed the original stainless steel blades for Wilkinson Sword. See the following photo of these early Wilkie blades:
Note that these first stainless Wilkies are marked Triple Life, as are the early Perma-Sharps in question.
There are subsequent variants of the Scottish Perma-Sharp blade during the 1960's and early 1970's, some of which as seen in the following photos:
See below an advertisement from the Sydney Morning Herald dated 22 Aug 1965:
Note that the price listed is the same as my box of blades. However, whilst the box and the label are very similar, the box in this ad does not have the "Triple Life" marking.
Regarding the employee testing of the blades, this indeed seems to be true, as evidenced in the following article from a US newspaper (Evening Independent) dated 23 April, 1964.
A shout out to @Snooze, who also scored a box of these blades. And thanks to @Nightguard, who has some of the later Scottish Perma-Sharps, and provided a photo for this post.
Would be very happy for others to contribute, I think @Mark1966 and @Monsta_AU have some experience with this range of blades.
Cheers,
TomG
