WetShaving
This is a community of enthusiasts, hobbyists and artisans who enjoy a traditional wet shave: brush, soap, and safety or straight razor. We are a part of the WetShaving community found on Reddit, Discord, and IRC.
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December 7th, 2025: Blade test
I did a side by side test comparing the Personna GEM double edge and a Personna Lab Blue (aka "Super"). Both blades are made in the USA at the AccuTEC factory in Verona, Virginia. Here's an excerpt from an article I found:
Source
This happened 10 years ago, but I only heard about the Personna branding going away within the past couple of years.
In applying the scientific process, my theory was that these new-to-me Personna GEM blades are the same as Personna Lab Blue, which are the same as AccuForge.
Keeping up with the branding of Personna blades is a hobby in and of itself. The Personna brand, last I heard, wasn't in the portfolio of AccuTEC anymore, hence the change to AccuForge for the Lab Blues. Considering that fact, why are there still Personna branded blades? Did they pause the branding during some sort of legal exchange which is now settled? Did they buy the brand back? Were these just made before the Personna brand was let go? I don't know the answers to those questions.
Anyway, on to the differences and similarities!
The similarities are many. The carton is the same, just with different printing/branding. The blades come individually wrapped in plain white paper. There's a single dot of glue holding the paper closed, but no glue or wax holding the blade in place. The blades are visually similar and have nice laser etching.
The differences are few. Other than branding, nothing sticks out as being different.
Now the part you've all been waiting for! (are you even still reading?)
The shave: I put each blade in their own Baili BR171 razor, of which I have 2. I knew which blade was in which razor, so the quality of science wasn't all that top-notch. To me, in this razor, the blades felt identical.
Who should buy these? Someone who likes or wants to try "Lab Blue" type blades. Lab Blue have been popular for years, and now we have multiple brandings to choose from! I went ahead and bought 100 because I'm a Personna fanboy. I like the fact that they are made domestically to me. I like the quality of the blades. I knew they might shave the same as Lab Blue, and in a way I'm sort of happy to report that they do!
I'm also tickled by the fact that they're called GEM, despite being double edge blades. The branding of these American made blades has always been a fuster cluck, and I'm tickled by this latest aboration in branding! I had to have some.