I think that other posters got it right with one addition. Today
if you find a box of DE blades that you like jump on them and get
100 or more from the exact same guy. N.B. There are some
vendors that we all know that pay attention to their
supply chain and there is no urgency...
A couple months ago I tossed 50 of what should have been
good Russian blades but they could not hold a candle to others
I had. True 40 years ago they would have been better than
trusty rusty "blue" blades... but hey.
When the modern DE honing machines are dialed in -- wow.
When someone runs a batch off shift and sells them
out the side door who knows.
Electronic vendors are fighting counterfeit components
and the ethics that permit those counterfeits open the
side door for anything. I am not talking about $500 processors,
I am talking about three cent surface mount capacitors.