Thanks for the information. Very helpful and it gave me pause.
So I went back to my stash, pulled out one pack from each lot, compared them all and pulled out what appeared to be a slight variation from the others (darker ink with some slight bleeding). So popped it into the trusty blackbird, and did my thing. The results were the same as the others. So based on my experience, I am now of two minds. Either I will run down the Russians for poor quality assurance, since the lots slightly differ (possibly from the ink stamp being refreshed, making the lots look different), or I will praise the Chinese for reproducing excellent blades (and iPads, and iPods , and Macs among many things)! Furthermore the Russians need to be concerned about Chinese incursions into Bulgaria...
All joking aside, thanks for raising this issue and a reminder to all of us to pay attention to those things.
So I went back to my stash, pulled out one pack from each lot, compared them all and pulled out what appeared to be a slight variation from the others (darker ink with some slight bleeding). So popped it into the trusty blackbird, and did my thing. The results were the same as the others. So based on my experience, I am now of two minds. Either I will run down the Russians for poor quality assurance, since the lots slightly differ (possibly from the ink stamp being refreshed, making the lots look different), or I will praise the Chinese for reproducing excellent blades (and iPads, and iPods , and Macs among many things)! Furthermore the Russians need to be concerned about Chinese incursions into Bulgaria...
All joking aside, thanks for raising this issue and a reminder to all of us to pay attention to those things.