Thread: Are you familiar with this Simbatec razor?

Brand new Simbatec 5/8 Solingen German Water Drop Straight Razor.
This pretty lady is on its way and should arrive at my doorstep any day now.
I was told by seller this item is "handmade in Germany out of best Solingen steel".
That may be true but as a relative noobie I have been unable to confirm that anywhere on line.
Does anybody here know anything about these razors.
I would sure appreciate any other info that any of you might be able to share.
Thank you in advance,
Ralph.

I waited a day to climb in here....I really hate to just bring wet blankets to the beach. Maybe yours will be exceptional, but I'm not all that hopeful. I obtained one of these a few years ago and tried several times to hone it. It simply refused to set a usable bevel, every time it got close, the edge failed.

Honest, I hope I'm wrong and I hope you have a good experience. If nothing else they're pretty and generally have nice scales.

Take a look at this thread from 2010 -- http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...-solingen.html

Best of luck, Frank

Frank is right on the mark with your razor. Remember that you are always welcome to ask about any razor you may be considering buying. Chances are excellent that many of us will be familiar with almost every razor brand available. : )

Hey Frank
Yeah I’m sorry too that you had to bring the wet blanket to the party but I’d rather you came with the wet blanket than not come at all. :-)
Yes I am guilty of not tapping into the experience of the group before making the purchase instead of after.
Actually in my search for information which by the way came up pretty well empty I did come across your thread explaining the frustration of trying to get an edge on this baby.
So your response wasn't too unexpected.
I still find it surprising that there is next to no other feedback on these razors.

Originally Posted by lz6

Frank is right on the mark with your razor.

Iz6 from your statement does that mean you have personal experience with this?

thanks guys,
Ralph

Simbatec.de are indeed in Solingen, Germany. They claim that their roots go back to 1911, and for all I know they do. A shot of one of their five razor pages:



Each razor is described as being made out of best quality Solingen carbon steel and 'five times sharpened' whatever that means.

Interestingly, the person named as responsible on the legal info page is Christian Giesen.

If you search the web with simbatec and giesen as search criteria you come across a few hits that speculate that the razors are made by Giesen & Forsthoff, of Timor fame. Certainly, they do not resemble the vintage quality G&F razors but look more akin to the flood of questionable quality ones that we had some years ago. Searching the records for Giesen & Forsthoff returns the following information:



Which features Christian Giesens name again, so in all probability what we are looking at is a blank that is either badged G&F or Simbatec. Seeing that some of the newer G&F razors got a thumbs-up (after rehoning) from some members here, I guess the same holds true for the Simbatec razors.

Regards,
Neil

There is a Chinese firm named Simbatec that makes optics.... Like the Lensolux listed right of the Simbatec razor!

The company Simbatech.de is registered in Solingen.

Their lensolux page say that they import lensolux products. But it seems that they are products hosted by Simbatech.com, who also stock Linder items. Linder produce/d a straight razor that many compared to the modern (at that time) G&F razor.

Its all a bit much of a coincidence, isnt it?!

It makes me wonder whether Solingen steel is sent to China to be coverted into blades, then sent back to Solingen for assembly. Who knows? (Answer: Christian Giesen).

Regards,
Neil

An item could easily be assembled from parts sourced in other countries but the final assembly qualifies it to be marked as made in the country of final assembly. There were plenty of Leica cameras and some lenses marked as made in Germany but the parts came from their Canadian product facilities.

Bob

Germany, like many other countries (the U.S included) is very loose on what can be called "made in". Often times a minor operation is all required to make a foreign made item legally "made in" The Simbatec as I recall are made in China.

When the ad's suggest where something is made using clever and deceptive language it's time to head for the hills.

Let me clarify the last para of my previous post. Of course we are familiar with assembling parts from one country in another and claiming the country of origin as the place those parts were assembled in - thats a given. It is one of the many ways around the trademark laws.

The point I was trying to make is the question of the provenance of a G&F factory in Germany making these razors completely in-house, or whether the talk of a german factory is just a front for impoting ready made goods. It is what is not stated rather than what is stated that is of interest to me. For instance, we are told that good quality solngen carbon steel is used. But we are not told where the steel is forged and ground. We presume it is in Solingen - but is it?

In the past, when G&F started razor production again much was made of the old firm, their name and heritage. But the quality of the razors at that time was medicre at best. Then we have a second wave of razors, better than the first but still needing honing and with some technical errors. Then a third wave, but with poor grinds still and still not shave ready and with poorly finished scales. All this suggests outsorcing to me - I could be wrong, of course.

That Christian Giesen is the common denominator in Simbatec, G&F and the chinese optics makes him the person to know exactly what is happening. That was the point I was trying to make, in a rather roundabout way, as is my wont, unfortunately.

Regards,
Neil