Thread: Ummm.... No?

Same applies to a woman,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Originally Posted by Hirlau

Same applies to a woman,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Indeed my friend

I don't have that model, but I do have one of Max,s razors and I'm not sure about pricing , but mine is an excellent shaver and quite nice to look at , I did however mute the point on the heel, what is paid I thought was fair considering the craftsmanship My two cents , Tc

Originally Posted by Jimbo

I have no idea what they are asking for that razor. But let's say they are making a 50% markup (no idea what kinds of markups people work on, this is just a rough figure).

So divide the asking price by 1.5. Then guesstimate the materials costs for scales, steel, pins, on-costs (electricity etc) and subtract that.

Then take a guess at how many hours work that particular razor would have taken to make, and divide the figure above by that. That's the estimated hourly rate of the maker.

I honestly do not know what that comes out to be as there are a lot of variables and unknowns (to me) in that calculation. Who knows, these custom guys could be raking in hundreds of dollars an hour for all I know. But I doubt it.

Anyway, of course that's just the really pragmatic way to look at custom prices. When you start adding rarity, collectibility, artistry, desirability, some may even argue stupidity (on the part of some buyers) etc on top of that you enter another world entirely. A lot like art in fact. One man's finger painting is another's Picasso and so on...

James.

If you click on the pic it takes you to the site, it was around $1100 though not sure if canadian or us dollars, or if there is a difference exchange rate wise, however still too many unknowns for your equation though.

Originally Posted by edhewitt

If you click on the pic it takes you to the site, it was around $1100 though not sure if canadian or us dollars, or if there is a difference exchange rate wise, however still too many unknowns for your equation though.

It's $967 US. You can pretty much charge anything you like if you add carbon fiber.
Seriously though, more power to them. This is how you build exclusivity and perceived value.

That razor looks very modern in a basically conservative world. You either love it or really
don't care for it ... aesthetically. As far as price, isn't it a matter of supply and demand? If other
people are willing to pay "a lot" for the razors, why not charge what the market will bear?

Royalshave has it for $895. For the price of the one at Fendrihan, you can get the razor and a load of flowers for any joint account-holder who might discover the transaction. Just putting that out there.

Yeah, I'm still not convinced on the "overpriced" front. Sure, it appears the Fendrihan place is overcharging compared to Royalshave (based on Ecl's post above), but I remember several years ago seeing a custom razor by a knife maker that I absolutely would have bought if I'd had the $1500 USD. From the point of view of my marriage, it worked out well that I didn't have a spare 1500 laying around, but I'm just saying....

I'd be really curious to know how long a complete razor (just even a "plain jane" custom) takes to make. I remember talking to Alex Jacques, back when he was a participating member here, about it. I hesitate to actually put a figure on it, but the way he was talking at the time (he was relatively new to making customs then) it sounded like at least 20 hours work and that was just grinding steel blanks to shape and not "blacksmithing" it like I know some custom makers do.

Anyway, I guess my point is that custom razors cost whatever the maker charges. That may be too much for some but there are others for whom it's fine. Of course, it appears from what Ecl has found that it would pay to shop around "on-sellers", but I for one have never argued with a custom maker about what price they want for a razor they've made me.

James.

Ah well, I can help with that question.

Design takes some time, communicating back and forth. As does the part where the razor is packaged and shipped. Let's put that at an hour. Assuming for the moment we do stock removal, let's take a couple of hours for the file work, shaping, preliminary hollow grinding, tapering the tang, etc. HT is also taking some time. Firing the forge fire takes some time and getting it hot enough. Let's just say half an hour. Tempering takes a long time but you don't have to do anything so let's ignore that for now. The we get to the post-HT grinding. With grinding, setting the bevel, and then grinding again, put that at 2 hours, assuming nothing goes wrong.

Making the entire razor has taken 6 or so hours. Ballpark figures for course, and highly depending on design, size, resources available, which tools you use.

That was the easy part. Now comes the sanding and polishing part. If you want a spotless blade without any stray lines, This can take a long time. Say 4 hours or so. Making scales will take another couple of hours, depending on the materials involved. Usually I work with tropical hardwood. Making the actual scales only takes an hour, but I need to apply umpteen layers of CA. This is a time consuming process. We'll just ignore the special cases where someone might come up with something as bizarre as requesting scale inlays made from crushed coticule or some such fancy. Then the final honing.

All in all, making a complete razor start to finish, I'd say 15 hours. Iirc someone once posted about spending a day in robert Williams' shop while robert was making a razor for him, and that was a full 8 hour day. Of course, Robert does have some pretty impressive powertools at his disposal, and a lot of experience.

In other words, making a razor takes a lot of time.

When you are talking a custom razor the price from a 'what did it cost to make" standpoint means little. It's all about the name on the blade. That's why a Zowada will go for the price it does and you can resell it for a good price too. If you buy from an unknown or someone with little rep if you go to sell you will take a bath.