Best Razor to Hone and Retail

Hello everyone!

A little background: I own a small store where I sell soaps, serums, creams, etc. We have very few products that aren't "consumable" and I would like to begin offering some. Because we sell soaps, including soaps that are excellent for shaving, I've become interested in offering straight razors to my customers.

It's very important to me that we offer a great value, and I know very little about the straight razor market. Having just spent several hours researching straight razors, it's evident to me that there is far more nuance to the industry than I would have guessed. As a result, after stumbling upon this forum, I'm humbly requesting assistance from those who are more knowledgeable on the subject.

What I would like to do is purchase straight razors at wholesale price and sell them at retail. I'm not looking for anything overly decorative or ornate, just a respectable looking razor, ideally made of natural materials, that is of as good of quality as is possible for the price.

I do have a Work Sharp Ken Onion Blade Sharpener, which I believe I can use to hone blades myself. I reason that in this manner I can potentially add value to the blades to help justify the markup. For this reason the blade doesn't need to be "shave ready" so much as "honeable" and able to hold the edge.

There are countless razors on sites like AliExpress for little cost, and there are others that are made in the USA for hundreds of dollars. I'm looking for something on the less expensive side (a loose guide would be wholesale under $30, but I'm open to suggestions) that would be considered great quality for the pricepoint, at least once honed. I would love to support an American business, but I can't find anything made in the USA that would be in our price range. Additionally, any import would need to avoid Chinese lettering or cultural symbols if possible (it simply wouldn't work with my business' branding). Japanese may be acceptable; European would work well.

I hope I've conveyed what I'm trying to do and I appreciate any advice from this community. It may be that my idea is simply hair-brained and unworkable. One thing business has taught me is that it's better to ask the people who know and find out early than spend untold time and money learning the hard way.

In either case thanks in advance for any insights.

PS - If I posted this in the wrong forum, please feel free to move it. Thanks mods.

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Originally Posted by Saponica

I do have a Work Sharp Ken Onion Blade Sharpener, which I believe I can use to hone blades myself.

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Welcome to SRP, I would suggest you learn to shave with a straight first. If you are going to retail a product, you should be able to stand by it.
The Ken Onion Blade Sharpener will not do at all, although some of the so called razors on Aliexpress would benefit from it. Ken could probably cut onions with one,,maybe...
Have a look at the honing threads here to get a better idea what you are in for.

Grazor is correct. If it is a "sharpener" it is definitely not a razor hone.

There are several razor makers in this forum. They can supply you with product. Several brands of straight razors are still made. They can be contacted.

If you get blades from SRP members they will be shave ready. If you buy commercial razors they will be called "shave ready" but 99% are NOT shave ready. You will need someone to hone them.

I agree. Learn how to shave with a straight razor. You will then have an appreciation of what your store offers.

Good luck

All I can say is that I have to agree with the previous comments.

There are plenty of razors on the do not buy list in this forum's Library section.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwi...azors_to_Avoid

Check out the Library section to see what is involved in buying and using a straight razor.

Honing a straight razor begins where sharpening a knife stops. Teaching yourself to hone a straight razor to the point where you can consistently produce a shave ready edge can be a long and frustrating procedure. It looks deceptively easy but is not in the learning stage.

Bob

I am not aware of any razor in the price range you speak of that won't simply be disappointment for buyers, and frustration for you as the seller.

I completely agree that it would be better for you to learn to use one first, and at least have learned some honing basics. It always helps when a seller knows something about his product.

One of the modern brands that is of recognized quality is DOVO. I just viewed their "Best Quality" basic model retailing for about $137.00 CAD/$102.00 USD. No idea what the wholesale would be on that one. That site acknowledges that it may need honing before it's first use even though it was sharpened at the factory. I think your wholesale price point for a quality razor is too low to be realistic.

There are plenty of Razor Shaped Objects (RSOs) out there to definitely avoid. See the "do not buy" list in my previous post.

Bob

I contacted several manufacturers years ago. Reputable brands of good quality. You will find nothing in that price range that would be worth it.

Like said learn to shave and know what a truly shave ready razor feels like. I sharpened knives since a kid. Razors are a whole new world. It took me a while and many hours and months to get it right. To the point it was a natural thing. I can now hone and look away without stopping. Go slow. One step at a time.

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Originally Posted by BobH

One of the modern brands that is of recognized quality is DOVO. I just viewed their "Best Quality" basic model retailing for about $137.00 CAD/$102.00 USD. No idea what the wholesale would be on that one. That site acknowledges that it may need honing before it's first use even though it was sharpened at the factory. I think your wholesale price point for a quality razor is too low to be realistic.

There are plenty of Razor Shaped Objects (RSOs) out there to definitely avoid. See the "do not buy" list in my previous post.

Bob

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The Dovo blade I own is a great razor, but something to keep in mind is that they call their blades shave ready from the box. The one I bought wasn't even close. Some more reputable retailers hone them before shipping, or at least offer the caveat that "shave ready" might be a stretch.

I am not knocking the brand in any way, just as a perspective retailer, I wouldn't look at the "shave ready" claim and think it was a saved step in the process.

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Originally Posted by Grazor

Welcome to SRP, I would suggest you learn to shave with a straight first. If you are going to retail a product, you should be able to stand by it.
The Ken Onion Blade Sharpener will not do at all, although some of the so called razors on Aliexpress would benefit from it. Ken could probably cut onions with one,,maybe...
Have a look at the honing threads here to get a better idea what you are in for.

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I had to look up what that sharpener is, I wouldn't even let my beater pocket knives near that thing.

Razors will have to be hand honed on a good razor stone. There's no way around that. They don't just have to be sharp, they have to be comfortable to shave with. Accomplishing that with a naked blade is no easy task.

Cheaper blades will not be hardened properly. The steel will be soft and either unable to take a sharp enough edge to shave, or dull very fast.

If you want to retail a blade, Dovo and Thiers Issard are the two that immediately come to mind. Maybe Hart as well. But they won't be cheap, as stated before Dovo's retail price begins at $100.

There are very few razors for sale that are shave ready and under or around $30. If you shop around for honing it runs somewhere from $15 to $25 plus shipping. So for $30 you can ship a razor and have it honed, but that is without the razor. There are some cut rates brands out there from China that can be purchased for around $5 each if you buy it bulk. They will all need extra work. If you buy the hones and other item and learn to do it yourself you can fix the well known issues with the cheap razors and hone them. It will require some output of time and money. The math simply does not work. You will not be able to turn a profit with those numbers. The model will have to be changed before you can make a business case.

Having just purchased a few straight razors for the first time myself, I will have to agree with everyone saying DOVO
Reasonable price for good quality, recognizable brand to potential customers, and you can keep them in stock...

That said, I agree with the folks saying you need to know what you're getting into before you make that jump. My father has one of those sharpeners you reference and I wouldn't put my hunting knife to it, much less a razor that's going to be on my face. It won't create the correct bevel angle, it's far to coarse even with the finest belts, and it will never create a consistent edge. Not to mention you'll take off WAY too much steel each time. With my very very limited experience in this, I would say that you should first start shaving with a straight razor yourself and learn to hone it as well. If I were a potential customer, I would assume that the storefront that I bought a straight razor from would be able to hone it. If you aren't equipped or skilled enough to do this for them, that makes for a fairly awkward explanation to a patron that just spent >$100 on a cherished razor from you.

You noted that you were surprised with the nuances in the wet shaving community in regards to razors themselves. These particularities span far more than just the hardware and it's a fascinating discovery process - one that I am enjoying wholeheartedly. That said, I would not feel comfortable offering products to my customers that I was not intimately familiar with in every way, and learning first hand is likely the best way to gain this knowledge.

In the meantime, a good offering that might require a little less in-depth exploration may be safety razors. The added benefit is that you'll have customers coming in from time to time afterwards to buy new blades in addition to your soaps, etc.

Food for thought. Quite an interesting question though, I'll keep watching this thread to see what other good advice you can get from the seasoned members that I can use myself :)

As many have already said, your first step is to get a quality razor and learn to shave and maintain it yourself then you can offer some level of support to your customers. Beginners will have a lot of questions to ask and your going to need to answer them. If you source razors from China you are just asking for trouble as those razors have issues that may need to be corrected and in reality are not worth the time. I would stick to Solingen blades that are still in production like Dovo, Boker or Ralph Aust as an offering as they are of good quality with minimum hassle to get into good shaving order. So your homework would be learning to shave and strop and hone razors before even attempting to sell such items in a small store. Honing has to be done by hand on a number of different hones going from coarse to fine, there is no machine that will do this well. It isnt particularly difficult to hone a razor but you will have to put in some time and experience to understand what a well honed razor shaves like. Since you will be dealing with new razors I don't expect you will have as much trouble honing them as the usual train wreck blades us hobbyist deal with from time to time. If you really want to get into this world of ours I would start by getting a few razors to play with one of them should be honed by a professional as a reference to how a blade should shave. The other razors should be honed with the goal of getting it to shave as well as the pro honed razor. When you can do this consistently then you have at least the basis for a support system for your products. Read and learn as much as you can this forum has everything you will need to know and more. Plenty of information available for you to explore and see where it takes you. Enjoy the journey.

Ditto what everyone is saying. And DE Razors would be a bit more realistic. But for S.R., you got to come up a bunch on the cost. Its like wanting to buy motorcycles new at cost for 100 bucks. Aint going to happen if you want something with any quality.
Sorry and good luck.

Lot's of great replies; thank you all for engaging this thread.

Let me first say that I'm not looking to rip customers off or offer a bad value. I seem to detect a moderate dose of indignation in some of the replies and let me just assure you it's not necessary. I wouldn't be here asking for guidance if I was looking to scam people and ruin my brand or reputation. That's simply bad business.

Business opportunities only exist where things are hard - the places with some degree of barrier to entry. I recognize that, and I don't expect to jump in and start turning profit with zero knowledge of the industry. By the same token I'm somewhat heartened by the apparent difficulty of this endeavor, as it explains why one doesn't find straight razors for sale in every corner-store.

Reading through all of the replies there seem to be two broad paths that I can potentially take (aside from dropping the idea altogether):

Path A: Buy a few straight razors for myself, have one professionally honed, learn to shave, and hone them until I can get at least one of them close to the professionally honed razor. This path would cost on the order of hundreds of dollars off the bat, in addition to possibly months of research and trial and error regarding honing. Finally when I become semi-proficient at honing, I can then spend hundred(s) more dollars to obtain a few razors and begin honing them to later sell and finally begin to recoup my costs.

Path B: Find a reputable blade wholesaler who offers blades of quality material but not necessarily a quality edge. Find a reputable blade honer who will hone those blades to bring their quality up (probably far better than I ever could even as a dedicated amateur). Pay to send the blade over to be honed and then sent to me for sale. Once the first batch arrives to me I can begin to learn to shave with them so that my knowledge of the product grows over time, I can begin to learn to maintain them for the same reason, and I can also begin selling them to recoup my losses immediately.

From the perspective of my business only Path B is rational. Were I planning to specialize in straight razors and offer many different kinds of blades with different weights, styles etc. then Path A would make sense. But I'm not.

With all that said, my next question is straightforward: are there any recommendations for a blade wholesaler that would marry well with a recommended blade honer? I understand that $30 may be unrealistic, but let's assume I'm marketing to the entry to lower-mid level buyer, someone who wants a good blade with an elegant and understated scale to begin learning with, but that at the same time they could potentially use for many years if they so desired.

There is technically no limit to individual blade + honing cost so long as the final product offers enough value to justify what I must charge to recoup losses + profit. However, because I'm not a business who specializes in straight razors, blade fanatics are not going to buy them from me no matter how good they truly are. For this reason I can only reasonably sell to entry and low-mid level buyers, and therefore need to keep my costs low so that I'm not overcharging that market. So while $30 is probably unrealistic, the price should be kept to the lower end.

Thanks again for any/all advice.

Well I believe regardless of your path you choose, path A is unavoidable. Profit margins on these things are rather low add a partner that hones and maintains for you and most likely that's your profit margin consumed from the get go. I don't think 30 dollars is a realistic wholesale price point. Razors of any quality require a lot of hand finishing by skilled labor regardless of the scale of the operation making them. Its just the nature of the beast and why most decent razors cost quite a bit. If you just want to have a couple of razors at your store to stir curiosity and compliment your other products that's one thing. Selling razors in any meaningful quantity to actually have access to a good wholesale relationship is a different ball of wax. I wish you luck in whatever you decide to do.

The retail prices suggested already ARE the low end of the spectrum. I have not seen a quality shave-ready blade retailing for anything less than $100 (e.g., BobH's suggested "Best Quality" Dovo basic model for $102). Used and/or vintage razors are a different story, but that doesn't help you in a retail situation. If wholesale prices tend to be half of retail, then you are looking at $50 minimum to get a decent Dovo razor at wholesale (as one example) plus honing costs to get the blade shave-ready.

I don't sense any indignation but to seriously suggest a poor-performing knife sharpener as a means for honing blades is a non-starter if you've done a little research into honing straight razors. Honing is a manual process that requires good stones and much practice. I would say that the "Honing" section of this forum is probably one of the top 3 most active for just that reason.

Considering what folks spend on disposable razors nowadays, I don't think the cost of entry for straight shaving is that much of a barrier in the long run. A quality razor lasts a lifetime plus if properly cared for. The problem is too many people tend to aim for good/fast/cheap which is almost always unrealistic.

Good luck with your business endeavor.

Speedster: I suggested that using the sharpener to hone may be possible because others have stated that they did so with great success. Reference this thread as one example: https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum...aights.299650/

As I stated, $30 is probably unrealistic. Then again, there is a market at every pricepoint so long as the price represents value. There are Chinese straight razors in the sub-$10 range selling in the hundreds of units (reference Ali Express).

If a $10 product does as good a job as the average $30 product, it's a good value. Ditto with a $80 doing as well as the average $150 and so forth. As I stated, the price is less relevant than value so long as it is in the entry level range.

With hundreds of units selling for sub-$10, what is an entry level price? Clearly the answer on an enthusiast forum is going to be different than that given elsewhere.

Likewise, what is good value? To a bunch of enthusiasts, anything less than a life-long shaving companion built to last and last is likely to be called poor value no matter how inexpensive. Non-enthusiasts are likely to think otherwise. I don't expect that to change and frankly it isn't relevant.

If there are no blades made of material of sufficient quality such that they would exhibit a significant increase in value via professional honing, and no honers capable of honing large batches of blades at a reasonable cost, then the industry may be ripe for disruption.

Dear sir,

You are showing you ignorance of the market you are trying to delve into

Really simple

Order 500 Gold Dollars from China at $1.97 per unit hone them like you think you can do with a Knife sharpening unit and have at it... (At that number they will label them anything you want)

Just like every other person like you has tried for the last 5 years

It isn't new it isn't unique it has been done all over Amazon Etsy ebay etc:


Good luck with that but further discussion is a moot point since you aren't listening to what experienced people are trying to teach you

And No I am not being mean just telling you the truth

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Originally Posted by Saponica

If there are no blades made of material of sufficient quality such that they would exhibit a significant increase in value via professional honing, and no honers capable of honing large batches of blades at a reasonable cost, then the industry may be ripe for disruption.

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The market has been disrupted... with safety razors. and again with cartridge & disposable razors. Folks don't buy them for innovation, they buy them for a quality shave. As such there really isn't a distinction between enthusiasts and the "passive" straight razor shaver because there are certainly easier options available.

gssixgun: That's rather obtuse since I haven't ignored a thing. I in fact stated that it would make more sense to pay someone professionally to hone and admitted it would turn out better than I could even with months of study and practice, when I said I would: "Find a reputable blade honer who will hone those blades to bring their quality up (probably far better than I ever could even as a dedicated amateur)."

However, the fact stands that people are claiming great success with the blade sharpener; referencing that isn't ignoring anyone here but merely reading information as I find it. Is it somehow offensive that people have claimed success? After all, I'm not the one making the claim, only referencing it as possible because others have said so, and I freely stated my ignorance on the matter. Are they all liars? I'm open to reaching that conclusion, but it ultimately makes little difference since I quickly dropped the idea in favor of outsourcing the honing work.

If "it has been done all over Amazon Etsy ebay etc" as you suggest, then people are making sales doing so. If that's the case what becomes of the arguments that it isn't economical, practical, possible, and so forth? Again I'm not defending it, but by your own statement there exists a market for such an endeavor. I can only come to that conclusion because I read and listened to what you just wrote - did you? And I'm not being mean, only logical.

Butzy: I'm referring to the straight razor market being disrupted by superior value. I should have been more clear. Note I stated "may be ripe." Maybe it isn't. I just walked in the door after all.

@Saponica -- Seems to me you are talking a very small minority of shavers who would dare use that type of sharpening system (i.e., a few threads on the system is not enough). In the thread you referenced, even a few knife guys were wary of using such a device similar to those members who have already posted here. To my eye, that system would create not only convexing issues on razors but also unnecessary removal of good steel.

I would stick to traditional honing methods, but I'm not in this endeavor for retail purposes.

All I will say about GD razors is that most buyers are probably not shaving with them after a few months let alone 1 year in, but I have no proof, so feel free to prove me wrong. Even the enthusiasts here often drop out rather quickly for whatever reasons. I think most don't have the patience nor committment to learn how to achieve a proper shave with a straight.

Convenience is too often favored over other aspects of life; that's just the world we live in. My brother never even shaves...just uses a beard trimmer even though he's never grown a beard. :shrug:

Well we all tried,,,

Now it is time for you to go make a business decision

We all wish you luck with that I am sure

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