Thread: Shops in London selling straights?

Originally Posted by edhewitt

They might have been gold dollars, you never know.

Or they could be the rare, exalted Kreigar's???

Makes sense, you buy gold by the pound don't you?

Bob

Originally Posted by edhewitt

They might have been gold dollars, you never know.

Originally Posted by BobH

Definitely not one of those horror stories you want to hear unless you are the Antique store.

Bob

Originally Posted by rowdi

Damn him! haha

The chap I'm referring to is pushing 60. I can only imagine the treasures in that shoe box he gave away if they belonged to his grandfather. If I'd have been in the antique shop I would have doubled the owners offer. Seems like a bit more than sharp practice if there are new old razors amongst it.
I could have cried, I'm not afraid to admit it. The bottom lip was on it's way to a wobble lol

Yea, I can almost visualize that faint tell tale quiver of lip. Can't say blame you either. Man, I am 60 and you won't see me flogging straights for a pound a piece anytime soon. That is if I remember.

Bob

Originally Posted by edhewitt

They might have been gold dollars, you never know.

Originally Posted by BobH

Definitely not one of those horror stories you want to hear unless you are the Antique store.

Bob

Originally Posted by rowdi

Damn him! haha

Originally Posted by BobH

Yea, I can almost visualize that faint tell tale quiver of lip. Can't say blame you either. Man, I am 60 and you won't see me flogging straights for a pound a piece anytime soon. That is if I remember.

Bob

The wobble was because he said he'd have given them to me if he'd known I used them. One week earlier and I'd have been rolling in razors (not literally, that would be dangerous )

Originally Posted by DaveTheGeordie

The wobble was because he said he'd have given them to me if he'd known I used them. One week earlier and I'd have been rolling in razors (not literally, that would be dangerous )

I was about to ask how long ago it was, if it had been 40 years then £20 would have been a lot. But in this case he could buy 2 meals and pints from weather spoons.

The situation as far as Dovo is concerned is mainly one of demand far outstripping supply. When we first became Dovo dealers some six years ago waiting time for orders was about four to six months. As time went on this went up and up until last November (2012) -ish it stood at eight to ten months. A couple of things then happened. One of Dovo's main master grinders died suddenly - and a certain James Bond ('Skyfall') showed us that secret agents too like straights. Demand went up through the stratosphere and by the end of january 2013 we had sold EVERY single Dovo razor in our stock - and believe me, we had a few! Similar things happened to most other dealers and everyone promptly screamed blue murder for razors from Dovo, piling in orders in spadefuls. Dovo then announced that the wait was going to be fourteen months, leaving a lot of dealers up the proverbial creek.

Things got worse. Dovo told us a couple of months back that the wait was now knocking on the door of two YEARS. How anyone can plan for stock with this kind of lead-time is beyond me - it's a hair-tearing nightmare. We have just now started to get anything like the amount and, more importantly, the spread of models we had in late 2012.

TI and Boker have also been affected but not quite so badly, Boker is at about 4-6 months and TI maybe a bit less. As my Dovo contact put it - "we'd love to train more grinders and get the wait down - but it takes five years to train them".

SO really there is no easy answer - and if staff at those London shops say they don't know when more stock will arrive it is because they simply don't - Dovo flatly refuse to give lead times for individual models as it all depends on the cumulative order size for any particular model as to when it will be made. This can also give rise to the situation where we put an order in and get it within a fortnight - we've been lucky and picked up a bit of Dovo's overproduction or (and maybe more likely) cancelled orders.

This makes us as dealers look silly but we can do no more than order and hope. We have over £20,000 of razors on back orders with Dovo alone and no-one wishes more than us that we could have them in stock right now!

Originally Posted by blueprinciple

The situation as far as Dovo is concerned is mainly one of demand far outstripping supply. When we first became Dovo dealers some six years ago waiting time for orders was about four to six months. As time went on this went up and up until last November (2012) -ish it stood at eight to ten months. A couple of things then happened. One of Dovo's main master grinders died suddenly - and a certain James Bond ('Skyfall') showed us that secret agents too like straights. Demand went up through the stratosphere and by the end of january 2013 we had sold EVERY single Dovo razor in our stock - and believe me, we had a few! Similar things happened to most other dealers and everyone promptly screamed blue murder for razors from Dovo, piling in orders in spadefuls. Dovo then announced that the wait was going to be fourteen months, leaving a lot of dealers up the proverbial creek.

Things got worse. Dovo told us a couple of months back that the wait was now knocking on the door of two YEARS. How anyone can plan for stock with this kind of lead-time is beyond me - it's a hair-tearing nightmare. We have just now started to get anything like the amount and, more importantly, the spread of models we had in late 2012.

TI and Boker have also been affected but not quite so badly, Boker is at about 4-6 months and TI maybe a bit less. As my Dovo contact put it - "we'd love to train more grinders and get the wait down - but it takes five years to train them".

SO really there is no easy answer - and if staff at those London shops say they don't know when more stock will arrive it is because they simply don't - Dovo flatly refuse to give lead times for individual models as it all depends on the cumulative order size for any particular model as to when it will be made. This can also give rise to the situation where we put an order in and get it within a fortnight - we've been lucky and picked up a bit of Dovo's overproduction or (and maybe more likely) cancelled orders.

This makes us as dealers look silly but we can do no more than order and hope. We have over £20,000 of razors on back orders with Dovo alone and no-one wishes more than us that we could have them in stock right now!

thanks for that, i understand. I have yet to see Skyfall but i hear Bond did good things for straights haha

Do you yourself carry other brands? are the smaller manaufacturers more reliable suppliers?

I've heard what Blueprinciple is saying from several vendors...huge backlog with Dovo and TI, some are better....

As I've mentioned, if you're looking for a brand new razor, Revisor makes some really nice blades, pretty much all sizes, I have an 8/8 and it's great. They also sell some nice vintage blades...

Just an idea if you're looking for new and good quality...there's been lots of threads on them here...good luck!

Thanks!

my aim by going to the outlets was to educate myself without buying blindly, the search goes on