Thread: Too good to be true!?

So ... I stumbled across this site looking for a US made blade...
Seems like they claim that is made in US and the price is lower than hart steel... Ckout the description...
Does anybody know for a fact that these are garbage! Not because you think they are... But because you bought one and didnt hone right etc... I have 30 vintage razors and i usually dont buy new production razors... Just wanted you all 2cent...
Thanks

Brands of Straight Razors to Avoid - Straight Razor Place Library

Look up the pictures of their production razor (the ones posted here by a regular customer), then compare to any of the razors hand made in USA by say Max Sprecher, Charlie Lewis, Bob Alman, etc. and you will know exactly what the text in the ad means:

I completely agree that lewis and max and all them make exquisite razors... And that Grim claim of being the finest is invalid... But that brings me to another point... Nobody in the US makes an affordable razor... I can buy 2 brand new production sometimes 4 brand new production razors for the price of one made in the US... From companies that have been around for 100 years... I am playing devils avocate here... 99.9 percent sure that i will never buy a grim... But somebody in the US has to start manufacturing an affordable quality blade... Boker, TI,Dovo, RA all have bad ass blades for a third of a price of an american one... It cannot cost 3 times more to make a blade in the states!

Boker, TI, Dovo, RA, etc., all have large-run production facilities that crank out a massive number of blades (compared to the American makers listed). And so economy of scale must be a huge factor in determining that price difference.

As for the Grim's claim to have been made in the USA, what *exactly* do they mean by that? Where was the blade forged/ground/etc? Were they forged in the USA or reground from blades made overseas? Where were the scales manufactured? Were those components actually made in the USA or assembled there? I don't have the answers to those questions, but I do know that "Made in X" can in many places be a very slippery definition.

Also, never trust a website that misuses apostrophes to make the plural.

No affiliation!

It is a new manufacturer in Idaho. They are working on making a great product and have had some growing pains. How do I know that they are working on making a quality razor?

They have recently hired Tim Zowada to handle QC and tell them what is what in the world of straight razors so they can make a quality razor.

I look forward to seeing how they do in the future.

Why can't it cost 3x more? It's an economic problem - the distribution of wealth is quite different in Europe and US. Plus those companies in Europe still have the machinery and the expertise due to not stopping production.
Look at Hart steel - it took them months before they got the hang of it (with Tim Zowada being project manager there from day 1), and they still don't have neither the equipment nor the skills to make hollow grounds (I don't think they have the desire for that either).

There were other attempts to make razors in US in the last few years - same issue - mediocre quality because the people involved lacked the expertise.

Originally Posted by robert2286

I completely agree that lewis and max and all them make exquisite razors... And that Grim claim of being the finest is invalid... But that brings me to another point... Nobody in the US makes an affordable razor... I can buy 2 brand new production sometimes 4 brand new production razors for the price of one made in the US... From companies that have been around for 100 years... I am playing devils avocate here... 99.9 percent sure that i will never buy a grim... But somebody in the US has to start manufacturing an affordable quality blade... Boker, TI,Dovo, RA all have bad ass blades for a third of a price of an american one... It cannot cost 3 times more to make a blade in the states!

Straight razors are really a niche market. Boker, TI, Dovo etc are old factories that have survived because they make a lot of other products besides straight razors. As far as I'm aware, none of the straight razor production in the US survived apart from the high end, hand made, Artisan razors. They are completely different markets and production techniques. Hart is probably the closest you've got to production razor manufacturing in the US. They are in the same price range as the higher end TI's, Bokers, Dovo's etc.

10Pups posted a link above to the sticky that all members here should probably have memorized (since none of us will likely consult it when in the heat of an ebay frenzy). I've been around here too long to ignore the names on that list. Yeah you can get lucky with a GD or other blade on there occasionally, but as a rule, the blades on that list are problematic at best. The blade maker in the OP is on the list, so, until I hear otherwise, I'll watch as others take their chances on them. I hope they get it together and produce consistently high quality blades, but until that's established, well, they're on "the list". One related thing that does seem fair might be the ability to take a brand off the list if they turn it around at some point, but that's up to the administrators here and I'm sure they can do it should a maker on the list achieve consistent quality.

There has been several attempts to start a razor manufacture in the U.S but they never panned out. To do mass production requires a big investment with no guarantee of success and small scale operations mean high prices since it's the numbers that make it economically feasible.