Thread: TI can't make razors fast enough.

if i remember right Sal is a fan of straight shaving so maybe i can nudge a bit

I think it was Kees who contacted Puma to see if they would do a one off batch, but their last hollow grinder had broken down several years ago, and the grind master had retired a couple of years later.

I think the reason that artisans are overworked has more to do with renewed interest, rather than people not wanting to be craftsmen anymore.

10 years ago, the world was at the peak of consumer oriented economy. Everything was throw-away.
My first razor was a dovo shavette from a hair stylist shop, because I simply could'nt find a real straight anywhere (this was before we had internet). These days, any knife shop has at least a couple of razors.

What I see is that people are more and more going back to using tools that were made by a craftsman.
For us it is razors, but for others it is pipes, canes, clothes, ...

I don't think we are going to see gillette make straights, and perhaps we will never see commercials for straights, but the combination of being green / being cost efficient in the long run / being traditional might make it for companies like spyderco to get back in the game.

Originally Posted by Bruno

I think the reason that artisans are overworked has more to do with renewed interest, rather than people not wanting to be craftsmen anymore.

I think you may be right. I'm looking around at my peers and several of them have craftsman hobbies, are turning out professional-quality work, and one or two have expressed the wish that they could do that full-time rather than be network jockeys/ graphic artists/ purchasers/ whatever, but the money wasn't there. (Or, I suspect, the jump to setting up their own business and all the issues seems daunting.)

I wonder if we're going to see a renaissance of handcrafted items as people turn their hobbies into second careers over the next ten years or so. It would make sense -- people are willing to pay a premium for unique, top-quality items (eg, a week's pay for a custom razor), desk-job companies are less willing to hire people over 50, the Internet brings folks together and suddenly there's a professional workshop doing razors (or furniture or tools or whatever).

Of course, to really hit the quality potential of yesteryear, we need about three or four generations of this... or we need to take advantage of the folks who are now retiring.

Oh, look, I'm rambling. See what happens when you get me thinking about old times and a bad economy?

Queen Knife Company produces high quality pocket knives with under the Robeson name. It would be cool if if they could be convinced to re-introduced the Shuredge line with the distinctive hammered tang design!