Thread: HART Razor

This reminds me of a story and this is purely my personal opinion here and does not reflect the staff here.

Once upon a time there was this picture hanging in a gallery which people would come in and look at and most didn't really care so much for it finding fault with this and fault with that even though it seemed to look pleasant enough. The artist didn't bother to sign it with his true name and the painting sat there with no buyers. Then one day a very famous painter admitted he had painted it and came in and signed his true name on it. Within 24 hrs people filled the gallery fighting over the painting price no object.

I hope his name wasn't Cletus.

I mean, that's one of my secret qualms... that TZ didn't make these. He simply taught them. And I also know that means that they can be perfectly competent razor smiths (or ATs as Hart calls them) and they were probably very good artisans before this as well, but that doesn't command the premium- just as the guys at Dovo are competent, a Fritz Bracht Dovo commands a premium, nice scales command a premium, blade deco commands a premium... but the tag Dovo does not (see: Dovo Best...)

And if I'm reading this correctly:

These razors are “hand made”. No jugs or fixtures used during the grinding, or honing. The only automated part of the whole process is the profile cutting of the blanks. After that, the AT's rough grind the bevels, spines and tang tapers on a belt sander. The blades then go out for heat treating at a very high-tech heat treat facility. The AT's then do the finish grinding on their belt sanders in the same way I do my custom razors. The honing is all by hand on Norton and Escher hones.

The blanks are machine made (not hand made) they are rough ground, then SENT OUT for commercial heat treat (not hand made, not by the same artisan) then final ground again...

How is this a semi custom again? This seems a lot like Dovo's process of rough grinding blanks, then mass heat treating them, then a trip to the razor shed where a single artisan does the final grind... the video's are somewhere on this site...

Have you ever seen the saying lately that 60 is the new 40 ? Pertaining to age ..... well for a guy of 60 $100 bucks is the new $10 bucks.... referring to buying power. Kids pay that much for a pair of Nikes. When I have the $ I'm buying a Hart made by each of the two artisans. YMMV

Originally Posted by khaos

How is this a semi custom again?

It is a custom razor, for sufficiently small values of "custom" (engineering joke)

You can have any option you want, as long as it's a quarter hollow matte-finished razor with black plastic scales. (Ford joke)

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Have you ever seen the saying lately that 60 is the new 40 ? Pertaining to age ..... well for a guy of 60 $100 bucks is the new $10 bucks.... referring to buying power. Kids pay that much for a pair of Nikes. When I have the $ I'm buying a Hart made by each of the two artisans. YMMV

Well how about I'll send you $25 of my kid money and you can buy me a Hart with your old man money? ;-p

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Have you ever seen the saying lately that 60 is the new 40 ? Pertaining to age ..... well for a guy of 60 $100 bucks is the new $10 bucks.... referring to buying power. Kids pay that much for a pair of Nikes. When I have the $ I'm buying a Hart made by each of the two artisans. YMMV

Good deal

I just hope when it's all said and done, you don't find yourself holding a couple of razors that could be had in a couple of years for 75% of today's price. There is a precedent for such as this.

FWIW, I'm 29 and make plenty of money to afford a pair of these if they represented what I feel to be a good value or even premium product - illustrated by the fact that I've recently (from the spring to now) purchased two Joe Chandler razors, one Robert Williams, and I'm on the list for another of Robert's pieces. I hope I didn't misrepresent what I meant about my discretionary income. I'd much rather support Tim, Robert, Joe, Josh, Bill, Alex (by buying their customs) or even Max or Glen in their restorations than buy a low spec razor for a "semi-custom" price.

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

Well how about I'll send you $25 of my kid money and you can buy me a Hart with your old man money? ;-p

I invested it all in lots and houses ..... I won't say what I bought lots of or what kind of houses.

I think the Hart razor is good deal, and a good looking razor. I like satin finishes better than mirror finishes. O-1 is very similar to what a lot of classic razors were made of. I appreciate the fact that I can see the tooling marks of grinding, it looks like a well made tool. I appreciate the fact they call the steel exactly what it is O1, instead of some marketing ploy of labeling the steel "silver steel". It looks like a well made honest product. There is definitely more than 250 dollars of very skilled man hours in each razor.



If it is more than you are willing to pay, then do not buy it. If you have bought one, I value your opinions. Constructive criticism is one thing but repeatedly denigrating a newly formed company in a very public way is wrong. Parts of this thread remind me of some threads at that other razor forum where highly qualified and very talented people have had there work judged in a less than fair manner.



Charlie

Well, Charlie, even though you didn't quote me, I'm assuming that was at least partly directed at me. Please don't misinterpret people saying they think something is overpriced as "denigrating a newly formed company".

Your disdain for public criticism of people who weren't inclined to (what I would consider) waste $250 on a product is noted. However, I find it "very wrong" for people to unfairly misrepresent what I say as well. My position on this razor is that it is a low spec razor being sold for a premium price. I'm not saying that the work isn't quality. It is, I'm convinced of this on all accounts. However, it's a low spec razor that has a premium price tag. What's unfair about that? Why is it wrong to state that opinion publicly? No one is saying anything negative about the company or craftsmanship (at least I've not seen it). We have merely expressed concerns about a company that we would really like to see succeed potentially pricing themselves incorrectly. Obviously, the market will bear this out. However, there's little difference in your making judgments on our opinions as being wrong/ bad form or whatever and us saying we think they may have miscalculated. In fact, it's worse because you are making a personal judgment on a person's character.

We'd probably all be better off if we kept to the merits of the razor.