Thread: Has anybody heard anything more about Hart razors?

Originally Posted by richmondesi

Maybe we need a little bit more listening on both sides of this issue instead of more sanctimony... just a thought

Exactly, you are so right.

Charlie

Just as long as everyone understands I'm not selling my Regeldso at any price, no sireee.

Gettem Charlie!! I love it.

I'm thinking of bringing out a line of razors myself. I'll knock apart a bunch of ball bearings and weld the balls together - fold 'em and weld 'em, etc. a bunch of times and mix a little wootz in for good measure. Then I'll forge the blanks to near perfect shape so a minimal amount of grinding will be needed and bathe them in boiling lead to get just the perfect hardness - preferably a Rockwell 62.63 to 63.64 for honing that is a bit challenging, but when honemeisterly honed, the edge will do baby's butts for months and months.

The scales will be carved from hand sawn lumber taken from branches selected by a Sierra Club forester who pruned them from a 319 year old virgin white oak tree in Earl Weyerhauser's back yard.

The size? A perfect 13/16 with a .2439 thick spine. The finish: lustrous matte.

I have yet to assign a price to these units, but figure that for something as pedestrian as a razor they should go for between about 17 and 23 bucks, depending a lot on how much platinum I alloy into the rivet stock. I know it seems like a lot, but I need a sandwich at least every other day and the tent could use a couple of patches.

Think they'll fly?

Originally Posted by loueedacat

You might want to re-read JimmyHAD's post on the whole not needing the last word thing.

Must have missed it.

Someone brought up the Chronik review to support his argument that Chris Moss is sufficiently luminous that his evaluation of the Hart was sufficient, and as I was involved in that review I figured I might be qualified to rebut that point. Sorry I inconvenienced you, but there aren't a whole lot of other guys on this forum that meets the requirement of direct experience with that review in order to have standing to comment.

Originally Posted by Bruce

Gettem Charlie!! I love it.

I'm thinking of bringing out a line of razors myself. I'll knock apart a bunch of ball bearings and weld the balls together - fold 'em and weld 'em, etc. a bunch of times and mix a little wootz in for good measure. Then I'll forge the blanks to near perfect shape so a minimal amount of grinding will be needed and bathe them in boiling lead to get just the perfect hardness - preferably a Rockwell 62.63 to 63.64 for honing that is a bit challenging, but when honemeisterly honed, the edge will do baby's butts for months and months.

The scales will be carved from hand sawn lumber taken from branches selected by a Sierra Club forester who pruned them from a 319 year old virgin white oak tree in Earl Weyerhauser's back yard.

The size? A perfect 13/16 with a .2439 thick spine. The finish: lustrous matte.

I have yet to assign a price to these units, but figure that for something as pedestrian as a razor they should go for between about 17 and 23 bucks, depending a lot on how much platinum I alloy into the rivet stock. I know it seems like a lot, but I need a sandwich at least every other day and the tent could use a couple of patches.

Think they'll fly?

This is

Originally Posted by Pyment

It does come back to how one gets venture capital here in the US. I recently went through the process of doing a business plan for a start up. Bankers want to see you break even in 5 years. IOW you have to project profits that will pay off your investments at that time. To do this you either have to project a certain number of sales or price a certain margin per item produced.

Start up costs for them are going to be much higher that the costs for an existing product that has been produced for 20+ years. Dovo and TI's "start up costs" are going to be much lower even for a new product because they already have much of an infrastructure in place. Even raw material costs are going to be lower for them as long standing large customers for their suppliers.

If you project a whole lot of sales in the first few years, you have to be able to support that conclusion to the banker. Bankers will quickly pick up on unrealistic sales projections. I suspect most bankers would have a hard time believing that Hart is going to create market. It is likely to be difficult to prove increasing demand for straight razors out there (unless someone has data I am unaware of). So they will have to project carving out part of the existing market.

My suspicion is they had a hard time projecting large numbers of sales. This means they had to build in a decent profit margin in order to get a reasonable ROI.

I conclude that, because of the constraints of venture capitol and start up costs, they didn't have a heck of a lot of choice about pricing.

I do wonder about their choice of retailer. I suspect that Zowada's relationship with Classic Shaving plays a role here.

They might have been better served by going with a company that sells a variety of less known brands as well as new old stock of older razor makers like Shaving Shop. Maybe some here could give me some insight to this but I think the people who buy Wackers might be more the type to by the new Hart Razors than the people who buy Dovo's or TI's.

By the same token, a retailer with a built in expert to do the reviews (SRD) for the new product might have been a good place to start their retail offerings.

And don't forget that Hart Steel is "an American Razor and Cutlery Company." It's entirely possible that their business plan revolves around the cutlery part and "oh, by the way, we can go to market very quickly with a straight razor" as sauce for the goose.

Disclaimer: Once again I am merely speculating.

Originally Posted by Bruce

Gettem Charlie!! I love it.

I'm thinking of bringing out a line of razors myself.

You're not planning on using that cheesy superglue finish on the scales are you? Cause that's just cheesy. At that price point a razor's scales should have hand-rubbed lacquer at least an eighth inch thick. Rubbed by virgins with their bare thighs, preferably.

Originally Posted by mparker762

You're not planning on using that cheesy superglue finish on the scales are you? Cause that's just cheesy. At that price point a razor's scales should have hand-rubbed lacquer at least an eighth inch thick. Rubbed by virgins with their bare thighs, preferably.

Just make sure the virgins who do the work with their bare thighs, stamp their initials on the tang. If there's a problem with the thigh rubbing on my scales, I want to know who the hell did it, and complain personally. Otherwise I'll take my dollars elsewhere.

I also mentioned, when I talked to my wife, that my birthday was coming up and that she says I am notoriously hard to buy for?

I also printed up classic shaving's page on the Hart Razor and left it out for her with Classic Shaving's phone number on it? I also printed up the page with the Zowada 6/8 damascus with Ebony scales.

It's always good to give them a choice.

Originally Posted by mparker762

You're not planning on using that cheesy superglue finish on the scales are you? Cause that's just cheesy. At that price point a razor's scales should have hand-rubbed lacquer at least an eighth inch thick. Rubbed by virgins with their bare thighs, preferably.

I really don't have a reply to this... the mind boggles (and my hands shake).