Thread: Has anybody heard anything more about Hart razors?

I'm in the market for a razor and I was considering a Hart. After reading the post from Tim Zowada about the bevels I'm not so sure. I sent Hart an email asking about it this morning but I haven't heard back.


Thanks,
Adrian.

Well from the looks of things, I probably want to forget about this razor. I've read mparker762's threads here and he seems to be quite knowledgeable. He isn't loving the Harts to much.

That price might be justified for a production Zowada razor, except that TZ seems to be disavowing these razors saying that although he is project manager and trained the guys that are making the razors he doesn't consider them to be Zowada razors. And since they don't have his name on them anywhere it's fair that we shouldn't impute any of his reputation to these new razors. So what that leaves us with are some half-finished crudely-ground razors made with a pretty pedestrian steel, at a higher price point than the full hollow mirror polished razors from TI and Dovo.

While one might be a fan of quarter hollows (I'm not) or O1 steel (love the hardness but it's very rust-prone even for carbon steel) or matte finishes (harder to get clean, encourages rust) the fact remains that these are all attributes that minimise the skill level needed, and keep the cost low. And yet despite being less-well made than their competition from France(!?!) these razors are nearly as expensive as a full custom from Robert Williams, Bill Ellis, or Robert Chandler.

You can start here with the classifieds or if you're looking new try Straight Razor Design.

Straight Razors - Straight Razor Place Classifieds

If you read all the posts here you will get an idea about them. if your the adventurous type and are willing to put up with issues with new production razors then go ahead otherwise I would wait until all the issues have been ironed out. No different than with buying a new car model the first year it comes out. Usually not an adviseable thing to do.

Originally Posted by stygian

I'm in the market for a razor and I was considering a Hart. After reading the post from Tim Zowada about the bevels I'm not so sure. I sent Hart an email asking about it this morning but I haven't heard back.


Thanks,
Adrian.

What is your price range? What are you looking for?

What is your price range? What are you looking for?

$175-250. This would be my second razor (I currently own a Prima Klang) and I have been considering just buying another Prima but it's been suggested that given my coarse beard a different razor might be better.

Originally, I just wanted a great shave so I was going to just buy a razor, a strop, some soap, a mug and some paste for the touch up. This is not how it worked out... I'm up to a mug, a "redneck" scuttle, two hones, two balsa wood hones, pasteS....

I'm also currently resisting the urge to go ahead and pick up a Naniwa 1k and 5k and hitting ebay. When I started this (not all that long ago) I swore I wasn't going to go there.

"Just buy a razor and get a great shave" that was the mantra. Some mantra.

Everyone on this board thinks their own beard is heavy, but simple logic would indicate that most of them are wrong. Furthermore, heavy bearded guys really need sharp razors more than heavy razors which is why barbers abandoned their W&Bs barber's use choppers for dubl ducks and C-Mon's en masse. A heavy stiff razor helps disguise any flaws in the edge and shaving technique. And they're very popular among guys who think their beard is heavy (which is pretty much everybody). But there are a lot of posts in the archives from guys who discovered after a few years of experience that their "tough" beard didn't need a heavy razor after all, it needed a sharp blade and decent technique.

MP762 has just really put a big nail in the Hart coffin for me here. This makes complete sense to me and I probably could have saved a couple hours of my life if this had come to me earlier.

you might want to wait untill they establish consistent quality output, also they are apparently developing their own steel etc, and expanding the line.
I don't know if you want to get a Heart razor, or just a high quality respectable brand, but there are such options as TI, Wacker, Bocker, also Revizor(this one has gotten good reviews from members)

With a few modifications the Hart will be a very good razor.

Edit: And, umm, *sounding* authoritative is a lot easier than *being* authoritative...