Quote Originally Posted by mparker762 View Post
Zowada doesn't put the workbill next to the price tag on his razors on the Classic Shaving website; we're left to infer the labor and material inputs from the asking price, which is the complete reverse of your argument. What we do have pretty good knowledge about is the aesthetics of the razor - Classic Shaving may skip the workbills but they make sure to put up nice large photos of the razors, which implies that Classic believes that purchasing decisions are being made based on artistic considerations, *not* labor calculations, not even approximately based on labor calculations, though it is possible that Classic Shaving is wrong about this, and they could charge more for the razors if their customers really knew what it took to make that $2100 Zowada damascus razor versus that $700 TI damascus razor.
I'm almost positive that Classic Shaving doesn't set the prices for Zowada razors... Tim Zowada does. That's because he knows what went into them AS WELL AS what he can get out. Also, the price difference between a Zowada custom and a TI damascus is like comparing an original Van Gogh to a Thomas Kinkade lithograph... it has a LOT to do with the labor involved. I'm not saying that labor is the only determining factor or that art, aesthetics, and consumer demand play no part, but saying "because people are willing to pay a lot of money for them" as a be-all end-all answer is pretty ignorant. I didn't set out to give a breakdown as to the merits and drawbacks of damascus- that can't be argued to an end either.