Thread: Dying art - o where are thou, Solingen of yore?

I emailed Revisor to ask them if they can do any grinds besides full-hollow, and got this response, which I thought might be interesting to SRP:

50 years ago there were about 700 hundred manufacturers of straights in our city, with hundreds of scilled
hollow-grinders, now in the hole town you will find 3 men which learned it 50 years ago. 2 of them will stop
their work the next few month, both over 75 years old. So we have only the time to produce one kind of grinding.

I hope you will understand what try to explain.

Yikes. I wonder what exactly this means. Presumably at least Dovo needs several blade-grinders on staff? If not several dozen? I wonder if the one remaining he refers to is Heribert Wacker. I also wonder who these two retiring guys are....

Looks like the guys who make custom razors have a guarranteed job in Germany.

Yikes indeed!

I wonder if there is an apprenticeship for grinding like this?

I read on another thread that DOVO are producing more razors than ever (although please correct me if this is not the case), so what will happen if there is a shortage of experienced grinders? Surely a company that is expanding its production will need to hire in more grinders, assuming skilled artisans can be found?

I should have been a metal worker. None of this accountancy and economics nonsense..!

its never too late stu... and it sounds like apprenticeships in grinding is something desperately needed, i say you go for it! I may consider it in ten years or so. gotta finish my apprenticeship in mounting scrolls first (another but not so rapidly dying art).

Originally Posted by Stubear

I read on another thread that DOVO are producing more razors than ever (although please correct me if this is not the case),
I should have been a metal worker. None of this accountancy and economics nonsense..!

I can't imagine that they would be producing as many as they would have in the heyday of cutthroats, though of course back then there would have been far more makers to compete with. The reality is that cutthroats, while seeing a resurgence with aficionados like us, will surely only ever be a minority product in the world of shaving.
If you want a well paid secure job you definitely don't want to be a skilled metal worker in the UK.

This is a very sad commentary on skills that we value and pay for. We don't mind giving a sports figure or a Hollywood star millions of dollars for just entertainment, nor do we mind paying a lawyer, accountant or phychologist $350/hr.

But heaven help us of we find value in a skilled persons hands and we have to pay more than $89.00 for a good straight razor. Watch the list of razor brands to avoid go up and up.

This is why I am pushing people to support Al and The Bomb. We need people to want to learn to become skilled and to consume their skill instead of just being addicted to cheap stuff.

I'm sorry for offending anyone here in any of the above occupations, but we value some of the worst things that man has offered us.

David

Today we increasingly depend on robotic machines to do the work we humans used to do. These machines never tire, nor complain, nor join unions. When they do things well, they do things very well. When they do things badly, they continue to do things badly until someone figures out whats wrong. When the machine that oversees the machine producing the bad part goes haywire, then everything hums blithely on as if all were well.

I'm guessing that when our German meister grinders all finally retire and are not replaced by those who have appreticed in that craft, it's been determined by finer minds, those with that razor sharp intellect, that they are no longer needed in their manufacturing niche. So we either get un-ground razors or those fine machines will make them for us, for us, for us, click-hum, fr us, click-crunch-hum, rf su, rf su rf su...

Originally Posted by Bruce

Today we increasingly depend on robotic machines to do the work we humans used to do. These machines never tire, nor complain, nor join unions. When they do things well, they do things very well. When they do things badly, they continue to do things badly until someone figures out whats wrong. When the machine that oversees the machine producing the bad part goes haywire, then everything hums blithely on as if all were well.

I'm guessing that when our German meister grinders all finally retire and are not replaced by those who have appreticed in that craft, it's been determined by finer minds, those with that razor sharp intellect, that they are no longer needed in their manufacturing niche. So we either get un-ground razors or those fine machines will make them for us, for us, for us, click-hum, fr us, click-crunch-hum, rf su, rf su rf su...

Hey Bruce - great point.

I'm thinking we could just stand there and let a robot shave us. Then we could add one more aquisition disorder - Robot Aquisition Disorder.

After a good shave - the bandages should come off in about a month.

David

Originally Posted by Alembic

we value and pay for............. We don't mind........... nor do we mind........... we find value............ we have to pay...............
We need people skill.....................
we value some of the worst things that man has offered us.

I hope you don't mind the above editing. The majority appear to have 'voted' with their feet.

Originally Posted by welshwizard

I hope you don't mind the above editing. The majority appear to have 'voted' with their...wallet.

welshwizard,

Yeah, I don't mind the editing. Pretty good job of it too I might add. I hope you don't mind, but I made an edit to your last comment.


David