Thread: Badge Engineering

**sorry if this has been posted previously, I've been AWOL for a while**

So I've noticed on eBay (and on other sites) there is a common design for a strop which you can see here and here and here.

Now it seems very much to me that the same strop gets more expensive as the logo on it changes. It does indeed bother me immensely that such a thing can occur but I'm glad that it was easy enough to spot.

Me personally, I own the cheaper version. Which I'm glad because I'd be mighty pissed off having purchased the expensive version only to realise I could have bought 3-4 for the same price just with different logos.

Well that's my bit, all I would suggest is to do a bit of research before shelling out your cash, either on a strop or a razor. I'm sure that somewhere razors are also getting the badge engineering treatment too.

I think I knew they were being sold under different names but I've not seem them as cheap as Shaverhut. I paid eighty odd dollars for one branded as a Dovo from Mensbiz 4 or 5 years ago. It's a bit small as hanging strops go but I've found it to be pretty good. The Shaverhut model actually says it's made in China whereas mine says Germany: I think that explains the price differential there but it doesn't mean the Chinese one is inferior.

Just because they look the same in a picture doesn't mean they are. A great example are the Kanayamara strops from Japan. On the surface they look exactly the same but as the numbers go up they are longer and thicker.

I think they are much the same - I have had a Dovo one and a no-name one in my hands, and they are exactly alike. Quite narrow - 1.75 inches inches in width
and around 12 inches - 15,75 inches - can'r remember the size of the ones I had, but clear stropping distance was very short,

At one point they were all over Ebay UK - maybe 3 years ago, and incredibly cheap - under £7 each and five for £25 - I got five. They told me that they could gold emboss my mark on them, but I declined. They looked OK - in the way that such miniatures have a certain charm - and did the job if you were patient and careful. I gave them to beginners along with a razor.

They are still about:






Usually bundled with useless razors like Enzo, Hawk and Hariyali, though they can be had separately. The price has gone up a bit from 3 years ago - they are around £9 now, I think. Some are dearer for some unfathomable reason.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Maladroit

I think I knew they were being sold under different names but I've not seem them as cheap as Shaverhut. I paid eighty odd dollars for one branded as a Dovo from Mensbiz 4 or 5 years ago. It's a bit small as hanging strops go but I've found it to be pretty good. The Shaverhut model actually says it's made in China whereas mine says Germany: I think that explains the price differential there but it doesn't mean the Chinese one is inferior.

Regarding the country of origin, I have seen this come up before with several razors being assembled in solingen and therefore making the grade to have "made in solingen" stamped into them. I feel that perhaps all Dovo has done is merely assemble the strops rather than actually make them. But having said that, it's not a bad little stop. But it is little. And if you can get the same thing for less money, then why not? I don't see the point in paying an "assemblage" fee lol

I doubt Dovo assembles a strop. They probably just buy it as is from an outfit in Germany. Strop making is a pretty specialized business.

They arent bad strops at all . Very nice indeed and the linen is good but the only problem is theyre smaaaaal .
If they was twice in widht they could be super , butt ....... life is cruel .
In Europe this kind of finely sueded leather is very popular for strops . i like it a lot but the strops traditional are small here . Strops , padles , even coticules and thuringians ,sold here in the past ,are alround 10 x 2.5 sm to 12 x 4 maximum .
Unlike big strops and hones in the trans atlantic market .

Yes, truly that is the only complaint I have with the actual product. I am convinced, and solidly so, that my Chinese version is the same as the Dovo version save the branding. I have recently purchased a second hand strop, owing to most Aussie strop makers being in a state of vacation, that is much wider and longer than my current one.

Either way, I still truly believe that Dovo is not offering a different product but asking a lot more for it.

Originally Posted by andrewmurray86

Either way, I still truly believe that Dovo is not offering a different product but asking a lot more for it.

I also believe that. It seems strange that the DOVO's, the Herold's and all the random brands in between look almost identical save a tiny mark differentiating them and a large mark differentiating the price. Just the juchtenleder ones that have a natural colour to them, that is.