Crescent City Razors News for June 2020

Not much has changed except my 100 pieces each of Gold Monkey 666 and Gold Dollar 208 razors arrived. There are still a couple of 777s in stock, in case someone wants one of both Gold Monkey models. The DIY strop kit is still up for sale. My GD66 connection has been giving me nothing but grief, as my 02 March order sits lost in some warehouse in China. That guy has been nothing but trouble, refusing to give me a refund, wheedling and whining and begging me to let him re-ship up until the last minute before ebay stepping in. I got my refund, but even after asking if he could re-ship, and I told him repeatedly no, he has reshipped anyway. AFAIC it's free razors for me unless I do the right thing and ship them back. (at his expense of course.) And now the deadline passes today for the 14 March order so I will be opening another case against this guy who seemed so reliable until now. 3 months is too long to wait, I don't care if it is raining volcanoes and blowing earthquakes. So the choice is buying the 66 from the factory or discontinuing that model. I am leaning toward discontinuing, even though demand for the 66 is stubbornly high. The 666 will now be the bottom feeder model in my lineup and I think it is in most respects a better razor. Currently I think I have 28 or 30 of the 66 on hand. The just now overdue 14 March order was for 40 more and they might still show up, who knows.

Negotiations are underway for a GD-produced blade with my logo on it, which I will pin up in my own scales. My own observation is that the main con of the GD brand is the factory's total ignorance of proper bevel angle geometry, and I don't care two schlitz about the scales, but customers seem to want nicer scales above all else, so maybe I will deliver. For a price. Final grinding and shoeing are going to cost more, with me doing it, and those razors, if they become a reality, will be in a different price tier altogether.

PM, email, and ebay sales are outperforming the website by about 10:1. I haven't had a sale via the website in almost a week. I think I will be spending most of my available online sales time budget on the ebay listings. The exposure is phenomenal there. I always found fleabay buyers in the past to be a big PITA but the ones buying from me lately have been a great bunch of guys, with zero exceptions.

I will be making more strops soon, both the "Working Man" grade and a new "Uptown" grade with more hand finishing to the leather, but still cowhide. I also have a side of Japanese Horse Shell Cordovan that I will be making strops from, but those prone to sticker shock should probably not look. That shell piece was rather pricey and I will only get four full size strops from it, along with a few travel strops.

I'm glad to hear that your business is doing well! Good luck to you my friend!

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Originally Posted by Johntoad57

I'm glad to hear that your business is doing well! Good luck to you my friend!

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Thanks! The demand is out there. I can't lower my prices cause I get too many orders when I do. Wannabes WANT a razor that they can believe will shave, especially if they have tried before and got a dull "shave ready" razor. I like to think of myself as the high priest of low budget, faith based shaving. LOL! But I really like doing just one or two a day, TBH. I don't want it to be like a job. But it is getting new guys started and that's what I'm all about. I don't need to make a lot of money from it, just show a modest profit after buying stones and films and stuff. The raw razors themselves are chimp change. Somebody who really wanted to spend 8 hours a day honing razors could keep himself in bread, beer, and baloney pretty easily doing this gig. Business acumen not required. Just keep the sharp blades going out the door. Nobody has returned one yet, knock on wood. That's what you gotta do to make it work. Happy customers make me happy.

Sorry. My third Old Fashioned and my barmaid makes them kinda strong.

Temporarily sold out of Gold Dollar 66 razors. I just found a stash of 19, and I had one on my desk under a pile of clutter, and I will hone the whole batch sometime soon. Once they are sold, I will not be ordering more in the near future. The P81 is a much superior razor for a price only slightly higher and so I will concentrate on sales of that razor, also known as the "1996" because most of them have the tang etched with the year that the company was established. I have also ordered 100 of the blades with no scales or markings, which I plan to regrind a bit, dress in horn, bone, or ebony scales, and sell under my own brand.

This is not to put down the 66. It is perfectly capable of serving as a shaver, once it is properly set up and honed, and it is good fodder for modders. It is very well known, essentially an icon, and there is still market demand. It's just that the P81 is so much nicer, less work for me, and I can sell it profitably for only slightly more than what i am getting for a 66.

Those of you scratching your heads on why I raised the price on my ebay listing for the GD66 to $50 should scratch no more. This was simply so I could avoid dropping the listing. The price will go back down to a more reasonable figure as soon as I have some ready to ship. Of course if someone WANTED to pay $50 for it, I would drop whatever I am doing and get one ready, but I have an awful lot of things to do right now so I was sort of hoping for a short break before honing any more GD66's. I have a few of the other models ready to ship.

The P81's are selling fairly well. No surprise. It is probably my favorite GD model these days. Still beefy enough for modding, but quite capable of being honed into a shaver without TOO much extra work. The bevel angle is a couple points tighter than the 66, too. Same steel, AFAIK. The flat acrylic scales still kind of clunky and still using a flat spacer instead of a wedge, but a little nicer than the ABS scales of the other mainline models. They are without stabilizer though the heel is still slightly thicker than the central portion of the edge area on many of them, just another of the eccentricities to be expected in a Chinese razor.

Wouldn't mind finding a stash of 19 razors in my place. ...

I finally got around to honing up another batch of razors, plenty to go around for everyone starting tomorrow when I finish up this batch of 50 razors. I am out of the GM777. Only 20 GD66 left. Plenty of P81, GM666, and GD208.