Any UK artisan razor makers

@neilwf - Good point; it made me think about what Artisan may mean in modern times.

I would be tempted to classify the Hone as an artisan razor - the design in the modern era is probably 60 - 80% of the work, once refined a CNC machine then takes over. However, for me the designer has a range of other tasks to do, to take a viable product to market. Patenting their work, securing a supply chain including production, quality control, distribution and marketing.

Andrew who is behind Hone, if my memory is right, designed medical equipment and got into razor design and production as he wanted to see if he could improve his and the shave experience of others.

I'm not sure many if any razors are now produced in a cottage industry style fashion - which may make a one man band/start-up designer and producer come as close to artisan as we may get in these time. Just my point of view.

All the best,

Chris
I think we'll have to agree to differ. In the USA there is a fashion with outdoor types for artisan hunting knives. These are made by craftspeople with forges, hammers, and grinders. whilst the tools may be mechanically driven they are guided by a human hand not a PC.
I realise why he's doing what he's doing, and that it would be almost impossible to hand make a DE safety razor, lets face it they've always been made by machines of some sort. For me the only artisan razor would be a handmade straight razor.
Sorry.
 
I'd classify Hone as a British company. Andrew, the owner is British but currently lives in the Netherlands.
From his website:
Hone Products LTD. is a company incorporated in England and Wales
I think it's pretty much a one-person operation, so I'd also say it's "artisan"
 
Any Company that's still owned by one person produces artisan goods. That's stretching the definition way beyond the point where it snaps in my book sorry.
What do you expect? A guy sitting in a cottage using a metal file to make razors from blocks of metal?
For me, the guy who designs a razor from scratch on his own and then has it made on a CNC machine is an artisan. YMMV.
 
OK one more go at this then I'll shut up. My mileage does indeed vary.

I'm not criticising the manufacturer of Hone razors or any other high end, low production run razor. They are no doubt very good razors.

The problem I have is the use of the word artisan.

Artisan - a worker in a skilled trade, especially one that involves making things by hand.

I feel the word has been hijacked by marketing departments to mean anything that's well and accurately manufactured in small quantities, regardless of the methods used.

I'd say that a DE razor made by an artisan wouldn't be economically viable. It would require a person in a small engineering workshop (not a cottage), equipped with a lathe, a milling machine, a pillar drill etc. They would use these machines to produce the parts of the razor guiding the machines with their own two hands. Clearly as each razor is individually made the customer could have a slightly longer or shorter handle, a fatter or thinner handle. Within reason it could be made from a material of their choice . A good analogy would be a Saville Row made to measure suit. The downside is I doubt they could make more than ten a day, perhaps not that many. That would put them in the same price range as a high quality tailor made suit.

Here is a video of an artisan crafts person making a razor handle. I doubt it's a very good one, but they designed and made it with their own hands. It goes without saying, the handle is the easy bit!


Once again Sorry!
 
I like Neil's concept, though it's maybe a romanticised version living somewhere in the smoky past. Not entirely superseded, though. These craftsmen still exist, and sometimes they're almost invaluable since they can do things that others can't. Violin makers, for instance, or audio transformer winders. They used to have apprentices that would spend years learning the skill before striking out in their own name or taking over the existing name. Young dedicated guys hunched over their work while their contemporaries were out exploring the pleasures of the world. They'd join together in guilds, and were celebrated in works like Wagner's Meistersinger.

But the reality is changing. With 3D printing anything can be custom made. And anyway, larger workshops routinely do custom made orders alongside their regular stock. And where do you draw the line at scaling up the output? One guy designs the part, then gets it made cheaper in China or India, which wasn't an option in the smoky past. Where does the "artisan" definition of the product change - when it leaves his front door? I've also used the male version here but the "artisan" could easily be a woman at home with kids, or indeed just at home without kids. Another way of looking at this is being "self-employed" which, for instance, a good percentage of Vietnamese are. This doesn't mean they're selling expensive products - they may be barely making a living. I don't know much about carpets, but that's another obvious example of hand-made products selling for small profit margins. It seems to me that when you start to define something like "the artisan" in 2018 it starts slipping through your fingers pretty quickly.
 
OK one more go at this then I'll shut up. My mileage does indeed vary.

I'm not criticising the manufacturer of Hone razors or any other high end, low production run razor. They are no doubt very good razors.

The problem I have is the use of the word artisan.

Artisan - a worker in a skilled trade, especially one that involves making things by hand.

....

Here is a video of an artisan crafts person making a razor handle. I doubt it's a very good one, but they designed and made it with their own hands. It goes without saying, the handle is the easy bit!


Once again Sorry!
If I agree with your definition, then the guy in the video is not an artisan, as he doesn't make the handle by hand - he uses a machine.
New definition: Artisan - someone who doesn't have electricity (or a steam engine). :p
 
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If I agree with your definition, then the guy in the video is not an artisan, as he doesn't make the handle by hand - he uses a machine.
New definition: Artisan - someone who doesn't have electricity (or a steam engine). :p
I may be having a sense of humour failure here, if I am I apologise.
I feel that what powers the lathe is not relevant, in this video. All the power does is rotate the work piece. It's what guides the cutting tool that's important. There's a handle that moves the cutting tool towards and away from the work, and another that moves it along the length of the work. He's using his hands to move those handles.
 
Programming a CNC is a skill, but there is also some art to it. Calculating tool wear, minimising waste both in cutting time & material. Its not point & click. There is also finishing which will require some handling, manual skill/craft.
So if one person creates & designs the piece & another programs & operates lathe, this is a modern, artisan product.
 
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