Oneblade Razor

[Haggises]

Between one Valet that can take despined GEMs, Feather Pros in AC and CJB, GEMs in various SEs, couple hundred DE blades for DE razors that are begging to be used more....
I think 10 FHS blades for one Valet should last me longer than the lifetime of the Oneblade company.

 

[beisler]

Between one Valet that can take despined GEMs, Feather Pros in AC and CJB, GEMs in various SEs, couple hundred DE blades for DE razors that are begging to be used more....
I think 10 FHS blades for one Valet should last me longer than the lifetime of the Oneblade company.

Well than you have nothing to worry about. HOWEVER, other people do because the blades will NOT be available once Amazon and Maggards current stock is gone--which is the point of this thread.

 

[Haggises]

Well than you have nothing to worry about. HOWEVER, other people do because the blades will NOT be available once Amazon and Maggards current stock is gone--which is the point of this thread.

Indeed, which is one of the two reasons I have never considered buying a Oneblade and have been critical of them in this very thread. No need to get shouty.

 

[beisler]

Indeed, which is one of the two reasons I have never considered buying a Oneblade and have been critical of them in this very thread. No need to get shouty.

Sorry--didn't mean to be shouty

 

[Haggises]

NO WORRIES, eh

 

[BladeSchool]

I own a Oneblade and find it my easiest razor with which to get a perfect shave. By perfect I mean baby bottom smooth, without any burn. The pivot design feature is a real benefit, especially on your neck. I have some razors that can get as close, but I feel the sting on my neck when the aftershave goes on. I also have razors that never burn, but don't provide me as close a shave, no matter what blade I use. I own and have shaved with a lot of razors. I can't say the cost/benefit is worth it for everybody, heck I only justify it cause shaving is a hobby to me. I get two to three shaves (three pass each) with a blade. YMMV.

Cheers,
BladeSchool

 

[lancelot]

BladeSchool-

I think you are right on with everything you say about the Oneblade. I even used the hobby reason to justify the purchase for myself.
YMMV applies to me when you say you can get 2 to 3 shaves from a blade. I feel there is a real difference between the 2nd and 3rd shaves. Have you found a secret I haven't? If so, please share.
Many thanks, Ron I

 

[johnnywingo]

From a business start-up perspective, I would assume that OB's engineers found the heavier Feather blade worked well with their razor. (The spring is pretty heavy so there will to be significant pressure on the blade potentially causing thinner blades to buckle). Either Feather saw this as a way to kick up the sales of a small production blade, or OB looked at it as a way to recoup some R&D dollars and or maintain their high end appeal... a deal was struck... remember iPhone and AT&T. The reality is that the blade production qualities for OB and other FHS-10 razors are not creating enough production quantities to drive the price down (or they are milking it during the introduction and growth stages of the product life cycle...everyone does...heck I teach that in Business Strategy courses). It Is the only window of time when you can. But profit margins of this size, plus growing demand WILL attract the attention of competitiors who will want to get in on the action. That's when price competition will occur and the prices will come down. You said these blades have been around since 1910 so there shouldn't be any patents to stop knock-offs. Maybe even better blades that can get more shaves. Competition and strategy is always fluid and evolving.

As for comparing the price of FHS-10 versus carts, is irrelevant for shavers like myself that get too much irritation and too many ingrown hairs from carts. So that is just not an option. I bought blades from Connaught recently which will (in my rotation with Rockwell and ATT slant) last me a few years. We shall see what the price and availability of OB and its blade are then.

As for getting tools and retro fitting Gems. That's not for me. That's not how I want to spend my time. If I counted the labor cost for me to do that, the blades would be a couple dollars apiece. I'd rather spend the time with my daughter playing softball, or my son, playing ping pong.

As for the number of great shaves I get from one FHS-10?
I get 2. So $0.35 per shave. I've spent $75 on Aqua de Parma and that was a waste. But then I tried the Maggards synthetic brush for $11 and it was great. I use it instead of my expensive Silvertip Seville Row Brush.

I love the journey.

Be Well

Someone coined the phrase "living between shaves". I like that too.

 

[muzichead]

Great perspective...

 

[johnnywingo]

Thank you Muzichead.

 

[Komboloi]

You said these blades have been around since 1910 so there shouldn't be any patents to stop knock-offs. Maybe even better blades that can get more shaves.

It's not a patent issue with these blades; it's a trademark issue. That's what AutoStrop did that was so clever. Instead of patenting the design of the blade, it trademarked the imprint that forms the holes in the blade. Trademarks don't expire. So although your economic theory about new market entrants is sound, it doesn't apply in this case. A new entrant to the market would have to create a blade with sufficiently similar hole alignments to fit the various FHS-10 razor types AND make sure it's sufficiently dissimilar to the Feather pattern to avoid infringing Feather's trademarked hole design.

As for the number of great shaves I get from one FHS-10?
I get 2. So $0.35 per shave.

That's over $10 per month in razor blades. I'm happy for you that you like your system, but that's not for me. I'm not going to spend $400 on a razor for the privilege of spending $120 per year to supply it with blades.

 

[Salty O'Rourke]

It's not a patent issue with these blades; it's a trademark issue. That's what AutoStrop did that was so clever. Instead of patenting the design of the blade, it trademarked the imprint that forms the holes in the blade. Trademarks don't expire. So although your economic theory about new market entrants is sound, it doesn't apply in this case. A new entrant to the market would have to create a blade with sufficiently similar hole alignments to fit the various FHS-10 razor types AND make sure it's sufficiently dissimilar to the Feather pattern to avoid infringing Feather's trademarked hole design.

It could be done - Fuller Blade Co. (Eastmor) did it, and probably some others.

​

Personally I doubt that there will ever be a demand large enough for knock-offs to appear. OB is doomed by its price point and blades-by-subscription-only scheme. What works for Harry's and Dollar Shave Club won't work for OB due to the price of admission.

 

[Komboloi]

It could be done - Fuller Blade Co. (Eastmor) did it, and probably some others.

Personally I doubt that there will ever be a demand large enough for knock-offs to appear. OB is doomed by its price point and blades-by-subscription-only scheme. What works for Harry's and Dollar Shave Club won't work for OB due to the price of admission.

Good points. I agree.

 

[Matlock]

I would be interested to know how many Oneblade razors have been sold. We have had reports of razor numbers in the 9900s but that would seem to be rather high for the length of time that they have been available. Can anyone who purchased one early on report their razor numbers?

 

[Komboloi]

I would be interested to know how many Oneblade razors have been sold. We have had reports of razor numbers in the 9900s but that would seem to be rather high for the length of time that they have been available. Can anyone who purchased one early on report their razor numbers?

I too am curious about the number they've sold, I guess because it just doesn't seem like something I'd buy. Pretty narrow way of viewing the world, I guess, but there you have it.

I'm not sure the numbers on the razors are going to tell much about that though. You'd have to assume they were being sold in numerical order so that the last one sold would indicate how many had been sold. And that wouldn't be the smart way to sell them. Low numbers could be held back for "collectors" or high numbers sold first to create an impression of demand, or both. Or they could all be in boxes someplace, sold randomly depending on how the boxes are stacked.

 

[muzichead]

I too am curious about the number they've sold, I guess because it just doesn't seem like something I'd buy. Pretty narrow way of viewing the world, I guess, but there you have it.

I'm not sure the numbers on the razors are going to tell much about that though. You'd have to assume they were being sold in numerical order so that the last one sold would indicate how many had been sold. And that wouldn't be the smart way to sell them. Low numbers could be held back for "collectors" or high numbers sold first to create an impression of demand, or both. Or they could all be in boxes someplace, sold randomly depending on how the boxes are stacked.

I would say from what I have read around the net that this post would be almost spot on. I do remember seeing some S/N's posted somewhere, but that wasn't taking into consideration the different versions. S/N's were from both and the range was a very large gap from one to the other.

 

[Matlock]

From what I have gathered so far No. 9704 was bought in around October last year and #09999 in January this year. Does this sound about right? I just wonder what the market is for "high end" razors like the Oneblade.

 

[Len1]

It's not a patent issue with these blades; it's a trademark issue. That's what AutoStrop did that was so clever. Instead of patenting the design of the blade, it trademarked the imprint that forms the holes in the blade. Trademarks don't expire. So although your economic theory about new market entrants is sound, it doesn't apply in this case. A new entrant to the market would have to create a blade with sufficiently similar hole alignments to fit the various FHS-10 razor types AND make sure it's sufficiently dissimilar to the Feather pattern to avoid infringing Feather's trademarked hole design.

It wasn't a trademark issue for Feather to copy the cutouts of the original Valet blade without spelling "Valet". And since the cutouts on the Feather don't spell anything, I can't see how their blade is trademarked. Also, since Valet is no longer sold, one can assume Valet's trademark is no longer valid.

Not that any of this matters, because OneBlade doesn't hold the blade from the middle of the blade, but from the sides. No patent or trademark issue here at all, which is why it is so easy to clip the sides of a GEM blade to make it perfectly fit the OneBlade as well.

I too am curious about the number they've sold, I guess because it just doesn't seem like something I'd buy. Pretty narrow way of viewing the world, I guess, but there you have it.

I'm not sure the numbers on the razors are going to tell much about that though. You'd have to assume they were being sold in numerical order so that the last one sold would indicate how many had been sold. And that wouldn't be the smart way to sell them. Low numbers could be held back for "collectors" or high numbers sold first to create an impression of demand, or both. Or they could all be in boxes someplace, sold randomly depending on how the boxes are stacked.

The first numbered OneBlades #1-10 were sold at auction before they went public, selling in the tens of thousands of dollars. Early number #10-101 were sold at $1,000 and have been sold out for quite awhile now.

OneBlade's main market is not to people that hang out on shaving forums. They have actual multi-millionaire types invested in them, and advertise in the luxury market to corporate types to those that want the highest end product, giving the best possible shave, but don't want to deal with the learning curve that an old school safety razor demands. It wasn't too long after their release in 2015 that they sent out an email thanking early adopters for recouping their million+ dollar investment.

So, I think they're doing fine, even if most people aren't into, or can't afford, high end shaving gear. I don't know many people that can buy a Rolex or Ferrari either, but they don't seem like they're going under any time soon.

 

[Komboloi]

It's probably a decent razor. And if people are buying them just to have them or collect them or because they like to buy expensive things for the sake of their being expensive things, I say go for it. I've met many such people. Many happy shaves.

But the whole thing just seems a little ... slick to me. A little bit of a ... way of separating people with money from that money by selling exclusivity behind which is ... just a good razor. Before founding OneBlade, Porter Stansberry had a history. His wiki page is interesting to me.

 

[Len1]

It's probably a decent razor. And if people are buying them just to have them or collect them or because they like to buy expensive things for the sake of their being expensive things, I say go for it. I've met many such people. Many happy shaves.

But the whole thing just seems a little ... slick to me. A little bit of a ... way of separating people with money from that money by selling exclusivity behind which is ... just a good razor. Before founding OneBlade, Porter Stansberry had a history. His wiki page is interesting to me.

Luxury goods are exclusive products, always have been, always will be. This may be hard to understand for some people inexperienced with luxury goods.

OneBlade is made with PANACEA stainless steel, a better, harder and tougher metal than any razor ever made. It is also made to give you the closest BBS shave that is safer than any other safety razor. No learning curve, and it won't cut or nick like other safety razors. It is made from a better material, and can shave safer than any safety razor ever made. You may not care about a razor that is made of the best material, or that won't cut you, but there is a market out there for people that do care about that level of quality and innovation.