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My post was not in reference to razors made decades earlier that removed the base plate notch from the original Gibbs. Just in relation to these two companies, Heritage & Yaqi and on what has transpired between them and the desire to produce a near replica of a famed razor.
Respectfully,
GB
I appreciate that. That's a bit of a shambles. It would be interesting to know who Heritage were working with in China. I'll go out on a limb and guess Baili. They did a similar stunt with Vikings. Vikings contracted them to produce a razor exclusively for Vikings - the Blade Chieftain, which became an Amazon best seller. Baili decided to capitalize on the success and produced a razor that was almost identical to the Blade Chieftain - the Baili BD179. There was some bad blood and I understand Vikings no longer works with Baili. The whole story was published by Vikings somewhere on the net.
Possibly Heritage was also working with Baili, but Baili decided to go with Yaqi instead - using the Heritage idea and possibly design, depending on how far Heritage has come. Baili makes some pretty nice razors at very reasonable prices, but IP is just not a big thing in China. The whole concept of 'cheating' and plagiarism is different. My wife teaches at university in China, and students copying from each other at exams is considered totally acceptable. They even go into the room before the exam and write notes on the walls. It's a different culture. If you want to do business in China, you better be aware of that. Sounds like Heritage was a bit blue eyed venturing into this.
Another contender would be Weishi. Some other Vikings razor look too similar to Weishi's to be a coincidence. Weishi also has a bit of a signature handle that gives their razors away.
As far as I know, Ming Shi makes only two razors - the 2000S (Futur Clone), and the 3000S - also an adjustable. I don't know if they make other razors under contract.
All the other Chinese names seem to sell only razors these three make under their own name. At least the way it appears to me mostly from looking at what's available on AliExpress and Amazon.