Not to create undue panick, and this is purely speculation. But I am wondering whether Kai's DE blades will soon be hard to obtain.
Apologies in advance for the rambling that is to follow. There is a TLDR at the end.
I used to have a pretty relaxed relationship with wet shaving. After some initial (couple of years, truth be told) trial and error, I had landed on a setup that worked very well for me, and I was content. Mitchell's Wool Fat was my soap, Semogue 620 my brush, Lucky Tiger my aftershave, a vintage Gilette I have no idea what's called my razor, and Kai Stainless Steel my blades. The went on for a decade plus.
Then came the MWF reformulation, which, to paraphrase Kant, awakened my shaving persona from his dogmatic slumber. I didn't notice before August this year, by which time it was too late to secure any more of it at anything below ridiculous prices. My quest for a replacement continues, and I personally consider the soap more important than any other "ingredient" in the mix that comprises the wet shaving experience.
... in any case, this traumatic experience did awaken that old hoarder persona of mine, and although I already have about 100 left I thought it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world to buy some more Kai blades. Storage is a non-issue, prices are only likely to rise, and as we've all learnt from 1984, you can never have too many shaving blades when society turns really bad.
This was back in August. I checked my trusted source, Connaught Shaving, and noticed that they were out of stock. I signed up to be notified once it was restocked. A month and a half passed, nothing. Then I noticed that the link to Kai's DE blades had been removed from their DE blade overview page. (Though they are still listed on Connaught's Kai brand page.) I shot mr. Mayhew, the shop's proprietor, an email to ask whether or not something was going on. I then promptly ordered 50 blades from Gifts & Care, one of the other few European shops I know of that offers these blades. They had a 20% discount on them... *My god, could this mean they had been notified that there would be no more blades to be offered, and that they were doing a "discontinued range" sale?* I sent en email to mr. Gonzalez as well.
As is to be expected from stores with excellent service, both men replied promptly
According to Connaught Shaving, they've been trying to stock the Kai blades for "some time", unsuccessfully. They will continue trying to source them, "but it is unlikely that we will be able to stock them again."
According to Gifts & Care: "we have not received any news from KAI regarding stopping production."
So there's that. I did notice that an Amazon seller was out of stock as well, could of course be completely coincidental (I have no idea when the last time they had them in stock was), but the answer from Connaught does leave me with the feeling that they might, if not disappear completely, become harder to find and/or more expensive (and they're not cheap as it is).
So I promptly orderes 100 more from a Chinese source, I expect this one to be slower to run out than the European vendors (as was the case with MWF tallow, actually) should my concerns have any validity.
TLDR version: According to Connaught Shaving the Kai blades have become more difficult to source. Though no confirmation from anywhere that the blades are actually not being produced anymore, so perhaps/hopefully there is no need for concern.
Apologies in advance for the rambling that is to follow. There is a TLDR at the end.
I used to have a pretty relaxed relationship with wet shaving. After some initial (couple of years, truth be told) trial and error, I had landed on a setup that worked very well for me, and I was content. Mitchell's Wool Fat was my soap, Semogue 620 my brush, Lucky Tiger my aftershave, a vintage Gilette I have no idea what's called my razor, and Kai Stainless Steel my blades. The went on for a decade plus.
Then came the MWF reformulation, which, to paraphrase Kant, awakened my shaving persona from his dogmatic slumber. I didn't notice before August this year, by which time it was too late to secure any more of it at anything below ridiculous prices. My quest for a replacement continues, and I personally consider the soap more important than any other "ingredient" in the mix that comprises the wet shaving experience.
... in any case, this traumatic experience did awaken that old hoarder persona of mine, and although I already have about 100 left I thought it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world to buy some more Kai blades. Storage is a non-issue, prices are only likely to rise, and as we've all learnt from 1984, you can never have too many shaving blades when society turns really bad.
This was back in August. I checked my trusted source, Connaught Shaving, and noticed that they were out of stock. I signed up to be notified once it was restocked. A month and a half passed, nothing. Then I noticed that the link to Kai's DE blades had been removed from their DE blade overview page. (Though they are still listed on Connaught's Kai brand page.) I shot mr. Mayhew, the shop's proprietor, an email to ask whether or not something was going on. I then promptly ordered 50 blades from Gifts & Care, one of the other few European shops I know of that offers these blades. They had a 20% discount on them... *My god, could this mean they had been notified that there would be no more blades to be offered, and that they were doing a "discontinued range" sale?* I sent en email to mr. Gonzalez as well.
As is to be expected from stores with excellent service, both men replied promptly
According to Connaught Shaving, they've been trying to stock the Kai blades for "some time", unsuccessfully. They will continue trying to source them, "but it is unlikely that we will be able to stock them again."
According to Gifts & Care: "we have not received any news from KAI regarding stopping production."
So there's that. I did notice that an Amazon seller was out of stock as well, could of course be completely coincidental (I have no idea when the last time they had them in stock was), but the answer from Connaught does leave me with the feeling that they might, if not disappear completely, become harder to find and/or more expensive (and they're not cheap as it is).
So I promptly orderes 100 more from a Chinese source, I expect this one to be slower to run out than the European vendors (as was the case with MWF tallow, actually) should my concerns have any validity.
TLDR version: According to Connaught Shaving the Kai blades have become more difficult to source. Though no confirmation from anywhere that the blades are actually not being produced anymore, so perhaps/hopefully there is no need for concern.
