Counterfeit Merkur?

[Lion and the Fox]

I recently purchased a much sought after Merkur 37G from a fellow member. I was also fortunate enough to have been loaned a Merkur 39C from another outstanding member of this forum to try. Upon receiving my 37G and gazing at it's beauty, I noticed that the lettering on both of these was different, as was the Merkur insignia head icon. This got me thinking and wondering if the difference was due to the distinct models, year of make, or if one of these was a counterfeit razor. (I know this is common in other products. I mainly became very wary as a young cigar-loving officer during my tours in Iraq, where "Cubans" were sold, and through research I found many of these to be fakes based on their labels.)

So, I pose this question...does anybody have any additional information? Does your razor look like either of these?



39C Merkur Head Icon



37G Merkur Head Icon




39C Lettering




37G Lettering




More 37G Lettering


What do you gentlemen (and ladies) think?

 

[Toothpick]

i'm not sure it would be worth it to counterfeit razors.....
considering all it would take to pull it off.

but I really don't know.

my head and lettering look like the 39C
I have a 34C

 

[rockviper]

Different handles, different molds is my guess.

 

[AABCDS]

I think it might be different years or something. I've seen both types of fonts on Merkur razors. I don't know which came first.

 

[nemo]

The curved style lettering is earlier. Looking at some of my razors, it looks like they changed at some point on the three piece razors in the 90's. My 37G still got the old style and it was purchased in the 2000's though.

Things change, logos change for almost all companies. Like Toothpick says, it would be tough to profitably pull off.

 

[Lion and the Fox]

Oh, there is always profitability in pirating and counterfeiting. If you can pass off an inferior product you can make a great deal of money, I see it all the time. It's comforting to know that some of you have seen both styles before.

 

[dynagroove]

My 37C has the new style font like the 39C pictured. Pretty tough to find an online image of just the Merkur logo on the 37G. Then I remembered that I had a Merkur handle from a 3 piece in my stash of extras. Sure enough, that handle has the old style font. Like so:

 

[tomcj2]

I have 3 Merkurs (33C, 37C, and 39C), all bought within the past 8 months, and each from a different vendor. Each vendor was from a different country. All have the same font as the 39C shown in Post#1

 

[njpaddy]

My 3+ year old 34G has the curved font like that 37G.

 

[Lion and the Fox]

So gentlemen, it seems that the curvier ("Eastern") looking font is the earlier style and the straighter ("blocky") font is the on all recent Merkurs. I guess it's safe to say that we're not dealing with counterfeits. I appreciate everyone chiming in and especially dynagroove showing that pic.

 

[Lion and the Fox]

I think the mystery has been solved and we've contributed a tiny bit of knowledge to the forum.

 

[dpm802]

I checked my 34G and 39C and they both have the same font and logo as your 37G. Both were purchased in 2009.

There were rumors going around the board that Merkur was re-tooling their factory a couple of years ago, replacing old, worn out equipment with newer manufacturing gear. This may account for the different fonts and logos.

As someone else mentioned, its unlikely that either one is a counterfeit. There are far more profitable things that can be manufactured if one were so inclined. If there were fake Merkurs floating around, we would have seen a lot more of them by now.

 

[celestino]

Very interesting thread and information and enjoy your Mekurs.

 

[alex2363]

Wow, Doug and all the fellow Badgers are getting more educated every day, I feel proud of all of our members knowledge.

 

[dpm802]

Wow, Doug and all the fellow Badgers are getting more educated every day, I feel proud of all of our members knowledge.

Speaking of getting edumacated, do you know how the company came to be named Merkur in the first place?

Spoiler

The company was founded my a man whose last name was Hermes. He wanted to name the firm after himself, but there was already a business with this name (think of expensive scarves, handbags and other accessories for women.) Since Hermes is the Messenger of the Greek gods, he chose the Roman equivalent, Mercury as the name of his new company. Merkur is Mercury in German.

 

[Lion and the Fox]

Very interesting bit of knowledge!

 

[Toothpick]

Speaking of getting edumacated, do you know how the company came to be named Merkur in the first place?

Spoiler

The company was founded my a man whose last name was Hermes. He wanted to name the firm after himself, but there was already a business with this name (think of expensive scarves, handbags and other accessories for women.) Since Hermes is the Messenger of the Greek gods, he chose the Roman equivalent, Mercury as the name of his new company. Merkur is Mercury in German.

Never knew that! thanks for the info.

"there are two types of people in the world. Educated and unjucated." - Uncle Si

 

[bhorsoft]

As someone else mentioned, its unlikely that either one is a counterfeit. There are far more profitable things that can be manufactured if one were so inclined. If there were fake Merkurs floating around, we would have seen a lot more of them by now.

Very true - counterfeiters like High Value and or High Volume products to counterfeit. Unfortunately (or, for us, fortunately) DEs tend to be low value/low volume items.

 

[dynagroove]

Wow, Doug and all the fellow Badgers are getting more educated every day, I feel proud of all of our members knowledge.

I'm amazed by what I learn here every time I log in. You folks are a wealth of knowledge! Thank you for sharing your gift.

 

[Luc]

Bumping an old thread as I noticed that too.

Long story short, I bought a 38c from a fellow member here and another 38c from a vendor online. I bought 2 because I loved the first one but it doesn't look like it will hold a lifetime so I got a spare (yeah, it's that good!).

I received number 2 yesterday and the font on it is squarish (like 39c) where number 1 is like the 37g (more of the "Eastern" font). I will try to post some pictures eventually.

EDIT: also, this thread showed up in the "similar threads" box at the bottom so it might be worth mentioning : http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/88609-Counterfeit-Merkur