Weber Razor...

[AP Cassity]

From looking at their web site, I am assuming that Weber is no longer selling razors, just handles. All mention of their heads have been removed from weberrazor.com

Am I missing something? If so that is sad news for me, I was planning to purchase one as soon as some other obligations were resolved. :-(

 

[Geoface]

I'm wondering the same thing...

Someone just mentioned Weber in anther post but all I could find were the handles online.

Hopefully someone chimes in.

 

[binoy]

FWIW, if you want stainless heads (if Weber doesn't make them anymore) you could always get the Weber handles and get Above The Tie heads? I just ordered the ATT Kronos M1 and on their site they say the Kronos handle will work on a Weber head so I would think they are interchangeable.

 

[cheeks]

I'm beginning to feel like I hit the lottery.

I ordered my first Weber on January 5. Then I ordered two more on Jan. 22...one for a travel razor and one for backup to the other two. I must have bought some of the last ones available.

I've shaved with two of them. No wavy blade issues and they perform like a dream. The third one passes the eyeball test, but even if it turns out to be imperfect I feel like I got lucky.

Hopefully they'll have more heads available soon, and without any QC issues so that more people can buy this outstanding stainless steel razor. However if they don't, can't say I blame them for concentrating on handles. Just the time and cost of handling a returned head probably eats the profit margin. Bet none of the handles are returned.

 

[eaglesgift]

They're not very communicative from what I can see. No explanation on their website as to why they have stopped selling heads and no acknowledgement of the problems that many people seem to have experienced with their products. Not a company I would want to deal with.

 

[love_the_experience]

I just received mine today, getting ready for my night shave. I ordered it a week ago.

Strange they don't have them on the web anymore !

 

[dfoulk]

They're not very communicative from what I can see. No explanation on their website as to why they have stopped selling heads and no acknowledgement of the problems that many people seem to have experienced with their products. Not a company I would want to deal with.

They've been an excellent company for the wet shaving community for years, offering several all stainless steel razors for unbeatable prices. They've been extremely solid up until recently and a great company to deal with.

I have no information other than my suspicions which I usually wouldn't post but this is a great vendor here and I'd hope that my suspicions might help some to cut them some slack. So here's my guess and it's totally a guess on my part.

I suspect that some of the equipment used to make the razors might be in need of some costly repairs or may even be approaching end of life. Or maybe they are in need of a new manufacturer to make the razor heads. With a high repair/replacement cost or a higher cost manufacturer they may have to make a decision on whether it's even profitable to continue to produce the razors. So as far as no updates on the web site maybe they just don't know how this will end up yet. Taking the razors off the site is good because they likely don't have any that meet their quality specifications to sell and might not know if and when they will.

I'd hate to see this razor disappear because it's a great razor that many here have kind things to say about. I hope then can find a way to work through their problems and produce some more great razors even if a price increase is necessary. They could have easily charged more for the razors all these years but didn't. They are worth it. We have too few options in all stainless steel to be losing another one.

Sorry about posting a guess and I don't want anyone to spread this information as factual. It's just my thoughts for what they are worth.

 

[godlike]

I was considering them for my original DE purchase, glad i got my Merkur 38C. Stainless steel or not,it puts in work

 

[anandabd]

The key to Webber's success was, they were able to sell stainless steel razor at 70$ only. Compared to Ikon, ATT and Feather they were lot cheaper. My guess is it were probably difficult to make and sell stainless steel razor and at the same time maintain the quality at that price point. I hope they come soon with a bang and give a healthy competition to the others.

 

[Enquerencia]

Wow, I am glad I got one before they pulled them! I can't imagine that mine has any problems, it shaves wonderfully, although it does seem way more aggressive than it looks, so maybe it has a tiny bit of wave to it that causes that aggressiveness, but I've gotten comfortable with it and use it three to five times a week. My other favorite is an R41, so apparently I like my razors to be pretty aggressive. For me I still respect Weber as a company. American made stainless steel razors for $70? Yes please! And the fact that they've pulled them means that they don't want to sell a product that has issues. Hopefully they figure out what the problem is and are able to produce them again. And I'm %100 happy with mine, so I just consider myself lucky.

 

[gsurko]

On the up-side. I have two vintage Webber's now.

 

[147_Grain]

Along the lines of dfoulk's speculation I'll add my own. Their handles are done in a CNC machine most likely (the design could be done by a machinist on a lathe but there would be no advantage to doing it that way), whereas the razor heads are sintered then polished. Tooling to sinter stainless steel (17-4PH is what they used for the heads) has a finite life span (shorter than tooling to cast or sinter aluminum or brass and much much shorter than tooling to cast zamak), and there are fewer shops that do it than there are shops that do CNC. Their tooling may have gotten to the point where it's nearing the end of its life, or their sintering shop may have closed, raised their prices or stopped taking orders from them.

They also may have just gotten tired with the post-polishing process for heads and the greatly increased QC/QA burden for heads.

It's weird that they dropped all mention of ever having sold razors from the site (look at the Wayback Machine and you can see that it was somewhat laborious to edit it all out!) rather than just posting a message saying they no longer sell razor heads. From what I've heard they've always been great to their customers though. Sad to see them go, I was considering getting a Weber Bulldog as a travel razor some time down the road.

 

[J-wall]

From time to time Weber seems to either run out or halt production. I witnessed this a few times in 2014. They always came back, so at this point I would not say that it is right to think of this as permanent. I had to wait on mine last May and after I got mine they stopped selling again. Now, in all those cases there was an explanation on the website and I am writing this without having looked over there, so maybe this is different, but so far it doesn't feel all that different. Just my 2 pence.

 

[BSAGuy]

Consider a vintage Gillette instead. Lifetime quality, low, low prices and classic shaves. What else could a shaver ask for?

 

[5370H55V]

Consider a vintage Gillette instead. Lifetime quality, low, low prices and classic shaves. What else could a shaver ask for?

AFAIK none of vintage gillettes are made of stainless steel, which is the main selling point of a weber

 

[ElectroMike]

It's sad if Weber does not come back to full production.

As someone who shaves almost daily and owns about 30+ various razors, Weber is still my go to daily with an R41 coming in 2nd place for a weekend bush wackin' session.

No other razor I own is truly on par with the Weber. That said, there is still a good amount of razors I have not tried, so there is hope for a match but no contender yet.

 

[cheeks]

Consider a vintage Gillette instead. Lifetime quality, low, low prices and classic shaves. What else could a shaver ask for?

I have my late father in law's Aristocrat. Really wanted to like it but for me, I got much better shaves with the EJ 89. I bought the Weber primarily for the bulldog handle, then at the least minute decided "let's add the head, why not". Bingo....brand new world. I've only been DE shaving a few months so I'm not a pro but I'm flying with the Weber, flashing it like a samurai and getting BBS every time. That's how no-brainer easy it is *for me*.

Again, this is a YMMV thing, so you can't say one is better than the other and apply it to the entire universe of DE shavers out there.

 

[mastershake]

i agree imo the weber shaves MUCH better than the ej89 or the hd merkur. some say its similar to the merkur but i find the shave much better with the weber. i to am hoping they come back i have a few family members that are sad they missed out on them.

 

[lindley]

Funny that once their gone, then everyone wants one. Im sure theres a saying for this, just cant remember it right now. Ive talked to other shavers about the weber and it was said the weber and the lord l6 shave alike, and that the heads look the same, more so than a weber and a merkur head.

 

[AP Cassity]

I'm very sad... Looking at their website, I'd have to say they are done with razor heads for a long while. Why else would they remove all references?