Thread: Razolution: handmade in Solingen

Cruising Ebay, I saw ads for a straight razor called the Razolution, that is supposedly made in Solingen, Germany. I was intrigued, and curious to how bad a razor that was actually made in Solingen could be. Having some surplus funds in my Paypal account, and having previous experience with the vendor (who goes out of his way to help newbies just like Larry Andro), I thought I would pull the trigger on one of them.

Here is the companies website:

http://www.simbatec.com/index.php?en_nassrasierer

I chose the model with the Granite looking scales. I purchased it shave ready from "starshavingsupplies" on E-Bay. It showed up today.



I like the looks of the razor. It centers nicely in the scales, and the scales don't feel super cheap like they do on a Gold Dollar.

There is nothing stamped on the tang, just is printed "Germany". Blade itself says "Razolution-Carbon Steel-handmade in Solingen".



The blade seems plenty sharp enough, but I am straight razor newbie, so maybe not the best judge of that. I took it for a test spin, and got a decent nick free shave.

The razor does suffer from a few issues. First, the scales are not entirely even when they join together at the wedge. One is slightly longer than the other:



Second, the blade suffers from an uneven grid, with the backside of the razor being the worst. The grind starts out rather normal, but then curves greatly to almost no grind at all by the time it get's to the shoulder/ heal of the razor. Is such a bad grind going to negatively effect the function of the razor, or is it pure aesthetics?



Here is the front side for purposes of comparison:



I paid roughly $65 shipped for it, so I wasn't expecting the world.


~John~

So what are the legal steps to be followed in Germany in order to be able to stamp "Solingen" and "Germany" on a razor? If all that is required is for the blade to be pinned in the scales in those locations, then I can only assume that these blades and scales originated elsewhere, otherwise known as "Pakistan" or even "China". Horrible grinding job in the photos. Ditto on the blade finish. I have never before seen a German manufactured blade with such an uneven bevel. Thank you for taking a chance and showing us this less than desirable product up close so we can be warned! Where is German trade law enforcement?

I bought one of these on e-bay a couple months ago as "defective store stock" from the Nashville Knife Shop.com. I should say that the shop itself was excellent, the product was decently described, service was very good. The razor itself came with some pitting and a rust spot just as they said. I paid $17.00 shipped for this, mostly for fun and out of curiosity.

All that was the good part. It cleaned up ok, I was able to remove the corrosion easily. Then I rubbed it with a little Flitz and a paper towel ..... and the word "Germany" on the tang disappeared. The inscription on the blade was significantly faded.

Still pretty enough, I decided to hone it, it simply wasn't sharp. This shouldn't be too hard, I thought, this razor is new, the spine is completely unworn, I can hone this, I've honed lots tougher razors. I took it to my 1k Ice Bear and went to work. After about 10 minutes with no success, no edge development, nothin'...I finally put it under the loupe to see what was going on. That's when I discovered I had bevels going every which way, that factory edge was a mess and I should have examined it more closely before I started.

I put on one layer of tape (I very rarely tape, especially on a hollow) and tried again. Nothing. Ten more minutes of trying to develop a bevel and I still couldn't get any real edge happening.

For the time being, I gave up, and it sits in a drawer until some day when I'm really mad at myself or maybe I take it over to Holli4's place and let him try some Naniwa magic.

But....so far, I think these might be plain old unhoneable crap from a country that used to give a damn about what the name went on.

Originally Posted by Croaker

Ditto on the blade finish.

I should have mentioned in my original post, that the blade is covered in oil/ Vaseline, so the finish looks far worst that it actually is. It might not be perfect, but it's not as disastrous as it looks in the photos.

I have never before seen a German manufactured blade with such an uneven bevel. Thank you for taking a chance and showing us this less than desirable product up close so we can be warned!

Fully agree, the bevel/grind is pretty horrid, and in my mind is the most disappointing feature of the razor.

I have been in touch with the vendor, who indicates he is going to try to correct the uneven bevel/grind on the razor for free. Effectively a re-honing. He said being a new razor he was reluctant to remove a lot of metal from the blade. Ron from "starshavingsupplies" is an outstanding gentleman, and always a pleasure to do business with.

AFAIK, a company can make a blade and scales wherever they like, but as long as they assemble the razor in Germany they can stamp Solingen on it.

So it really could be a razor from anywhere TBH. My gut feeling is that it may well be a GD/Zeepk type razor, and it may not even be able to hold an edge.

Certainly stimpy52's assessment indicates that this may well be the case. From the description of the honing it sounds like the steel is of low quality and might be collapsing as a bevel is being set?

I'd be interested to hear if this razor will take a shaving edge and if it can, how the shaves compare to DOVO, TI and other production razors.

Originally Posted by Stubear

AFAIK, a company can make a blade and scales wherever they like, but as long as they assemble the razor in Germany they can stamp Solingen on it.

So it really could be a razor from anywhere TBH. My gut feeling is that it may well be a GD/Zeepk type razor, and it may not even be able to hold an edge.

Certainly stimpy52's assessment indicates that this may well be the case. From the description of the honing it sounds like the steel is of low quality and might be collapsing as a bevel is being set?

I'd be interested to hear if this razor will take a shaving edge and if it can, how the shaves compare to DOVO, TI and other production razors.

That's what it seemed like -- I would get just shy of feeling an edge when it would just disappear. On other blades, that just meant I had to do a few circular strokes, I had likely used a little too much pressure and formed a fin. Not so on the Razolution, a few circular strokes just took it back to a butter spreader.

I plan to try it again, but in the meantime I keep it in a dark drawer to punish it.

http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/geoi...www_102737.pdf

To be legally stamped Solingen it needs to be a properly made product
So if this is a unusable product it probably break the trademark protection

hhmm..... maybe they are made in Solingen, China.

Originally Posted by michiganlover

Second, the blade suffers from an uneven grid, with the backside of the razor being the worst. The grind starts out rather normal, but then curves greatly to almost no grind at all by the time it get's to the shoulder/ heal of the razor. Is such a bad grind going to negatively effect the function of the razor, or is it pure aesthetics?

I have some bad news for you. From the photo you provide of the back side of the blade, it appears there is no spine to speak of at the heel end of the blade. It will not be possible to hone that razor to a usable sharpness.

I would recommend you return that razor to the seller for a refund because it is defective equipment and therefore does not match the seller's description (i.e.: he did not describe it as defective and unable to be honed properly).
Namaste,
Morty -_-

Originally Posted by Morty

I have some bad news for you. From the photo you provide of the back side of the blade, it appears there is no spine to speak of at the heel end of the blade. It will not be possible to hone that razor to a usable sharpness.

I am confused as to what you mean?? The razor appears to have a normal double shoulder, and spine to me?? Can you explain further?