Tester, you absolutely must never buy a Ferrari. They look lovely from a distance but if you look closely at the details it is quickly apparent they are not up to the standards of a high volume mass production car like a Mercedes or a Toyota. Owners buy Ferraris for other reasons, not the build quality, and they would indeed be disappointed if they had thought the astronomical price tag should imply otherwise. Ferraris are built the way low volume, non-automated production things are built. The stitching on the leather is wonky, the welds are clumsy, panels don’t always fit as perfectly as you’d like, and occasionally they catch fire. Owning a Ferrari is bracing and exciting, in many ways.
That said, Rocnel razors are not all that expensive, and mine seems to be impeccably engineered and built. Certainly a lot better built than any Ferrari. But if Murat is making maybe a hundred and then tweaking the design a bit and making a hundred slightly different ones, it is inevitable that there will be some defects from time to time. He doesn’t allow himself the volume and stability of production to identify and iron out every possible failure point. And that’s also one of the things that makes buying a Rocnel attractive - it’s always new and improved and a bit experimental.
I guess my point is that I bought a particular limited-time variant of what was already a single year, low production razor design, expecting that it was well made with high quality materials, and an excellent shaver. And it is all of those things. I also knew that it is essentially a prototype in some ways, and that Murat’s drive to continually tweak and improve the razor means they will always be prototypes. Each new variant will improve on issues that were found in prior versions, but will also introduce new ideas that can result in a small number of unforseen new issues. He could eliminate these issues by making the exact same razor for several years, perfecting every element of production, and not changing the product. But I’m sort of glad that he doesn’t work that way. It is a constantly evolving product, and I think that’s cool. There’s a risk that comes with that, which of course causes occasional disappointments, but it is inevitable and all Murat can do in this circumstance is stand behind his product and take good care of his customers when they have issues, which I think he does.
The defect rate on Sailors seems to be very low for a limited time, low production, and somewhat complex item. But we can’t expect the defect rate to match that of any highly automated and long-term mass produced razor, like a Mühle R89, for example. The flipside is that the Sailor is much more rare, special, innovative, and evolved. I think that is the calculus that buyers have to make.
