#1

Merchant
San Diego CA
(This post was last modified: 03-30-2023, 01:10 AM by andrewjs18.)
Hi DFS,

Thanks for having me! My name is Shane and I'm the creator of the stainless steel Blackbird DE razor and the founder of Blackland LLC. Many of you know my story from other forums, but I'll post the short version here anyways.

The story begins almost two years ago. I had an idea for a bicycle part, but with no drawing or design skills I couldn't get the concept from my head to something tangible. It seemed unlikely that I would spontaneously become coordinated, so I decided to learn CAD. I began with the very very rudimentary program Tinkercad and created my first 3d printed prototype. It was exciting, but that program was limited and I needed to learn "real" CAD. I downloaded FreeCAD(an incredible open-source program) and started learning.

I had begun wet shaving in the year prior to all this. One day during my morning shave I thought it would be a fun idea to model a safety razor for practice. The simple concept, but fairly complex geometries of a razor made for great practice. So that's what I did. I modeled a fairly basic razor and had it printed. It even shaved reasonably well. Not great, mind you, but well enough to qualify as a razor. Here is that first model:

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I was inspired by that first razor so I decided to revise the design. Then I revised it again. And again. And again.  Each revision was printed and tested. Soon enough I had a bunch of prototypes and the bicycle project fell by the wayside.

Eventually I wound up with a razor that shaved well. Really well. It shaved so well and looked so cool that I thought other people might enjoy it as well. Here is that final plastic prototype:

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At this time I decided to find a manufacturer to machine this razor in stainless steel. It turns out that was much easier said than done. Over six months later I finally had a few stainless steel razors made. To fund the razors I turned to Kickstarter.

I started the campaign in June(or maybe July) of 2015. It failed. It failed because my pricing strategy was insane and each razor came with a fancy wooden box that added a lot of cost. Two weeks into the campaign we raised $12k(as I recall), but I decided to end the campaign and relaunch with better pricing.

The next campaign began on August 1st and was fully funded with $23k raised from ~150 backers in 30 days.

So here we are about four months after that campaign ended and the Blackbird razor is about to ship(on time, by the way). All the parts are in and we are busy packing them to start shipping on Monday.

So that's the very very brief version of a long story. I'll follow up with a few photos of the finished product. More details of the razor can be found on my website(link in sig).

Thanks again for having me and thanks for taking the time read this.

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#2

Member
Los Angeles
Shane, welcome! Good to see you here Smile

Blackland Razors likes this post
#3

Member
Omaha, NE
Great looking razor.

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

Blackland Razors likes this post
"I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate." — George Burns
#4

Super Moderator
San Diego, Cal., USA
Welcome to DFS, Shane. Smile

That is a fine looking razor.

Blackland Razors and stuartganis74 like this post
#5
Hi, Shane, I'm a fan of the Blackland project and we have spoke a lot in one of the Spanish forums. Hope the razor keep on the track for long years to come. Welcomed.

Enviado desde mi XT1032 mediante Tapatalk

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#6

Chazz Reinhold HOF
Hi Shane, glad to see you here. I have had the pleasure of following this project from the start and can't wait to get my razor. It looks beautiful and I know it is going to perform like a champ.

Blackland Razors likes this post
#7

Merchant
San Diego CA
Thanks for the kind words, guys. I'll be more active in the coming days once I get these orders out the door!

jsanchez, Freddy and hrfdez like this post
#8
That's good focus on getting my razor out the door!!!

Sent from my SM-T817V using Tapatalk

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#9
Welcome to DFS, Shane! Glad to see you here.
Everyone, I've used this razor. It's excellent. Check out my review here: https://youtu.be/Ek1-7nDL4QY


- The Clean Shaver

DavidJames and hrfdez like this post
Be smooth, everyone!
- The Clean Shaver
http://bit.ly/1Hv2xca
#10

Chazz Reinhold HOF
(12-28-2015, 01:39 AM)TheCleanShaver Wrote: Welcome to DFS, Shane! Glad to see you here.
Everyone, I've used this razor. It's excellent. Check out my review here: https://youtu.be/Ek1-7nDL4QY


- The Clean Shaver

Watched the review a few days ago. Very nicely done and I liked your honesty about it.

TheCleanShaver likes this post


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