Good to Great - Improvements To Existing Razors

I thought I'd start this thread as a place where members can make improvement suggestions to existing razors - if you're going to dream, dream big.  Your suggestions don't have to be practical, reasonable or even possible. 

I'll start with the Rockwell 6s - I love this razor and its my daily driver, usually on plate #3.  I was hesitant to buy this razor at first, I was looking at one of the original review threads where a user said it had a "Soviet" feel to it - I replied asking if it still had traces of the old paint and grease from the tractor parts it had been made from and referred to it as the Lada of razors.  All joking aside, a member whose opinion I respect recommended the Rockwell 6s to giving it very high praise ( Aurelian28 )so I eventually bought one and I've loved it ever since.  Thanks Jay    

There have been two recurring criticisms of the razor and those would be the finish and the heft.  AlanH81 has solved the matter of the finish by applying his skills to put a beautiful mirror polish on the 6s.  Anyone who wants to can, either themselves or through Alan or another skilled polisher, transform their razor from a dreary Lada to a shiny Lada!  

So what about the heft issue?  Here are some ideas:

1. Rockwell can make a titanium version.  I have no idea if the MIM technique used by Rockwell lends itself to the use of titanium as a medium but its worth asking.  A polished titanium Rockwell 6s would be very cool;

2. A skilled aftermarket machinist could skeletonize the stock razors reducing the weight and increasing the cool factor - a polished and skeletonized 6s would be very, very cool.  

I have no idea how messing with the weight of the 6s would affect its handling and performance but it would be worth investigating.  I'm assuming that skeletonizing could be done in a CNC machine and as always, hand polishing, being done by hand, is more expensive.

I thought I'd start this thread as a place where members can make improvement suggestions to existing razors - if you're going to dream, dream big.  Your suggestions don't have to be practical, reasonable or even possible. 

I'll start with the Rockwell 6s - I love this razor and its my daily driver, usually on plate #3.  I was hesitant to buy this razor at first, I was looking at one of the original review threads where a user said it had a "Soviet" feel to it - I replied asking if it still had traces of the old pain and grease from the tractor parts it had been made from and referred to it as the Lada of razors.  All joking aside, a member whose opinion I respect recommended the Rockwell 6s to giving it very high praise ( Aurelian28 )so I eventually bought one and I've loved it ever since.  Thanks Jay    

There have been two recurring criticisms of the razor and those would be the finish and the heft.  AlanH81 has solved the matter of the finish by applying his skills to put a beautiful mirror polish on the 6s.  Anyone who wants to can, either themselves or through Alan or another skilled polisher, transform their razor from a dreary Lada to a shiny Lada!  

So what about the heft issue?  Here are some ideas:

1. Rockwell can make a titanium version.  I have no idea if the MIM technique used by Rockwell lends itself to the use of titanium as a medium but its worth asking.  A polished titanium Rockwell 6s would be very cool;

2. A skilled aftermarket machinist could skeletonize the stock razors reducing the weight and increasing the cool factor - a polished and skeletonized 6s would be very, very cool.  

I have no idea how messing with the weight of the 6s would affect its handling and performance but it would be worth investigating.  I'm assuming that skeletonizing could be done in a CNC machine and as always, hand polishing, being done by hand, is more expensive.

I'm with you on this. I liked the 6s, but eventually sold it because of the weight and finish. It was sub-par in my book to the 6c (which weighted a bit less and was polished). Of course the 6c has its own inherent issues, being all zamak.

If they could polish it up and cut some of the weight, I'd be back on the Rockwell train for sure.

LOVE my AlanH81 Highly Polished 6s with Plate 5. I just need the equivalent polish on my rubber set 400 now

Henson Al 13 "aggressive" level.

Tatara Masamura, Love the razor, shaves like a dream, just wish the indicator window and numbering wasn't so small that only those with better than 20/20 vision could read it.
I sympathize with the 6S a great shaver but has been collecting dust for some time just not as satisfying an experience as most of my other razors

I thought I'd start this thread as a place where members can make improvement suggestions to existing razors - if you're going to dream, dream big.  Your suggestions don't have to be practical, reasonable or even possible. 

I'll start with the Rockwell 6s - I love this razor and its my daily driver, usually on plate #3.  I was hesitant to buy this razor at first, I was looking at one of the original review threads where a user said it had a "Soviet" feel to it - I replied asking if it still had traces of the old pain and grease from the tractor parts it had been made from and referred to it as the Lada of razors.  All joking aside, a member whose opinion I respect recommended the Rockwell 6s to giving it very high praise ( Aurelian28 )so I eventually bought one and I've loved it ever since.  Thanks Jay    

There have been two recurring criticisms of the razor and those would be the finish and the heft.  AlanH81 has solved the matter of the finish by applying his skills to put a beautiful mirror polish on the 6s.  Anyone who wants to can, either themselves or through Alan or another skilled polisher, transform their razor from a dreary Lada to a shiny Lada!  

So what about the heft issue?  Here are some ideas:

1. Rockwell can make a titanium version.  I have no idea if the MIM technique used by Rockwell lends itself to the use of titanium as a medium but its worth asking.  A polished titanium Rockwell 6s would be very cool;

2. A skilled aftermarket machinist could skeletonize the stock razors reducing the weight and increasing the cool factor - a polished and skeletonized 6s would be very, very cool.  

I have no idea how messing with the weight of the 6s would affect its handling and performance but it would be worth investigating.  I'm assuming that skeletonizing could be done in a CNC machine and as always, hand polishing, being done by hand, is more expensive.

I recall there was a rhodium plating option at Razor Emporium, probably is still available?

That would fix issue #1 at least.

Enviado desde mi SM-A307G mediante Tapatalk

Though razors such as the 6S and Karve don't appeal to me at all I can see why some guys like them but I just don't have the space for all the extra plates and am really a minimalist when it comes to shaving. That being said I think Rockwell could lighten up the 6S by splitting up the plates and offer 6 plates instead of 3!! At 50g per plate I'm sure they could split them to roughly 30g per plate and that would bring the entire razor weight to approx 98g instead of 118g... The only other alternative it Titanium and I would doubt they'd even entertain that.

Though razors such as the 6S and Karve don't appeal to me at all I can see why some guys like them but I just don't have the space for all the extra plates and am really a minimalist when it comes to shaving. That being said I think Rockwell could lighten up the 6S by splitting up the plates and offer 6 plates instead of 3!! At 50g per plate I'm sure they could split them to roughly 30g per plate and that would bring the entire razor weight to approx 98g instead of 118g... The only other alternative it Titanium and I would doubt they'd even entertain that.

Wow, thats a pretty good idea. Release it as the Slim-S. If they did away with the 1 and 2 plates for it, they could have it down to an 4 plate kit (only one more than the current iteration).

I bet that weight could drop even further if they did a hollow (or partially hollow) handle. Might make up for the smaller weight up top and keep balance.

If Rockwell reads this and decides to try it, I believe DFS deserves a pass-around copy for the suggestions.

Though razors such as the 6S and Karve don't appeal to me at all I can see why some guys like them but I just don't have the space for all the extra plates and am really a minimalist when it comes to shaving. That being said I think Rockwell could lighten up the 6S by splitting up the plates and offer 6 plates instead of 3!! At 50g per plate I'm sure they could split them to roughly 30g per plate and that would bring the entire razor weight to approx 98g instead of 118g... The only other alternative it Titanium and I would doubt they'd even entertain that.

Though razors such as the 6S and Karve don't appeal to me at all I can see why some guys like them but I just don't have the space for all the extra plates and am really a minimalist when it comes to shaving. That being said I think Rockwell could lighten up the 6S by splitting up the plates and offer 6 plates instead of 3!! At 50g per plate I'm sure they could split them to roughly 30g per plate and that would bring the entire razor weight to approx 98g instead of 118g... The only other alternative it Titanium and I would doubt they'd even entertain that.

Wow, thats a pretty good idea. Release it as the Slim-S. If they did away with the 1 and 2 plates for it, they could have it down to an 4 plate kit (only one more than the current iteration).

I bet that weight could drop even further if they did a hollow (or partially hollow) handle. Might make up for the smaller weight up top and keep balance.

If Rockwell reads this and decides to try it, I believe DFS deserves a pass-around copy for the suggestions.

ALL nice thoughts and ideas. I have no problem with the weight and have heavier razors. The extra plates I don't use are in the box in a drawer so space isn't an issue. I like the idea of splitting the plates and sell just what people want rather than forcing the set. It would slim down the head like timeless did. Nice name for it too Paul !

Cool thread Marko

I love the 6S. Honestly, I could have stopped buying razors after getting mine. Its a USA-made, Stainless and comes with various plates all for $99. Hard to beat that IMO. If they offered polishing, intricate machining, titanium, etc, it would be a lot more than $99. So keep that in mind. I do like the idea of a "slim" version, but I think part of why this razor works so well for me is how it bends and secures the blade. So a slim version may change the performance to something else.

Now, another razor that is awesome, but could be tweaked is the WSC Winning Razor. Its also USA-made and Stainless. I think I bought mine new for ~$45 shipped. I dig it a lot, but it has some large flat surfaces that create a suction/drag on the face. If they could somehow add some scallops or minimize the flat surfaces, it would be an incredible offering (assuming they were able to keep the price down).