Karve Shaving Co. A new DE Brass razor to market.

Why the great attraction towards this razor? I just can't seem to see what so many of you see. Maybe I'm missing something?

I have the matte SS, and for me I would say:

1. Build quality is amazing. Very solid and sturdy, but still simple and elegant. Not like a Rockwell 6S, which is very industrial.
   
2. Finishing is amazing. Even under the top cap where the posts are is beautifully clean and perfect. Under the base plate has these nice concentric circles. The handle screws in very smoothly.
   
3. I like the flat top cap.
   
4. Blade rigidity is really nice, especially for me for ATG BBS shaving. I know there are other razors with a rigid blade design, like Timeless, but for me this was my first.
   
5. I actually like that the sides of the blade are slightly exposed. Easier to remove, and it also means the top cap has a nice shape and design to it, not just plain rectangular.
   

This is presently my second favorite and a keeper. It may not have the wow factor of a Wolfman or a Timeless, but it's just a really, really well done razor in all areas. High quality. If your Wolfman is a Bentley and your Timeless is a Rolls Royce, the Karve is more like an Audi, whereas a RazoRock may be more of a Volkswagen.

Very well said and I agree with you completely. I’m still enjoying my Stainless Steel Karve. Once I got the razor in my hands, I was more forgiving. Nobody’s perfect as long as their pursuit is to get better. We got spoiled with the high standards of other razor manufacturers imo. Hopefully, Karve gets their stuff together for 2020. I also agree with the above post and just stick with bronze stainless and aluminum and do it very well at a high standard, then they can pursue other ventures imo.

karve has an AMA scheduled for Saturday on r/wetshaving. Maybe Chris addresses the elephant in the room and future fixes. He's got to know several people are going to ask. Would be poor to dance around the issue.

He has been asked in the past and always swore to do better and not offer anything that isn't ready to ship so why would anyone believe him now? Its been going on now for almost 2yrs. He is, IMO, a very dishonest person but people keep giving him more and more slack and keep going back so there is really no incentive for him to change his ways!! I refuse to even entertain the thought of doing business with dishonest people and he's probably top of the list...

^
Not sure if he's dishonest ... I mean, I can't argue that it can be interpreted that way. But based on what I have read, and the fact that he is talking about introducing new products when he can't fulfill his current line-up, I suspect he is just a hugely (and I do mean hugely) disorganized person. In that regard, I am not in a position to throw stones from this beautiful glass house of mine.

Not saying it's okay. Just saying that I'm not entirely sure that he has ill intent. But at this point, I think most can agree that he's kind of hopeless.

It is one thing to be frustrated because James Dufour has such a long backlog, and his razors are very difficult to acquire directly. OTOH, James never sends out the final invoice until the goods are ready to be shipped.

Brian Twilley lets you know when razors are ready to ship ... before he takes your money. 

Karve announces the polished SS razors are available ... ADD TO CART ... when they were NOT available ... He has had my $$ for 5 weeks, and I have nothing from him but an email requesting my patience. 

Is this dishonest, or is it disorganized ? Your guess is as good as mine.

It is one thing to be frustrated because James Dufour has such a long backlog, and his razors are very difficult to acquire directly. OTOH, James never sends out the final invoice until the goods are ready to be shipped.

Brian Twilley lets you know when razors are ready to ship ... before he takes your money. 

Karve announces the polished SS razors are available ... ADD TO CART ... when they were NOT available ... He has had my $$ for 5 weeks, and I have nothing from him but an email requesting my patience. 

Is this dishonest, or is it disorganized ? Your guess is as good as mine.

I feel pretty confident that you will get your razor, it’s just a question of when. I ordered one when he was only making the brass and, if I recall correctly, it was close to two months before receiving it. Part of that was due to the Canadian Post getting it over to the US. Where I think he falls short is the lack of communication. He could easily offer periodic updates to everyone waiting, yet that seems to fall through the cracks. I think he offers a great product, however, I can understand the frustration.

Yeah, I was pretty lucky. I grabbed the very last two released through Razor Emporium. I kind of feel bad about that, what with all those people on the wait list.

karve has an AMA scheduled for Saturday on r/wetshaving. Maybe Chris addresses the elephant in the room and future fixes. He's got to know several people are going to ask. Would be poor to dance around the issue.

He has been asked in the past and always swore to do better and not offer anything that isn't ready to ship so why would anyone believe him now? Its been going on now for almost 2yrs. He is, IMO, a very dishonest person but people keep giving him more and more slack and keep going back so there is really no incentive for him to change his ways!! I refuse to even entertain the thought of doing business with dishonest people and he's probably top of the list...

has it been that long? haven't followed the whole saga but weren't things somewhat reasonable prior to summer? DFS is the most vocal about it.  

I kind of feel bad about that, what with all those people on the wait list.

seen this comment before but how do you know retailers like the rex jumped the queue?

^
It wasn't intended as a comment about other retailers jumping the queue. For all I know, there were distribution agreements in place well in advance. It is more that I feel a bit guilty that I was able to get a razor much earlier than many people who signed up and had been waiting patiently on the wait list for months and months.

Onwards and upwards in 2020! 2019 was a great year and we want 2020 to be even more exciting.


Here's what we have planned:

An Alternative Top Cap Design

We've listened and we’re working on a CB top cap that covers the blade tabs. The second most important feature is compatibility with existing Karve hardware.

A Titanium CB Razor

We’re incredibly surprised by the reception the Aluminum razor and it's apparent to us that people want a lighter razor. We believe that Titanium gives the ideal balance between saving weight and high tolerances and this is something we want to bring to the market this year. Titanium is a fairly similar material to stainless steel when it comes to cutting, but like everything, some tweaks will be required to be made to make this possible.

A V2 Razor

This won't be a completely different razor, and frankly, we don't want to throw away the blade geometry of the Christopher Bradley that so many of you like. This razor will include a few minor tweaks in design to improve the overall performance of the razor. Aside from design, it will also be a different aesthetic experience.

Ladies Razor

We've had quite a few requests to develop a ladies specific razor and we think it's a great idea. We're not quite sure what this entails yet, so we'd like to hear from you about what you'd look for in a razor. What design features do you think would be useful? A pivoting head? A different handle shape?

Adjustable Razor

This is still far off but we've been thinking about an adjustable razor for some time. The way we envision this working is that it would utilize all of our current base plate as settings (AA-G). Where we feel this is possible, we won't know how feasible this actually is until we get into the nitty-gritty of R&D. Rest assured, it will definitely have the Karve flair you've all come to expect from us.

While history does not indicate future performance, I'd say it's a bit unreasonable to say you will design two completely new razors (Ladies / Adjustable), one major rework (V2), one minor rework (top cap) and another material (titanium).

If they are swamped now, they will also be swamped in the future. However the most recent instagram post has indicated that two new employees were hired to do machining.
Maybe this will improve the situation, but the bottleneck has always been finishing and shipping afaik.

Exactly my point. Bang on. I’m glad he’s looking forward But .....

karve has an AMA scheduled for Saturday on r/wetshaving. Maybe Chris addresses the elephant in the room and future fixes. He's got to know several people are going to ask. Would be poor to dance around the issue.

All he has to do is check damnfineshave.com. I think I’ll send this thread to him.