[sidneykidney]

Who offers straight related services?

It can at times be difficult to find the straight razor service you are looking for. With this in mind a list of Vendors and their services has been compiled. This list is by no means complete nor does it imply these sellers are preferred over other sellers. Check the Vendors forums for additional vendors. If you wish to discuss the work of any vendor with them and other members of SRP you are encouraged to do so in the forums.


1. Lynn Abrams (adjustme69) - http://www.straightrazordesigns.com/

Lynn offers new and custom made razors. He also offers honing services through classic shaving as well as by PM on this site.

2. Jim Ayars (VintageBlades)- http://vintagebladesllc.com/ Nth Baltimore County, Maryland

Jim stocks a wide range of shaving related items, from shave ready razors, soaps and creams to brushes, strops and sharpening stones.

3. Joe Chandler (Joe Chandler)- http://shop.writerferret.com/

Joe offers a razors Restoration and sharpening service

4. John Crowley(John Crowley)- http://www.shavingshop.com/

John stocks new and hard to find razors, notably a great selection of larger razors.

5. Bill Ellis (urleebird)- http://www.billysblades.com/Straights.htm

Bill offers both custom made and restored razors

6. Tony Miller (Tony Miller)- http://www.thewellshavedgentleman.com/ Nottingham, Maryland

Tony offers everything from new shave ready razors to a complete line of handcrafted strops, and everything in between, including full shaving sets for the beginner. Tonys razors are honed by Chris Ellison and a honing service is offered to those seeking one.

7. Robert Williams (PapaBull) , Stratford, CT

Robert primarily deals with custom razors, which he makes from start to finish.

8. Bruno van Dooren (Bruno)

Bruno offers a honing service, a restoration/regrinding service and sells restored vintage razors.

9. Ken Rupkalvis (Kenrup) http://www.ruprazor.com (website coming soon)San Antonio, Texas

Ken offers a honing service, restoration service and sells restored razors.

10. Josh Earl (JoshEarl)- Western Pennsylvania

Josh offers the following services: honing, barber hone lapping, hand-made wood scales, repinning, blade cleanup and regrinding.

11. Alan Davis (AFDavis11)- Northwestern VA

Alan offers a mail transfer honing service and one-on-one instruction in straight razor shaving.

12. David Polan (heavydutysg135)- Southern California, LA

David offers straight razor honing services, sells restored vintage straight razors and also offers one-on-one or group lessons on honing, stropping, and/or shaving to local members.

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OK at present this thread is incomplete. Thats what I have so far. Any suggestions on what to add or take away please tell me. Please explain the reason for your suggestion. Cheers

Sandy

[randydance062449]

I really do think that this type of info belongs in the Vendors forum. Each vendor should maintain their own list of services. Perhaps the vendors forum could be subdivided into

1. Honing services
2. Restoration services
3. New straight razors
4. Restored vintage straight razors
5. Custom straight razors
6. Straight razor equipment - strops, paddle strops, hones etc.
7. Shaving supplies - soaps, creams, brushes

Then each vendor can enter and maintain their own listing.

Just a thought!

[sidneykidney]

Its difficult to work out the layout as many members would appear under multiple columns. I'm not sure how many vendors would want to take care of their own section on their own. Certainly I have contacted the all asking how they would like to be described (all except one who does not take incoming PM's).

As for the location of the FAQ I think you may be right. I think azjoe feels as you do but I am not sure how it would work. Lets see what happens.

[Bruno]

You can add me to the list:
Bruno van Dooren (Bruno)
I offer
Honing service
Restoration service / regrinding.
Restored vintage razors

I only have a blog, but that is not related to razors. You can contact me via PM or email.

[Timeo Danaos]

In England, Steven Dempster http://www.theinvisibleedge.co.uk/ hones razors and sells vintage ready-to-shave razors.

[sidneykidney]

Bruno I shall gladly add you to the list. I have heard of the work you do but as yet not experienced it myself. Do you have any objections to me listing your location?

Timeo- some vendors have been removed from this original list as they have not participated in the SRP forums for some time. I will be glad to add Steven if he contacts me on this forum or by PM. Until then I shall wait. I hope thats OK.

[randydance062449]

Originally Posted by sidneykidney

Its difficult to work out the layout as many members would appear under multiple columns. I'm not sure how many vendors would want to take care of their own section on their own. Certainly I have contacted the all asking how they would like to be described (all except one who does not take incoming PM's).

As for the location of the FAQ I think you may be right. I think azjoe feels as you do but I am not sure how it would work. Lets see what happens.

The simplest way to maintain the Vendors is to have them do it themselves. They make the entry in the vendors section and then they are responsible for maintaining it. The admins and moderators here have more than enough to do.

Just subdivide the Vendors forum into the various categories and then let the Vendors know it exists. Do not worry about nominations and such, administratively that is to messy. The users will chime in and do the necessary "Yays and Nays".

[fallout55]

If I might give a recommendation, Ken Rupkalvis..Kenrup has restored one and honed two(with three more on the way) for me and done a great job. Good price and fast turnaround.

[sidneykidney]

Thanks fallout. I'll pop him in there....

[Don]

Great Post Sandy, I did move it to the Vendor Forum

[sidneykidney]

Cheers Taz. Have edited it as discussed.

[azjoe]

Originally Posted by randydance062449

I really do think that this type of info belongs in the Vendors forum. Each vendor should maintain their own list of services. Perhaps the vendors forum could be subdivided into

1. Honing services
2. Restoration services
3. New straight razors
4. Restored vintage straight razors
5. Custom straight razors
6. Straight razor equipment - strops, paddle strops, hones etc.
7. Shaving supplies - soaps, creams, brushes

Then each vendor can enter and maintain their own listing.

Just a thought!

Based on experiences I've had here and on other forums, there's no faster way to create hard feelings and animosity than to imply one member-vendor is better/worse than another. Not only do the vendors get upset, but their loyal customers start agitating over it too. That's why most forums leave it up to the vendors to administer their presence on the list and the forum is careful to not appear to be "officially" recommending or favoring anyone, while still allowing members can do so via posts... which often turn into cat fights of sorts.

Several problems with self administration are that vendors who discontinue their business seldom take their listing down and vendors can claim anything they wish, so there's no guarantee that the vendor is a competent honemeister just because they're advertising on our site.

I agree with Randy that the info does not belong in the Newbies forum... but I have mixed feeling between whether it belongs in the Vendor forum or the Buy/Sell/Trade... there's pros and cons to both I think. Regardless of where, there's no easy way to administer/organize it under the Forum structure without creating an navigational maze in the Forums. In fact, maybe it doesn't belong in the forums at all.

And so that leads me to consider the "Links" and "Classifieds" sections on the main site. I quickly discount "Links" since that's currently open for anyone to list themselves, member or not, and there's no organization to it... basically it's a random list. We're constantly purging non-razor related entries and spam from the list... somewhat of an administrative headache, but the list is needed so we can maintain reciprocal links with other sites.

However, it might be good to consider having the vendors list themselves in the Classifieds section on the main site. We'd likely have to adjust several configuration parameters and set up some new/different categories and sub categories... maybe even add fields for regional information so a potential customer knows whether they will be facing issues such as international shipping, tariffs, taxes, etc. This could have the following advantages:

1. places the onus on the vendor to maintain their own listing
2. has more flexibility in organization (and likely some restrictions, too) than forum lists
3. aged listings automatically disappear if the vendor doesn't respond to repeated system generated emails notifying them to extend their listing when it's about to expire.

Items/sections in the Classifieds can easily be linked to FAQs and posts in the forums for reference/discussion/review purposes.

As is always the case, I'm sure there will be some downsides too... if anyone is interested, I can investigate further... else I won't spend the time.

[sidneykidney]

It is late, I have a headache and the words are jumping. I'll look at it again in the morning Joe.

Have I caught a virus off of you?

[randydance062449]

Perhaps the Classifieds would be the best location for the vendors. That way they can be vendor initiated and maintained.

The B/S/T forum is a pretty active place for member to member activity. Putting static vendor listings in would not seem in the same spirit.

The Vendor forum might become a maze to navigate.....

I guess I would vote for the Classifieds section.

[Chrisgiraffe]

Hi everyone,
Since I do sell an item or two I guess I might be able to add a little input. I think I see a tricky balance that really boils down to responsibility, opportunity and classification. I'm hoping we can all try to see the bigger picture and interests of all SRP members, new and old. Let me first try to establish the common ground that having choices, knowing our sources, and being able to communicate about the quality of those sources contributes to the quality of the goods we enjoy. Imagine if all we had were EBay, manufactureres sites (i.e. J.A. Henckels, Dovo, TI) and the occassional run into a merchant in a downtown area peddling either Zeepk's or Dovo's for 20x what they sell for on EBay. Choice is good. Now, let's look at the problem from two perspectives- user and vendor. Trust me, the administrator's side will also be considered as it is the most important since it has final say and is burdend with trying to to sort this mess out. Hopefully we can make it less messy. If you don't want to read the reasoning behind my suggestions just skip to :"A SOLUTION?" below.


THE NEWBIE
Everyone on this board was a new SR shaver at some point and had someone help them along. Some probably think new shavers should tough it out and learn on their own, others probably think just the opposite- that having a 'mentor' of some sort adds value to the process. I think I'm kind of in the middle on that. That is, new users need to be willing to seek the information they need but at the same time experienced shavers can help the group grow by removing some of the hurdles that exist for the new SR user.

When I was green as could be I went to what I knew and what I had- Ebay and a small budget. I was smart enough to stay away from the Chinese/Pakistani blades but only because I've been burned by cheap goods (not razors) in the past. I've learned the meaning of "buy quality, cry once, buy cheap, cry twice". I searched high and low for info on straights because I like looking up things. That's how I found this site. And when I did find this site the first place I went was the 'newbie' section. When I got there I thought, 'OK, I'm a newbie, now what do I do? What blades offer good value? Strop, what kind?" etc.

I think a good FAQ for newbies IN the newbies section is a great and necessary idea. It would help newbies which, in turn, would make the site better. Newbies need help and they should find some basics in the Newbies section.

Now we have to get in the mind of the newbie (pretty much where my brain is everyday in every activity I do). They've got (hopefully good) advice and hopefully an ounce of patience. They're next instinct is to start shaving. To do that they need (if they don't already have) shaving items. Most would probably do a google search and let google sort it out. Some might go to the Vendor section, some might go to the classifieds. Odds are they'd probably do it in that order because they want a quick list. If it didn't work out (they didn't find a quick source of product links for comparison) they'd probably return to what they know- Ebay, anyone on the net who tells them they've got a great straight razor for sale, etc.


THE VENDORS
OK, now let's look at the other side. The vendor and budding vendor. There are certainly different stages/categories of vendors and SRP seems to allow for all types. Here is where I see different groups with different needs.

1. The used car seller. Someone who has an item they've been using for some time and simply want to sell it to another person who needs it. This person needs a classified ad format.

2. The hobbyist. Someone who offers an item or service on an irregular, personally set schedule. They typically sell items but do not take order requests. This person needs a classified ad format to update the community on new releases.

3. The cottage industry. Someone who offers an item or service for sell and for order. Typically will do custom work by request, may even have their own website. This person needs a place to announce new items and a static link to direct interested parties.

4. The general merchant. Someone who offeres a variety of items/services in an 'all in one' online store. Classic Shaving.com, Vintage Blades, etc. This person needs a place to announce new items and a static link to direct interested parties.


The first two groups are served well by the existing classified ads section as their timeliness is immediate but limited, as is the transaction. I don't think the classified section should be changed one bit.

The second groups would be hurt if they were limited to classified ads as new posts would shift their presence to no where. If vendors were limited to classifieds some would probably post a lot to keep in members minds, which would become pretty annoying/painful, but understandable. Said members would probably (eventually) get kicked off SRP or get a bad vibe and just not want to post here and we would loose another choice in the sea of straight razor products. While that might seem like no big deal let's imagine Zeepk and Kreiger taking all their money and plastering the site with paid ads while an expert honemeister retires because it's just too much hassle to compete with Zeepk money. I wouldn't want to see that direction.

Thus, keeping the second group is great but there obviously has to be some limits and responsibility on the second groups' part. For example, when someone goes out of business or retires it would be nice that they let people know. Also, it would be good to keep them in one section to avoid confusion. But, it would be nice to know when they have something new to offer. Also, it would be nice to know what people think of their products without making other vendors angry.


A SOLUTION?
I think it all starts in the newbie forum.

1. If we train newbies to use the classifieds for classified ad type material and search the vendor area for vendors we would solve a lot of the problem. We should post a true FAQ which explains what to find in which forum, and even how to get to each forum (a small map, if you will). Example:

How to get to vendor section: Straight Razor Place>Forums>Vendors

How to get to general section: Straight Razor Place>Forums>General

How to get to proposed Vendor Razor section:
Straight Razor Place>Forums>Vendors>Razors


2. I don't think we should make product recommendations in the newbie forum because the newbie forum looses focus (along with all the other ills of making an ever growing list of recommendations).

3. The Vendor section should be subgrouped into the categories suggested by Randydance062449 with the addition of one- the "All in one" store.

4. We need a transitional vendor forum (Vendor subforum) which allows vendors to announce business retirments/temporarily stoppage and also to announce their transition from say classified ad user to hobbyist, cottage industry/general merchant, etc.

5. Vendor rules, such as my fourth suggestion, should be posted under 'Vendor FAQ'.

6. Each vendor post in the vendor section should be limited to an explanation of services with one hyperlink to a website (if they have one) and one link to a limited number of pics. Pics should be in a separate area to avoid clutter.

7. A vendor rating forum should be created with ratings compiled through voting. That is, perhaps we could set up some quality criteria for service/products with a vote button for each vendor. We could limit posts to just the rating/vote buttons.

8. A vendor rating dissussion forum could be created where vendors could defend or thank their voters.



I could blab on about my experience as a newbie and vendor but I believe these things would have helped greatly and will help us keep a balance of information, discussion, products and services that all contribute to this site.

Thoughts?

[YesSheDoes!]

I guess you could put me in the merchant class. I own 2 businesses and they complement each other. The first one is sales copywriting, the 2nd is security--selling knives and sharpening supplies and eventually teaching concealed handgun classes when I get certified late this summer.

Long story short, I sell at gun & knife shows and local county "Market Days," and thru local antique stores.

I have been bringing myself up to speed on straight razors so that I can intelligently sell them (along with other shaving supplies), and I'm going to be selling a few for the first time Feb. 16 & 17 at the Saxet Gun Show in north Austin (local guys, stop by and say hi, I'm the short muscular blonde woman!)

Anyhow, I"m always interested in getting new merchandise in to sell, at good prices. So, I'm a merchant. My markets are gun show buyers, antique store customers, and tourists who shop at market days.

And being able to write great sales copy DEFINITELY helps...people stop by my table and chuckle at my little signs. One of them reads:

"The dollar is dropping,
The price of steel is rising,
So it's a no-brainer to
Invest your cash in knives!
(Or at least that's what you can tell your wife...)"