For a while I was a fairly frequent contributor to this forum, but a little while back I took on a new job and my spare time disappeared. This also meant that I rarely used my straight razors anymore as my available morning prep time had been greatly reduced. I recently received a promotion and a much more standard schedule, so lately I have been migrating back to straight razors. For the last few weeks I have been happily bouncing between my Union Cutlery 5/8, Parker SRW, and a modified Gold Dollar 208 (from Lee at WSP). I have been happy with this rotation, but I also longed for something new and interesting. Soooo, off to the web I went. After a ton of searching I found what I was looking for: a beautiful Boker Edelweiss. The price was right, the reviews were great, and it was OUT OF STOCK! I was disappointed, but I also liked the Boker King Cutter in white (with the little tree on the scales)...sadly this too was out of stock. I soon discovered that almost every vendor with reasonably priced Bokers was completely out of stock. The few vendors who did seem to have Boker straight razors were either not reputable or sold them for a significantly higher price than I was willing to pay. This prompted a return to my favorite information brokers, the shaving forums. My question is: what's up with Boker? Has the demand outstripped the production? Is there an issue at the factory? Why is it that when I finally find a well priced modern straight razor that looks spiffy, it is unavailable? WHERE HAVE ALL THE BOKERS GONE?
Demand for almost all the straight razors has skyrocketed. Most vendors have received notices from Boker, TI, Dovo etc that they are at minimum 18 months behind on production to meet the demands.
It isn't just Bond they said they same thing after Sweeny, look everywhere, multiple places are showing SR use, the growth is phenomenal, personally I can't wait for the "Fad" to end
I'm wondering how many new Boker, Dovo, TI, etc... are sitting in drawers now, since newbies read something and had to have one, but didn't take the time to do any research and won't take the time to learn how to use and take care of them.
I believe the fad is actually somewhat a product of the increasingly far-reaching internet. People are not only getting exposed to new ideas that previously were obscure to them, but they have at their fingertips the means to study thoroughly and then purchase with the only limit being the size of their bank accounts. It's a dillettante's paradise out there, or in here, or whatever. You can dabble in just about anything and pursue it to your heart's content. Straight razors are much easier to peruse on the internet now than they were when I first got the bug 11 years ago. I've only been able to push from dillettante to hobbyist on straight shaving over the last year, thanks to the resources available on the internet. Some of my other hobbies have fared much the same. There's no way I could have picked up the fountain pen hobby without the internet. I'm sure I'm not an anomaly so much as a typical example these days.
