viability of making replicas of old razors

[Aevum]

Most appriciated DE razors from gillete, rolls razor, shick and company with some exceptions are over 25 years old at best, and with merkur (DoVo) and parker producing similar razors but not exactly the same, wouldnt is be a great idea to manufacture usable replicas of old razors, for a crowd, were allready seeing that the old gilletes are starting to lose their shine, and even the best kept ones are starting to show crome, the idea is that most models are so old that the copyright on the design is probobly expired or defaulted by the original owner,

imagen if you could purches today a freshly manufactured tech, or blue tip,

then again, a merkur progress is 34 euros and looks very much like a 60´s gillete adjustable,

[Roman414]

Has anyone tried the Weichis? They are inexpensive, and the chrome TTO with the gold highlights looks very nice.
I don't know if there is enough of a market to support what you suggest. Given today's labor costs, and the cost of tooling and startup, they would probably have to be very pricey.

[cooncatbob]

Roman is correct. BTW. Have you ever counted the number of parts in a TTO?
This suggestion comes up regularly. Tooling would be expensive as would be the finish product, the demand rather low, except for the nutters who frequent wetshaving sites.:lol:
Why would I want to pay a high price for a New razor anyway. You say the supply and quality of used razors is drying up? I disagree, these items were produced by the millions and while many have long since been discarded I believe many more are still gathering dust in the drawers of aging Americans.

[Roman414]

And the originals are very well-made and durable. The three-piece don't have any moving parts to wear. I have old New's and Tech's, sixty-seventy years old that look like they were made last week.

[bjrn]

the idea is that most models are so old that the copyright on the design is probobly expired or defaulted by the original ownerI seriously doubt you will be able to pry any design copyrights from the clenched fists of Gillette, perhaps in another fifty years or so (depending on what copyright law is like then). Until then, similar but not identical razors will be what you'll have to live with. And like Roman and Bob say, there's really no shortage of most of the vintage razors, save stickies, toggles and a few others.

Still, I guess you could always look into replating razors...

[duna]

serious attempts to make again important spareparts for ailing machines are tough propositions. Given the small (or non-existent) market, readily available substitutes (modern quality productions from Merkur and some others and NOS and the like on the'bay) and some residual DE razors production in some markets from Gillette, Feather and Wilkinson, the chances of resurrecting old razors are really small. Unless you can locate some Indian/Pakistani/Chinese/... manufacturer (with all the tooling, the expertise, a well established local market, and possibly looking for some troubles with one or two big corporations, too) and lure them in swapping one of their current product for a strange 50-70 years old 'novelty' ...