While the basic drugstore razor certainly comes in many colors and widths, and with all sorts of different little marketing assurances, in the end it is a sharp metal tool that scrapes that evil, unwanted hair from our bodies.
Although a more high-end, retail industry does exist for electric razors, the most commonly used is a basic, plastic tool that we toss out after a few uses — and then we grab more while in the grocery line trying to find a balance between not breaking the bank and not breaking the skin.
Men are expected to show up to Monday morning meetings bright and shiny, smelling good, with clean-shaven faces. Women showing up to the office sporting high heels and hairy legs would be laughed out of the room in most places. These are norms of society that sunk in at some point and most of us would rather go along with them than be ostracized, tempting as it is to avoid the entire process and just head for the Birkenstocks aisle. We civilized humans play by the rules, for the most part.
Robert Hallifax of Ockham Razor Company got tired of playing by the rules though — aesthetically speaking. Questioning himself as to why “some products are just crap,” Hallifax decided to set off to changing the world by redesigning one ubiquitous item at a time — beginning with your household razor. Hallifax was motivated to take what he considers to be a peaceful and meditative experience to the next level in terms of form.
With a nod to classic, streamlined form, Hallifax said goodbye to cheap and horrible plastic packaging as well as the generally offensive ugliness of the disposable grocery store variety of razor. Going from point A to B took some time as he did an enormous amount of experimenting manually before getting to the 3D design and 3D printing part of his journey.
The project began as Hallifax employed his engineering skills to come up with a basic concept. After his first rudimentary, but successful, prototype with aluminum, Hallifax went on to attempt to make a full-on quality handle. Since his first attempts had been through extensive “hand-crafting” and basically being resourceful with all the materials he thought might work being cut up, glued, and more, he had to ask himself what the most expedient route would be for creating a quality product. Using his first prototype and sharing other prototypes with friends, he was having success and good feedback with his “first, hacky prototype.” Hallifax knew there was a more solid way to go about making his concept come to fruition though.
He’d had experience with 3D printing and surmised it was an excellent avenue for his product, but did not have the equipment — or the experience with CAD modeling. Learning about the convenience of and services provided by 3D Hubs, this was the route Hallifax took as a friend worked there and he discovered he could make his way to a hub just down the street. With just a few iterations, 3D Hubs was able to give him the impetus he needed for bringing the razor to fruition.
Not only was he able to get his contemporary razor design 3D printed exactly to his specifications using PLA, Ockham has manufacturers lined up and a campaign on Kickstarter about to start soon.
The Ockham Razor Company team has made great use of the technology of 3D printing and acknowledge that clearly without it they could not have gotten their new design off the ground, with a Kickstarter campaign soon to launch. Is this a product you will be pledging support for? Have you tried 3D printing any items similar to this? Tell us your thoughts in the Ockham Razor Company 3D Prints Contemporary Shaver forum over at 3DPB.com.
Early prototype
