Blackland ERA razor.

[Errol]

One on the way

 

[JVS]

I really don't know or understand what's going on with the Era. It's 3D printed, but tolerances aren't as tight as CNC, so the parts are CNC'd after printing? Why not just CNC a block from the start? You're basically doing 2 process instead of one. From a price perspective, you can get fully milled razors from Razorock and Aliexpress in the same price range or less. Yates is already doing a fully machined razor for WSC for USD$50 that's wholly made in the US. Sure, there's less waste and better for the environment, but that isn't mentioned. The idea (I think) is that you can print on demand, certain plate sizes that wouldn't be readily available. I'll wait for the reviews to come in before I part with any dollaridoos. The shipping cost to here will kill any savings anyway.

Lots of (theoretical!) advantages such as:

- being able to easily and cheaply prototype many variants in plastic. CNC prototyping is very expensive.

- more design flexibility that avoids CNC geometry limitations (overhangs etc)

- easy to scale production up or down

- production costs are much lower than CNC

https://www.assemblymag.com/articles/96787-a-new-era-of-3d-metal-printing-begins-at-blackland-razors

 

[Morholt]

I really don't know or understand what's going on with the Era. It's 3D printed, but tolerances aren't as tight as CNC, so the parts are CNC'd after printing? Why not just CNC a block from the start? You're basically doing 2 process instead of one.

I wonder if that will work out for the same reason. I know an example where the plan was to use a mix of MIM+CNC to save costs for mass production. That was for the head of the Mühle Rocca. The difference between V3 and the final V4 version of the head was that they decided in the end to go full CNC (V4) instead of MIM+CNC (V3) corrections. V1 and V2 had the pins in the head soldered on or sth. like that, pretty wild stuff.

But this is 3D printing, not MIM. I wonder if 3D printing + CNC is going to be more viable and cost efficient than pure CNC in the end.
Pure CNC razors are already in the price range, mostly the ones already mentioned from Razorock, DSCosmetic, Yaqi etc. and the West Shaving Club Merica/Winning razors, supposedly supplied by Yates.

Blackland seems to target the Rockwell 6S audience and price range. Not so much Karve. The hope seems to be for an affordable razor with high sales range. Another advantage could be versatility "I want plate 4 as dual comb", but that option is not offered yet.

It will be interesting to see on how many existing pin stands the handle will fit, and I don't know if it will be recessed in the way that makes fitting third party handles difficult for the Era, as it is the case for the Blackbird.

 

[Bicep123]

Blackland seems to be fixated on 'Made in the USA' right down to supplying Personna lab blues with the Blackbird, because they're made in the US, not whether they'd be the best blade for the BB (they work pretty well though - but then, I have a feeling they would work well in a lot of razors - it's a good blade). So, I guess, this would compete against the Rockwell 6S (who recently put their prices up).

The only real advantage I can see for 3D printing over CNC is wastage. When you CNC from a block of SS, you get a ton of excess material and you go through a lot of machine bits. So, better for the environment? The time you save printing over milling is lost, because you need to do a finishing mill of the printed product anyway (to maintain tolerances). Metal printing machines are expensive and you can only print one part at a time. I really can't see any real advantage to use them for mass production over CNC.

 

[rbscebu]

There are some shapes that are very difficult to achieve with CNC. One (and not the only one) of those shapes is thin unsupported overhangs. Such a shape is much easier to achieve with 3D printing.