Merchant
San Diego CA
(This post was last modified: 03-30-2023, 01:10 AM by andrewjs18.)
Hi DFS,
Thanks for having me! My name is Shane and I'm the creator of the stainless steel Blackbird DE razor and the founder of Blackland LLC. Many of you know my story from other forums, but I'll post the short version here anyways.
The story begins almost two years ago. I had an idea for a bicycle part, but with no drawing or design skills I couldn't get the concept from my head to something tangible. It seemed unlikely that I would spontaneously become coordinated, so I decided to learn CAD. I began with the very very rudimentary program Tinkercad and created my first 3d printed prototype. It was exciting, but that program was limited and I needed to learn "real" CAD. I downloaded FreeCAD(an incredible open-source program) and started learning.
I had begun wet shaving in the year prior to all this. One day during my morning shave I thought it would be a fun idea to model a safety razor for practice. The simple concept, but fairly complex geometries of a razor made for great practice. So that's what I did. I modeled a fairly basic razor and had it printed. It even shaved reasonably well. Not great, mind you, but well enough to qualify as a razor. Here is that first model:
[Image: DSC08535.JPG?format=500w]
I was inspired by that first razor so I decided to revise the design. Then I revised it again. And again. And again. Each revision was printed and tested. Soon enough I had a bunch of prototypes and the bicycle project fell by the wayside.
Eventually I wound up with a razor that shaved well. Really well. It shaved so well and looked so cool that I thought other people might enjoy it as well. Here is that final plastic prototype:
[Image: ?format=500w]
At this time I decided to find a manufacturer to machine this razor in stainless steel. It turns out that was much easier said than done. Over six months later I finally had a few stainless steel razors made. To fund the razors I turned to Kickstarter.
I started the campaign in June(or maybe July) of 2015. It failed. It failed because my pricing strategy was insane and each razor came with a fancy wooden box that added a lot of cost. Two weeks into the campaign we raised $12k(as I recall), but I decided to end the campaign and relaunch with better pricing.
The next campaign began on August 1st and was fully funded with $23k raised from ~150 backers in 30 days.
So here we are about four months after that campaign ended and the Blackbird razor is about to ship(on time, by the way). All the parts are in and we are busy packing them to start shipping on Monday.
So that's the very very brief version of a long story. I'll follow up with a few photos of the finished product. More details of the razor can be found on my website(link in sig).
Thanks again for having me and thanks for taking the time read this.
![[Image: 61e4de34067867ec70c6154a3543b4b5_origina...22e3cbfc47]](https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/005/118/632/61e4de34067867ec70c6154a3543b4b5_original.png?v=1451145700&w=639&fit=max&auto=format&lossless=true&s=73dd876c6b48b7774ce78022e3cbfc47)
![[Image: 082b3bc400e37095fbc4a7f40903efbf_origina...16026c3adb]](https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/005/118/631/082b3bc400e37095fbc4a7f40903efbf_original.jpg?v=1451145659&w=639&fit=max&auto=format&q=92&s=34bbef3a0824d2d71f3cfe16026c3adb)
![[Image: 5b821be9f353a0cceae0f41ef8b78aba_origina...d653818cf9]](https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/005/118/629/5b821be9f353a0cceae0f41ef8b78aba_original.png?v=1451145575&w=639&fit=max&auto=format&lossless=true&s=b2c06ad9ca6ceeaabd503ad653818cf9)
![[Image: 69ebbe7bf79e315c90069ca35f15cbaa_origina...0d11abb54e]](https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/005/118/630/69ebbe7bf79e315c90069ca35f15cbaa_original.png?v=1451145637&w=639&fit=max&auto=format&lossless=true&s=83e14e28db7c77fdcf99d40d11abb54e)
Thanks for having me! My name is Shane and I'm the creator of the stainless steel Blackbird DE razor and the founder of Blackland LLC. Many of you know my story from other forums, but I'll post the short version here anyways.
The story begins almost two years ago. I had an idea for a bicycle part, but with no drawing or design skills I couldn't get the concept from my head to something tangible. It seemed unlikely that I would spontaneously become coordinated, so I decided to learn CAD. I began with the very very rudimentary program Tinkercad and created my first 3d printed prototype. It was exciting, but that program was limited and I needed to learn "real" CAD. I downloaded FreeCAD(an incredible open-source program) and started learning.
I had begun wet shaving in the year prior to all this. One day during my morning shave I thought it would be a fun idea to model a safety razor for practice. The simple concept, but fairly complex geometries of a razor made for great practice. So that's what I did. I modeled a fairly basic razor and had it printed. It even shaved reasonably well. Not great, mind you, but well enough to qualify as a razor. Here is that first model:
[Image: DSC08535.JPG?format=500w]
I was inspired by that first razor so I decided to revise the design. Then I revised it again. And again. And again. Each revision was printed and tested. Soon enough I had a bunch of prototypes and the bicycle project fell by the wayside.
Eventually I wound up with a razor that shaved well. Really well. It shaved so well and looked so cool that I thought other people might enjoy it as well. Here is that final plastic prototype:
[Image: ?format=500w]
At this time I decided to find a manufacturer to machine this razor in stainless steel. It turns out that was much easier said than done. Over six months later I finally had a few stainless steel razors made. To fund the razors I turned to Kickstarter.
I started the campaign in June(or maybe July) of 2015. It failed. It failed because my pricing strategy was insane and each razor came with a fancy wooden box that added a lot of cost. Two weeks into the campaign we raised $12k(as I recall), but I decided to end the campaign and relaunch with better pricing.
The next campaign began on August 1st and was fully funded with $23k raised from ~150 backers in 30 days.
So here we are about four months after that campaign ended and the Blackbird razor is about to ship(on time, by the way). All the parts are in and we are busy packing them to start shipping on Monday.
So that's the very very brief version of a long story. I'll follow up with a few photos of the finished product. More details of the razor can be found on my website(link in sig).
Thanks again for having me and thanks for taking the time read this.
