Rockwell 6s, old vs new

Rockwell has posted on the forums that the 6C is made in China. The label on the box says Made in China. Not a secret.

I was gonna say the same thing. It's common knowledge that 6S is made in USA and the 6C in China, but both pictured boxes say 6S which is kind of odd. Is Gareth on DFS to clarify?

Early shipments of the 6c used the box from the 6s.  The website still lists "Made in USA" for the 6s.  The 6s has Rockwell on the base plate end, the 6c is blank.  

For some people, made in US or Canada vs China is a big deal.  Surprised not mentioned before and copious number of posts (I am not saying you are wrong - just saying I am surprised).  Rockwell web store has 6s as pre-order - shipping shortly.  Interesting  to see the new batch (and probably the last batch).

Last batch? You think the company is going belly up, hope not

There was a thread almost a year ago on B&B about this, Gareth responded to an inquiry from one of those posters.

Rockwell has posted on the forums that the 6C is made in China. The label on the box says Made in China. Not a secret.

I was gonna say the same thing. It's common knowledge that 6S is made in USA and the 6C in China, but both pictured boxes say 6S which is kind of odd. Is Gareth on DFS to clarify?

I guess in the end, the market won't care where it's made as long as the quality is there.

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Early shipments of the 6c used the box from the 6s.  The website still lists "Made in USA" for the 6s.  The 6s has Rockwell on the base plate end, the 6c is blank.  

For some people, made in US or Canada vs China is a big deal.  Surprised not mentioned before and copious number of posts (I am not saying you are wrong - just saying I am surprised).  Rockwell web store has 6s as pre-order - shipping shortly.  Interesting  to see the new batch (and probably the last batch).

Last batch? You think the company is going belly up, hope not

Sorry for any confusion. By "last batch" I meant the batch of 6s razors that sold out thus needing the current batch shipping July 25 or before. Rockwell is an excellent compnay and hope they produce shaving products for the next hundred years or longer.

Rockwell has posted on the forums that the 6C is made in China. The label on the box says Made in China. Not a secret.

The website says that the 6s is made in the USA (proudly), however, the 6c only says that its designed in Canada so unless something has changed and they haven't updated the website yet, the 6s is made in USA and the 6c probably China.

Well that explains it, however, I'm only interested in secrets.

I see. False alarm. I was sure that it was made in the USA so when I saw the new packaging I didn't know what to believe. I have no reason not to believe Gareth, we've exchanged some emails in the past with a few questions of mine and he seemed to be honest.

I don't think that a chinese product has to necessarily be of a lower quality. Things have changed. But the consumer has to know the truth.
OneBlade costs 3 times more and is made in China. It's a quality product. I understand that some gents don't want to buy a product made in China for various reasons and I respect that.

Chinese craftsmen are just as capable of fine work as any other craftsmen around the world. Few companies go to China looking for fine craftsmen though. They go to China looking for a rock-bottom price, no-questions-asked, and that’s what they get. It’s also what most consumers buy, only to be shocked that they got what they paid for.

I emailed Gareth at Rockwell Razors just to clarify. I know that the 6S is made in the US, but this was (to my understanding) a recently purchased 6S (not 6C) that said China.

Good news and bad (or at least uncertain) news. This was a packaging error and he verifies that the razor in question is not from China. However, they ARE planning to move manufacturing of the 6S to China. He didn't ask to keep this under wraps, so I think it's ok to post part of his email here:


"We haven't announced this yet as we're not certain of the timelines, but we're in the process of testing productions of the 6S in China so that we can upgrade the quality of production (we're observing they have more sophisticated metal injection moulding factories in China) as well as the rate of production (with the current production capacities with our American manufacturer, we're unfortunately frequently out of stock of the 6S).

We've already printed the wraps for the 6S that say "Made in China", and as they're printed in the same batch / with the same printer as the  "Made in USA" wraps, it appears in this case that someone in our assembly warehouse accidentally picked an incorrect wrap out of a pile and put a "Made in China" wrap on a razor made in the USA! We've seen this happen a few times in the past weeks and I've spoken with the warehouse to ensure everything is now being packed correctly.

We'll certainly be making a more public update once we know the timelines of when the 6S would switch countries of origin."


A good point was brought up in this thread that Chinese craftsmen can be just as skilled as any but also that's usually not the case if the company is aiming for quick and cheap production, and that sounds like what's going on here, at least to me. I'm not saying I blame Rockwell, just that I'm worried about QC when the move happens.

That said, they have always stood behind their products and set right any issues with customers. I love my 6S and I've had nothing but positive interactions with Gareth, though I question some of his post-6S decisions. The "R1" razor not even made by Rockwell, the Model T fiasco, and now this.

What do you guys think?

US/Canada/EU have lost much of their higher volume manufacturing capabilities. The US/Canada/EU seem to be creative and right-brained. If low cost is needed, China and some other countries are the place to go. Off shore manufacturing does have benefits and also potential problems. I have always wondered if the Model T delays were caused by using non-local engineering and machine shops.

I wonder if the new Made in China label will come with a new lower price.