Is This $500 Razor The Last You'll Ever Buy?

Crowdsourcing sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo let inventors appeal directly to the public for funds. They’ve made a lot of entrepreneurial dreams come true.

If you’re inspired by the inventor’s pitch video, you send some money. It’s not an investment; you’re not rewarded if the invention becomes a hit. But you do get some memento—a T-shirt or a discounted version of the invention once it’s manufactured—and the rosy glow of knowing that you helped bring a cool idea to life.

Until now, there’s been only one problem: You had no way to know if the invention was actually any good. You had to trust the inventor’s video.

That’s the beauty of our Kickstarter reviews. We actually test the prototype, find out how much promise it has, and help you decide if the thing is worth funding or buying.

Today’s invention: The BornSharp razor

The claim: This beautiful, balanced, mirror-finish razor is self-sharpening. After each shave, you place the razor into its stand, whose grinding stone freshly sharpens the blade exactly to your tastes. As a bonus, an ultraviolet light disinfects the razor. No more drugstore blades that lose their effectiveness after two or three good shaves. No more filling the landfill with used cartridges.

Price: $500

Goal: This Indiegogo project sought $100,000 in backing. It made only $11,000 by its deadline.

Status: Since his crowdsourcing campaign failed, the inventor, Steve Worthington, is considering next steps.

“I’m convinced that providing an alternative to the high-cost, fast-decline disposable razor is a great thing,” he told me. “The shaving industrial complex is a high-margin rip-off, and its product goes bad after a few good shaves. Having one foot in the factory and the other one in the dump might be good for their business, but not the face of the shaver or the face of the planet.

“Right now, we’re taking all that we have learned into account and assessing what to do next. Certainly it would be possible to do a second launch. We would build relationships up-front with interested parties and do a better job concentrating on the need for PR ahead of time. We are talking to several investor groups who share our vision.”

What I tested: Steve sent me two of his three razor prototypes to live with and shave with at home. I didn’t get to take home the base unit—the sharpening stand; my only encounter with it was in a coffee-shop men’s room, where Steve showed me how it works. (Yes, I actually stood in a public bathroom and watched another man shave. You never know where a career in tech journalism will take you.)

What I learned: I’ll admit it: I’m a sucker for Steve’s pitch. I, too, find that drugstore blades and cartridges get dull after only a few shaves, and they’re ridiculously expensive. It makes me cringe to think of the 2 billion blades, razors and cartridges that get tossed into the landfill every year.

Furthermore, I’m a longtime sufferer of AWS (Aggressive Whisker Syndrome); I find it almost impossible to get a completely clean shave. I’ve visited Art of Shaving stores for advice. I even went to an olde-tyme barbershop for a straight-razor shave. Still not fully clean.

The appeal of the BornSharp is not just that it comes with a five-year blade—and you throw away nothing during that time. It’s also that, although it may have the basic shape of a disposable, it’s really a wicked-sharp straight razor.

Steve emphasized this distinction and cautioned me that straight-razor shaving is a whole new ballgame. He advised me to use a badger-hair brush to apply shaving cream to my face—from a round tin of shaving soap that looked like something your grandfather would have used.

As he shaved himself in that bathroom mirror, he demonstrated how straight-razor shaving consists of shorter, lighter, overlapping strokes—and three passes over every inch of skin: with the grain, across the grain, and against the grain. When he finished shaving, his skin looked as smooth as a baby’s.

When I got home to try the BornSharp razor for myself, I was filled with excitement, exhilaration and hope for a brighter future.

After a shower, I lathered up with the badger brush and shaving soap, half expecting a barbershop quartet to burst in. I eyed the gleaming BornSharp razor—and tried to shave.

The results were fairly disastrous. I hadn’t shaved for a couple of days, thinking that I’d have some impressive stubble with which to challenge the razor; but the razor left most of the stubble untouched.

I wrote to Steve in dismay. He reiterated that straight-razor shaving is a new skill. It takes time to master. And starting with a multiday beard growth is not the way to start out.

Steve Worthington knows shaving. As he described his quest to get the BornSharp made, I couldn’t help but grin. He traveled the world attending shaving conferences (yes, there are shaving conferences). He interviewed surgical-equipment manufacturers to get his blades made. He coined the phrase “shaving industrial complex” (the SIC).

He sent me links to shaving-instructions sites like this one, and how-to videos like this one. He included diagrams, too.

And he gave me elaborate instructions: “Make sure your beard is wet and warm; hair tensile strength is cut in half when wet. Use the cream and badger brush; lather your beard against the grain with the brush. Multiple short, light strokes. First pass, 30 degrees on the blade with the grain (that is, down your face in the sideburn area). Try varying the angle from 30 down to 5 degrees (blade nearly parallel to your skin at 5 degrees). You should feel and hear the sound of beard hairs being felled!

“Then reapply shave cream and go across the grain. I would not go against the grain for a week or so until you’ve got your motor memory re strokes and your skin is ready.”

My subsequent attempts to use the BornSharp went better. But I never did attain the perfection of Steve’s shave.

To fund or not to fund: The idea of the BornSharp is still overwhelmingly attractive. Imagine: a single, nearly perpetual razor that gives you a baby-smooth shave to your exact specifications—that doesn’t fill the coffers of the shaving industrial complex!

But it’s abundantly clear that the BornSharp is not for the masses. It may look like some cartridge razor from the drugstore, but it’s actually a straight razor. Shaving with it takes far more practice, skill, and time than multiple-blade razors from the SIC.

And there’s that price: $500, plus $100 every five years for factory installation of a new blade. No matter how delicious the concept, the price and the requirement for patience and practice will limit the BornSharp’s audience to a small group of aficionados.

In short, it may be a long and difficult slog for Steve Worthington to bring his invention to the public. But I, for one, will be rooting for him.

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