I thought I resurrect this thread. Any news regarding the date of release? Did you run into any rather big problems along the way?
Yes! I have been in "production hell"... or perhaps "production purgatory" would be a better description. But just about starting to come out the other side finally...
Moving supplier has been significantly more work than it should have been. I know there is a lot of fatigue with the "COVID excuses", but that had the biggest impact. It shut the machine shop at a critical moment. After they re-opened, trying to pick up the job, and working around the safe working rules, and moving goods just went up in complexity for them. They were also operating with a backlog so pressure was also evident. If it could have gone wrong it appears it did; On my side as a single person business trying to orchestrate and manage this has been challenging. I am also aware that for customers it is not a good look missing my launch date by a not insignificant margin. I hope my updates have been transparent, but there is also a limit at which saying "another delay" starts to be tough... But I will come back to that later.
But to this update. After getting back to the machine shop they have the latest parts almost ready. This is an image from last Wednesday. They have resolved all my feedback on the last pre-production parts, and are now resolving the finishing. There have been a few hiccups with minor tolerances, which I caught in inspection. And with some of the ways I want the parts finished, it leaves nowhere to hide, and marks on the parts or tool lines stand out, and I won't sell that.
One of the other issues has been engraving the branding, they have struggled to make it consistent in the stainless. To get the definition and clarity I want. So we have been exploring laser marking which has some nice results when done well. (these pictures from Friday are unfinished, and they were just tests, so in NO WAY a reflection of the final quality, just a work in progress so I can share the process. The sintered colour would be removed by finishing)
For me personally this has been a very stressful time. I was so excited to open a pre-order, and had a whole business plan to bring new things on the back of working with the new supplier. Unfortunately I have had to fight for survival. The resources tied up in the stainless meant I couldn't restock my other razors or push the brush to production either. Securing my pre-order customers that placed an order before all the issues has been a top priority, holding someone's payment is not something I take lightly. The result is this year has not been a financially viable business, and I'm on the back foot until this stainless is delivered, so I can't wait to start moving forward and working with customers again.
The last pre-production parts were supposed to be send Friday, but they weren't happy with the branding and so wanted time to find the answer. I hope they should ship this week fingers crossed. And then I hope I can share the last update showing the parts, and saying production has started! Time management has been a
big learning curve with this supplier, I appreciate these are new parts so things sometimes take a little longer than making something they are familiar with, but adding two weeks to the intermediate deadlines has become a bit of a norm...
Hopefully these candid updates are interesting, I don't want to hide the reality of what I am learning and how these things go sometimes. I know this community appreciates the artisans which is why I am encouraged to share such sincere updates. And thank you to any pre-order customers. I am going to get a razor into your hands, and I am going to make sure it is excellent~
/Andrew
(contact@hone-shaving.com or on here is also fine if you prefer) 
