The Long & Winding Road to Asylum Production

The creation of the Asylum Rx was a long and rocky journey. The actual drawings were done fairly quickly. Within a month of meeting with Larry Calderon at a Pasadena IHOP, I had a design, CAD drawings and a plastic prototype of the Rx razor. The real challenge was finding a machine shop that could execute the design.

I first started with a local machine shop in Gardena, California that specialized in aerospace parts. They said that they could do it but, they quoted me a production price that exceeds my retail price with a minimum run of 500 razors. So, it was a No-go. I shopped it to probably 15 machine shops that told me it could not be machined. I was then referred to a machine shop in the Miami area. That shop tried tweaking the design to make it easier to machine. Here are a few mock-ups that made me say thanks but no thanks.

That design surely evolved.

The original design and the production Asylum are identical. These pictures were an attempt by a machine shop that I did not hire to make the razor easier to machine. It bore no resemblance to the original design.

When I saw the pictures of the plastic model way back I got excited, time passed and hopes of ever seen it in production where all but lost, so happy you kept pushing, fantastic job!

The Rx is a truly amazing work of practical and efficient art.

Here is a picture of the original drawing with the plastic prototype in early fall of 2012 and a picture of the production razor.

The long wait and hard work were worth it. It's a magnificent razor.

Well done, Phil. Finding a manufacturer willing to work with was also by far the most difficult part of the process for me. Happy to hear you found someone competent and willing.

Amazing and Challenging journey Phil! Glad for your success.

(10-18-2016, 05:26 AM)evnpar Wrote: The long wait and hard work were worth it. It's a magnificent razor.

Agreed.
It was worth the wait.

You could almost resurrect the plastic model as the Travel RX Razor - it looks pretty nice by itself

(10-18-2016, 05:17 AM)bullgoose Wrote: Here is a picture of the original drawing with the plastic prototype in early fall of 2012 and a picture of the production razor.

Phil,
you don't have to wind us up. You know we want it bad and wait for it. My finger has gone numb waiting to pull the trigger in front of the computer.

(10-18-2016, 06:24 AM)Blackland Razors Wrote: Well done, Phil. Finding a manufacturer willing to work with was also by far the most difficult part of the process for me. Happy to hear you found someone competent and willing.

I'm sure I heard Stan say the selection of the machine shop was the toughest part of his journey, also. Shop selection difficulty seems to be the number one problem to artisans' dreams of bringing a razor to market.

(10-17-2016, 08:42 PM)bullgoose Wrote: The original design and the production Asylum are identical. These pictures were an attempt by a machine shop that I did not hire to make the razor easier to machine. It bore no resemblance to the original design.

wise decision.

Well the only area you have failed deplorably Phil, is finding a machine shop that could produce them non stop, so by now everyone could have the thing and not only dream about it.

Phil,

I'm certainly glad you chose not to go with the Kickstarter-gone-awry colored machine shop drawings! The razor stayed true to its inception—that says a lot.

Also, I'm surprised no one here has yet to mention the Rxi Schick injector blade prototype in your photographs staring us in the face. I just want to know when it will be available for purchase as it's the perfect complement to the Rx?

(10-18-2016, 11:40 AM)kyproset Wrote: Well the only area you have failed deplorably Phil, is finding a machine shop that could produce them non stop, so by now everyone could have the thing and not only dream about it.

I think I'll just laugh at this one!

(10-18-2016, 11:43 AM)Entasis Wrote: Phil,

I'm certainly glad you chose not to go with the Kickstarter-gone-awry colored machine shop drawings! The razor stayed true to its inception—that says a lot.

Also, I'm surprised no one here has yet to mention the Rxi Schick injector blade prototype in your photographs staring us in the face. I just want to know when it will be available for purchase as it's the perfect complement to the Rx?

That would be lovely. 
The bottom of the handle could incorporate an AC blade cutter

(10-18-2016, 11:43 AM)Entasis Wrote: Phil,

I'm certainly glad you chose not to go with the Kickstarter-gone-awry colored machine shop drawings! The razor stayed true to its inception—that says a lot.

Also, I'm surprised no one here has yet to mention the Rxi Schick injector blade prototype in your photographs staring us in the face. I just want to know when it will be available for purchase as it's the perfect complement to the Rx?

The injector sized version is something that I originally planned to produce but, I am not sure if there is enough of a market. For one, the blade choices for injectors are becoming more limited rather than expanding. I am still considering it but at this point, I think it is too risky. We'll see.

Phil, could the injector be simply a scaled RX head fitted to the same handle? For that you've at least got a lot of the design work proved, just not the right size. Or am I hugely over simplifying things?