Yates Precision Manufacturing makes safety razors for a worldwide market
Courtesy of Yates Precision Manufacturing
Courtesy of Yates Precision Manufacturing
Jake and Ashley Yates, the proprietors of Yates Precision Manufacturing, with their sons
Yates Precision Manufacturing in Greene County makes high-quality safety razors and have found a worldwide customer base. (Photos courtesy of Yates Precision Manufacturing)
Courtesy of Yates Precision Manufacturing
Yates Precision Manufacturing in Greene County caters to connoisseurs of safety razors in the United States and around the world.
Jake Yates of Yates Precision Manufacturing says their razors offer a closer, higher quality shave. (Photo courtesy of Yates Precision Manufacturing)
Editor蘑菇视频 note: This is one in a weekly series featuring businesses operating in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties that have national and global reach.
Jake Yates doesn鈥檛 fear a Civil War beard.
The lush beards that were once favored by the likes of James Garfield and Rutherford B. Hayes and can be found more recently in metropolitan hipster meccas would, in theory, give pause to razor manufacturers. They would, in theory at least, shudder at any fashion trend discouraging men from slicing away every last whisker.
But Yates, who co-owns Yates Precision Manufacturing outside Waynesburg in Franklin Township with his wife, Ashley, feels like the safety razors their company makes can withstand any fluctuations in fashion, even if it would entail a return to the tonsorial trends of 160 years ago.
鈥淚 always thought, OK, I have to make a product for everyone,鈥� Yates explained. 鈥淓veryone蘑菇视频 going to love it. But, really, you just a need a niche product for a very niche following, and there蘑菇视频 enough there to support you forever. It was something I had to break myself of.鈥�
The niche product of Yates Precision Manufacturing is safety razors. The enterprise makes between 100 and 400 razors a month for customers across the United States and Canada, and as far afield as Britain, Australia, China, Brazil, Japan and the Czech Republic. Making safety razors for both men and women has been the full-time pursuit of the company for about 18 months, and it蘑菇视频 a specialty that Yates stumbled upon by accident.
Originally a contract manufacturer doing 鈥渏ob-shop, contract manufacturing,鈥� Yates鈥� dad asked him if he could put together a safety razor in the fall of 2018. Rising to the challenge, Yates, a mechanical engineer with a degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, got to work. He designed one and intended on only making a few.
鈥淚 was going to make them, give them to friends and family and be done with it,鈥� recalled Yates.
But when he started posting on social media about his progress in making the razor, interest snowballed and the razors became the calling card of Yates Precision Manufacturing.
They sell the Model 921-M razor, the number coming from Sept. 21, the date on which the Yates鈥� sons, Landon and Lincoln, were born two years apart. They also make custom razors, and allow customers to choose if they want a top cap in stainless steel, brass or titanium, an engraving in the top cap and bead blast, stonewash and as-machined finishes.
The razors are a little more pricey than something you would grab off the shelf at a big-box retailer, but, according to Yates, they appeal to connoisseurs and collectors.
鈥淭here蘑菇视频 this market out there of people who buy and collect safety razors,鈥� he said, adding that they might have 100 brushes or 200 different types of soap.
The hobbyists who collect safety razors are 鈥渏ust like people who collect guns and knives. There蘑菇视频 a following out there for safety razors.鈥�