Presharpened Razors and too many complaints
Hey guys - I've noticed lately a bunch of posts in the newbie section where guys are totally complaining about all the presharpened 5/8 or 6/8 Dovos they've bought from this place or that.
I know that for your personal razors, you hone this way for razor x, and that way for razor y, because that's what the individual razor *needs*. But, I also don't think that the in-house honemeisters for the various retailers are sitting around with all sorts of Spyderco hones, Chinese 12k's, barber hones, shaptons, nortons, kings, nakayama, naniwa, thuringan, coticules, tam o'shanters, and who knows what else saying "Hmm.... now what does this brand spanking new Dovo need??....."
I would assume that they are sharpened in larger quantities, and that each razor would be taken through pretty much a consistent honing progression. I would expect that if I bought 20 presharpened razors, that they should all be identically sharpened, otherwise you get dissatisfaction between what would appear to be identical products - as long as they are all from one vendor.
So, that said, Can anyone enlighten me as to what the *generic* honing progressions for the different places are? I.e., classic shaving does this, SRD does that, etc.
This way, whenever someone comes on and casts doubt on the actuality of their razor being presharpened, we can have a better answer. We can say, "Oh, classic shaving? Yeah they finish that on a Shapton 16k and Chromium oxide.... if you aren't getting a smooth shave it's your own dang fault.... " Or something similar.....
(If you are a new guy who has recently complained of this, please don't feel like I am singling you out - many people before you have lodged the exact same complaint)
shave ready vs. new blades with that claim from a mfr.
I bought two TI's and two Dovo's brand new. One TI was honed pretty well but has camber to it and the other had gouges in the edge like the grand canyon when viewed under the microscope, I had to rework both of them. Of the two brand new Dovo's I bought both of them had edges that looked like they had honed them on 220 grit sandpaper and sent it out the door, the edges were nowhere close to the mirror finish of a .92 or .49 micron Shapton honed edge...I had to rework both of those as well...
I think a 'shave ready' blade is one that will pass the HHT...last night I got the .49 micron Shapton stone and i finally got the HHT to work with the blades i have...despite being very careful with the .92 micron stone, I could not get that to pass the HHT either...is this why Classicshaving sells the .92 AND the .49 micron Shapton stones? possibly...