Another good shave! But I was a little disappointed. I was advised to go with the cheapie again, and by someone else to try the Dovo, and the dilemma was like overwhelming. My Dad said just go for it and go with the Dovo. Of course he was in the bathroom coaching and cautioning until I reminded him that I now am an experienced straight shaver and he is not, and properly chastened, he hastened out of the bathroom. Well, I thought WTH, and I was really curious about the Dovo, and it was kinda like eeny meemy miney mo and so away I did go with the brand new Dovo.

First of all I don't know if I mentioned it but the edge is sort of uneven from one side and one end to the other. Apparently that's not supposed to be a big deal as long as there is a bevel on both sides all the way down, and the width of it doesn't matter. Still, I am still sort of miffed about it because the cheap razor is more consistent and even. Of course a lot of work was done on it so I am sure it was worse right from the factory, and I am sure the Dovo can be made as even as the Gold Dollar by the right guy. I am so confident of that, in fact, that I have made arrangements to send the Dovo to the same guy I got my Gold Dollar from, so he can fix it up like he fixed up the Gold Dollar. I also ordered a full blown custom Gold Dollar from him for $60. Is that too much? I saw some pics of some he has done and they are pretty cool looking. He says he can make the Dovo look like a Klingon ritual combat razor ROTFL! He says he will do it for free and just charge me a few bucks for the scale material and pins and stuff, cause he just thinks it will be fun to customize a Dovo like that.

But back to the shave. I was a little worried that it wouldn't shave all that well, especially since my Dad's friend said not to expect much from the Dovo on account of it was Dovo's entry level razor, but it did pretty good. As good as the cheapo? Well, not sayin. But I just kind of feel like for the money difference, it should have shaved way better than the cheapie. I don't feel like I really got my moneys worth. Well, I did, but compared to the low price I paid for the cheapo it wasn't such a hot deal. But hey, I'm just starting so take all this with a grain of salt. I gave the Dovo a good workout on the balsa after I got done shaving, and it mows arm hair down like grass, now, without touching the skin. I think the next shave with it will be better. I am feeling a lot more comfortable with the straight razor now. At first I couldn't decide whether to shave both sides of my face with my right hand, or switch hands. I finally decided that once a rightie, always a rightie and so that question is out of the way. This second shave I was a lot smoother with it and I got it done a lot quicker, like maybe 20 minutes for two passes including lathering and stuff. But the Dovo did leave my face nice and smooth and the aftershave didn't hardly burn at all. In fact it burnt less than it did after my first shave.

The Dovo feels a lot lighter and less stable. The Chinese junk razor is heavier and just feals more steady in my hand and has more momentum, like it goes CHARGE! into the enemy whisker camp, spearing and slashing everything standing. The Dovo kind of hesitates a little, like, "Hey General Custer, can I be excused for the rest of the afternoon?" LOL! I had to force it a little. My shave angle might be the cause of that I don't know. It shaved my face nice and smooth, but the Gold Dollar was like eager to slay those whisker hairs and never wimped out on me. I am hoping that as I get used to it, I will like it a lot more. And I do want to get a nicer mid level Dovo so I have something that is definitely high quality. I guess I need a few more shaves with the Dovo before I do anything rash.

Oh, I did get one small cut, right on my chin, where I cut myself several times before with my shavette straight. Not the razor's fault though. I was getting too careless.

I started to strop on my Illinois strop but the razor sort of sticks and drags on the leather so I finished on the newspaper hobo strop, 50 laps. That was before my shave. After shaving as I mentioned, I stropped on the balsa wood strop and then 20 laps on the hobo. Tomorrow I will do the Dovo again and see if that helped any.

I am really impressed with regular straight razor shaving so far, and it is a way improvement over the shavette straight razor. It is easier and gentler on my face. Don't want to sound like a wimp, but the shavette felt kind of punishing sometimes, especially slapping on the aftershave. The regular straight razors are a lot nicer to my facial skin.

UPDATE

I tried stropping a little bit on the Big Daddy and it had that same pully-sticky feeling so I wiped it down good with a rag and paint thinner to get the excess oil and saddle soap off of it. After drying for an hour I stropped again and wow! Much nicer! The dryer leather is way easier to use! I just wonder if it is having any effect on the razor because it is just gliding over it. Should I re-oil it a little? My Dad's buddy said rub it with the palm of my hand and let the skin oil do it. He sounds like he knows what he is talking about, but does that sound like good advice to you guys? Should I be looking for just a little bit of a resistance, or a lot, or none at all? Does it even matter?

Thanks a bunch, guys!