If you haven't read my first trip into honing, check out the "6 weeks in - First Pink Lather" thread . . . :) I have two eBay razors I picked up after getting somewhat comfortable with my pro-honed SRD Ralf Aust. My first attempt at using the two was memorable, albeit bloody. I went back to the hones and came back with a better edge on the Dovo. It was cutting arm hairs easily and tree topping, although not quite as good as my pro-honed Ralf Aust. But, I stropped it on CrOx this morning, and then ran it about 50-60 times on linen then leather and decided to try a WTG shave with it for the shave test.
End result - zero nicks, and actually a decent WTG shave. For comparison, I relathered and did another WTG pass with my Ralf Aust and it did a bit more work, but overall, it felt similar to when I do a second WTG pass normally when the Ralf is used both times. So, I'm considering this a success!
I am taking it back to the stones before adding it in the rotation though as it did pull a bit around the tougher whiskers at my chin, but only a little bit more so than my Ralf Aust did after about 20 shaves before I used the CrOx on it. So, I feel there is still room to improve on that, but that was my third attempt at honing a straight, and I got on that actually shaved mostly comfortably!
To avoid too much irritation from the straights, I finished with my DE after doing a XTG with the Ralf. And turns out, this is one of the smoothest shaves yet.
On another note - picked up a Silvertip brush from Amazon (Simply Beautiful) and Thayer's Witch Hazel with Aloe. I must say, the Silvertip holds a ton of water compared to my Art of Shaving Pure Badger (which was nice, albeit surprising when I lathered up the soap), and I am really impressed with the Witch Hazel. Not much on smell, but really seems to close the skin up and soothe it real quick. After, I have an Aveda After-Shave Balm, and it feels like I only need about half of it now than when I used it before as my only post-shave treatment.
