Thread: My Month Old Dovo Is Changing

After one month of shaving with my Dovo Best Quality, I noticed something different in yesterday's shave and today's shave. Both shaves were just as close and almost as smooth as any shave this month, but there were one or two instances where i felt a slight pull of hair from my razor. Nothing severe, but definitely noticeable. On top of that, while lining up my beard, there were one or two times where the razor slid over top of my beard instead of cutting the hair. I have heard that noobs, like myself, are likely to wear out razors quicker than someone more experienced, but I was really expecting to get at least two months before i needed to do a Chromium Oxide stropping. So here's my question. Is it wise to take some corrective action at the first sign of pulling? Or should I wait a bit?

Yes, do it now. The oft repeated phrase is, it's easier to keep a razor sharp than it is to sharpen a razor.

Would you please clarify what you mean by your statement that you strop on ChroOx? Do you exclusively strop on it or do you also use plain leather?

Firstly good on you for lasting a month, I think that my first few times I lasted a week and then had to touch up. If you have already got chromium oxide (CRox green .3 micron) and or Iron Oxide (FEox red .1 micron) then five laps on each. If not then make sure that you buy it from a reputable source as the grit size is not consistent in all cases. Go slow and make sure that you are using extremely light pressure, the edge is very fine and it does not take much to stuff it up. Remember that you will need to wipe off the extra abrasive after each set of 5. I use a tissue and then a micro fibre cloth to make 100% sure there is no cross contamination of the different grits. Give it a few passes on leather and then go to the .1. Do your normal pre shave strop and give it a test shave, if still not good then give it five more on each and test shave, repeat until good. I use a thicker piece of balsa that I have levelled with sand paper on glass. To mix take no more than a normal pinch of salt size of your abrasive, I cut a straw and take a small heap with the point of the straw (again cut two pieces of straw to prevent cross contamination). Drip one drop at a time of water/oil or whatever else you want to use onto the compound (I use two soda/fizzy drink lids with the plastic seal bit taken out to mix in) until you get a slightly runny consistency. Then smear it on the balsa in five or six diagonal lines, I generally use a little more water to spread the abrasive out once it is on and let dry. Again remember to wash carefully to not cross contaminate, store the balsa in two separate freezer bags, if you get the bags mixed up throw them away and use fresh ones to store, again do not cross contaminate.

Yes do it now, it can't hurt anything and it's a lot easier than hitting the hones. Sometime you can also pull it back with extensive stropping using 60-70 laps on leather and 30 on linen.

Yes, strop with crox or paste you will notice the difference right off. I had two pro honed razors when I started and after about the same time a pasted strop of balsa or cotton saved me another two months before I figured out honing basics. I still ended up sending both razors in for honing around the four month mark but stropping kept the shaved close and more importantly comfortable

Originally Posted by Utopian

Yes, do it now. The oft repeated phrase is, it's easier to keep a razor sharp than it is to sharpen a razor.

Would you please clarify what you mean by your statement that you strop on ChroOx? Do you exclusively strop on it or do you also use plain leather?

If I need to do a razor refresh, the ChroOx webbing will be what I used. I've never used it on this razor. Normally I strop on the clean nylon side for 20 passes, then 60 on leather.

Originally Posted by JTmke

Yes, strop with crox or paste you will notice the difference right off. I had two pro honed razors when I started and after about the same time a pasted strop of balsa or cotton saved me another two months before I figured out honing basics. I still ended up sending both razors in for honing around the four month mark but stropping kept the shaved close and more importantly comfortable

Ok, that's good information to know JTmke. How many passes did you do on Chox?

So my first refresh attempt didn't go as good as I'd hoped. I had applied chrox to the webbing of a strop I had, and used that for 5 passes. For the Irox, I used what my son had applied to his strop and did 5 passes on that. The feel of the Irox stop was far smoother than I expected it to be. I did a hanging hair test that was less than stellar, but my brand new this razor didn't wizz through hanging hair, so I figured it was ok. The morning shave was not bad, but I felt like the edge was still not as sharp as it could be. So this evening I applied the irox to the back side of my own webbing strop and did 5 passes on the chrox and 10 on the irox. I did a hanging hair test and the results were scary. The razor is wizzing through hair on my arm far better than it did when it was brand new. Hoping the shave in the morning is just as rewarding.

For the novice, it is not cutting hair that dulls the razor, most probably it is stropping technique and lack of proper cleaning of the bevel and edge post shaving that dulls the edge.

As said the edge is very fragile and left loaded overnight with moist skin and soap, blood and oxidation will eat the thin edge. Get as much of that off your razor, post shave as possible. Hot running water and several wiping with a microfiber will remove most of it.

Look at your bevel and edge with magnification after cleaning to get a good idea of what it takes to leave your razor “Clean”.
Lifting the spine just once will roll an edge.

Iron Oxide is not as abrasive as Chromium Oxide and may take more laps to achieve satisfactory results.

As your stropping and razor care improves, so will your shaves, glad you are making progress.

This mornings shave with the refreshed razor was far better than my first refresh attempt, and as good as I've ever had with this razor, if not a bit better. I'm going to chock this up as a novice success. Euclid440's advice on cleaning and drying the blade being a number one cause of dulling is pretty insightful. I'll be adding the microfiber cleaning to my routine.

For the Iron Oxide, 5 was the suggested number of swipes. How may would be too many? Or is iron oxide so minimally abrasive that there is no max?