Thread: Got a dovo classic 5/8 for christmas hollow ground

Have been pouring over the videos, FAQ, beginner's area, and re-reading. My eyes hurt from watching the videos. A ton of great info and this is my first post!

So my sister got me a Silvertip Badger Brush, Dovo Strop, Strop paste (white bottle with a yellow strip at the top with no name). So the razor came sealed with the sticker not broken. I ordered a set of stones 4k, 6k, and 12k. However the 12k went out of stock and can no longer be sourced.

Are the 4k, 6k, and a strop enough to get me going with a new blade or should I just start with the strop leather side for 40-50 strokes (once each way counts as one stroke with the spine down leading the stroke...)?

Any tips to help get me started would rock!

I have been practicing on a Parker Shavette on & off over the past year so I have been building my shaving skill very slowly!

Thanks in advance!

I think most folks will recommend you get it honed professionally, so you know that the razor is as sharp as it needs to be..

I'd have to second Pringr. I'm new to straight shaving as well and I dived I head first with shaving, stropping, and honing all at the same time and I was having fun and thought I was doing well at all of it. After buying a true shave ready razor I really started to doubt the honing and stropping portions. So if I were to go back in time I'd have had someone professionally hone my first razor and I'd have just focused on getting a smooth comfortable shave and stropping correctly... Because believe it or not it's harder than the really experienced guys make it look and it can make or break your shaving experience really quick until you get the hang of it. It can make the difference between a week of good shaves and 3 Months of good shaves.

Welcome to SRP!
Dovos come with a factory bevel set and that is about it. You do not want to shave with it until it is professionally honed.
Check out the classifieds under member services and there will be a list of honers.

In the mean time, practice stropping with a butter knife to build muscle memory so that you don't ruin the strop and edge the first time out.

welcome aboard! by all means have it professionally honed. first learn to maintain the edge and then learn honing. perhaps find a vintage blade in good shape to practice on instead of your new one. you can get a good shave ready blade off of a 8k hone, i'm not sure about a 6k(some one with more experience will have to advise on that)

Welcome. So far you have gotten good advice.

Well that didn't take long for my first mistake.

I ordered these stones:

4k Grit
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

6k Grit
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

But these do not appear to be sharpening stones even though they are labeled in a manner which would indicate they are?

Ugh they are supposed to arrive today. Can someone confirm the linked items above are not okay for sharpening? What a failboat....LOL.

I contacted a person from the forum for honing services so I will be heeding the advice above....thx!

Hi and welcome. The links for the stones say yhay they are nagura stones which are used to make slurry and not actually proper stones that you hone on. Any questions feel free to ask

Originally Posted by eddy79

Hi and welcome. The links for the stones say yhay they are nagura stones which are used to make slurry and not actually proper stones that you hone on. Any questions feel free to ask

Yeah I see that now I ordered them before I found this place....thanks for confirming my newbie status!

LOL