Thread: How unrealistic would it be to try and restore this razor by myself?

I received this brand new Dovo razor for my birthday a few years ago. I should have immediately returned it but I did not realize in how bad of shape it was. The thing is essentially completely useless and always has been, I have only ever used it 2 or 3 times because it could barely cut hair at all. I tried honing it up myself on micron paper I had lying around, that didn't help either (my technique was probably really bad then, though.)

Here is a thorough imgur album of the blade itself.

Before you tell me to take it to a professional and that I'm wasting my time, I actually live down the street from the most well known sharpener in my entire city, I have taken it to him twice, but he does not specialize in straight razors and mainly does knives and tools, so he good take whatever edge it had and make it temporarily sharp, but could not actually get it in good working shape. So far I have not found anyone in my city who is good at this but I will continue to look.

In the mean time, I have a king 1000 stone and the popular norton 4k/8k stone. I tried just giving it a good edge myself carefully following a guide, and I do believe my technique is pretty decent, but the result was still that the razor cannot even cut arm hair roughly, it simply will not cut at all except for the heel of the blade and one small spot near the toe, the middle is worthless.

If I were study how to restore this using rolling x strokes by myself do you think I would have any chance of succeeding?

That is a low-cost Dovo. I have the same one and another of the same grade. They can be honed as I shave with both of the ones I have. You have the 1k 4k and 8k so you have the basics to get a shaveable edge. It's just the time and effort needed to do this. Honing takes practice. It's not like sharpening as your friend down the street has said. Honing takes time to learn to get it right. With a little instruction (we have one guy here that will be happy to post up instructions when he finds you) you can make it shave. But for a good edge, it takes a lot of time and effort and time and more time. Oh, and a little more time. If you put in an hour or two every day for 6 months or so it will happen. Kidding. But that is just to let you know it's not something you just do the first time.

Use a layer of electrical tape on the spine so you don't damage it right away. Change the tape often. Watch some videos on youtube. Glen/GSSIXGUN has some good ones to help you learn. Marty will be along shortly and will help too. The first thing is to post your pictures HERE! Some of us old guys would rather not go to a link unless we know where it comes from.

That's enough for now from me. BTW, Welcome to SRP. The best place on the web to learn straight razors.

Originally Posted by Gasman

But for a good edge, it takes a lot of time and effort and time and more time. Oh, and a little more time. If you put in an hour or two every day for 6 months or so it will happen. Kidding. But that is just to let you know it's not something you just do the first time.

I would be dead seriously fine with trying it a couple times a week for the next 6 months, my only real concern would be causing further damage to the blade. If I were to attempt to hone it myself 20-25 times before I got it right, would I not lose an obvious amount of blade? I don't want my 6/8" blade to go down to a 5/8" blade by the time I can get my first good shave out if it, if this is avoidable. Also you say honing takes a long time to learn and I believe you, but I hear that restoring, or specifically restoring the edge of a damaged blade is much harder yet. I'll try embedding some photos but they are hi-res and there is a ton of them, I would likely have to kill the resolution to upload any of them here, imgur is the most popular image-host on the web though it shouldn't be an issue really.

Good advice from Jerry aka Gasman. Marty goes by the screen name Euclid440. He will spend a lot of time with people if they listen.
My advice is to read up on some posts, watch some of Glen's videos as Jerry suggested and make sure your stones are flat, smoothed and champhered correctly. Honing is a learned skill and is harder than it seems from the start but it is not impossible. Everyone here who does it started out not knowing just like you. For starters I would look at the "Honing" section of the forum and read, read, read. You will get it if you are patient and stick with it. And if you get stumped or need more info you can ask. Someone will help you.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

For starters I would look at the "Honing" section of the forum and read, read, read. You will get it if you are patient and stick with it. And if you get stumped or need more info you can ask. Someone will help you.

Do you think there is anything I should pay special attention to given the warped nature of my blade or should I just learn how to hone generally and that will follow naturally?

You will probably find threads titled that way. If not you can do a search. There is an advanced search tool but you can also search a thread and I think maybe search an individual sub forum.

When new to honing you will wear down a few blades. That's why you start with lower cost razors. And dont start with warped blades as that is going to make learning much slower. Pick up a few 1930 pre-war razors, american made and learn on them. Ebay cost is around 30 bucks each. But the one you have shouldnt cost much more than that but being warped its not going to help you. When you learn to hone you can run a warped blade across the stone twice and you feel what needs done. That takes a long time to learn so start with straight blades.

Oh yea, the best sharpener in town, we hear that all the time, he’s a knife guy so no he ain’t who you want. Just man up and get one of the razor guys here to do it, learn how to strop and shave. Hell till then you don’t even know what a shave ready razor is

Honing a straight razor is not at all like sharpening a knife or a pair of scissors. Take the advice and do some homework reading about razor honing and watching some of gssixgun’s videos. You won’t be ready to properly sharpen a warped razor until you’ve managed to get a consistently good edge on a properly ground and well manufactured razor.

I wasn’t able to get a decent edge on a razor I have that is warped for a couple of years. I just let it sit in my “to be honed” drawer while I developed my honing skills with my good razors and learned how to properly use my hones. Then I took some guidance from the more experienced folks here on how to identify and properly tape the spine to compensate for the warp.

Be patient. Develop you basic honing skills and master your hones with good razors. Then take on the challenge of troublesome blade.

Some good advice above. The reason we recommended taping the spine, is because people new to honing tend to put far to much pressure on the spine and prematurely wear the spine down and mess up the geometry. I looked through your pictures and I’m not sure that it is warped. Yes it does not sit flat on the hone, but that can be caused by many things, like a smile and that is not a bad thing. Watch some honing videos by gssixgun. There are a ton of honing threads here. Also the foundation to every great shaving edge is the bevel set, typically done on the 1K hone. Optics are the easiest way to hone. There are a ton of sharpness tests out there, but they can be difficult to get correct. If I knew where you were it would be easier to direct you to help. Often mailing them to someone reasonably close is a good way to get them assessed and honed.