OK been lurking here for awhile, and this will be my first thread that I have started.

My gear is as follows.

IXL Geo.Wostenholm & son Str8 Sheffield
Tweezerman badger brush
generic strop treated with ball glove paste
taylor of old bond street cream, sandalwood
no aftershave or other skin treatments
Norton 4k/8k hone

So I've been shaving with a str8 for about 3 moths now with this equipment, well minus the hone until about 1 week ago. I just quit shaving with the mach 3 cold turkey and went all out str8 from then on. My first experience wasn't a bad one, I had a few cuts, there wasn't a lot of pull and I was relatively happy with the smoothness of the shave. I start my shave with a hot towel treatment for about a minute, i lather, massage, and then hot towel again for another few minutes, lather again, then shave WTG, lather, then shave ATG. After that I get a very nice result with a few places that i have to touch up due to some unruly cowlicks that i have in my beard around my adams apple and jawline.

So since then shaves have steadily been getting better, but in the back of my head I always have this thought that my razor could be sharper. I dont know why I thought this in the first place but the idea was already in my head so I couldn't fight the urger to go sharper. I looked online to find ways to see if my razor was sharp enough, i saw the hanging hair test, the ball of the thumb test,and the thumbnail test.

I give the thumbnail test a try and I could not even tell what was going on there. So i try the ball of my thumb and i guess my razor was sharp because even with the lightest pressure on the blade it would start to fillet my skin off. I then tried the HHT and that absolutely did not work at all. The hair would catch sometimes and at some points on the blade and at others it would just roll off like a butterknife, or so it seemed. This made me decide i needed to give honing a try. I purchase a Norton 4k/8k hone and watch a few videos on youtube about how to hone. I know it's going to be a rough learning curve, but With enough practice and patience I am confident I'll get the hang of it. The hone arrives and I begin my honing adventure. First thing I notice is that my blade is actually warped. The blade does not lay completely flush on the surface of the hone. Well I hone anyway, I dont get the HHT result I wanted but i get a much nicer, smoother and nick free shave.

Since then I have purchased a DOVO special 5/8 faux tortoise str8 so cure my curved blade woes. I am somewhat on a budget so i can't go all out on a really nice razor yet. So the question I ask is what are the opinions on this DOVO razor? Is it a good razor? How does it hone? Did I make a decent choice for a pretty much starter blade? Hopefully my story is similar to some of the experts beginnings out there. Please comment and say hello to Dylan from North Alabama.

-Go Phins!