Thread: *FIRST SHAVE WITH NEW DOVO -- NOWHERE CLOSE!

I would also recommend PM'ing Lynn before posting anything else about the hone. He may be a busy guy, but I'm sure he'd rather hear it from you and try to help you troubleshoot than to come across it in a thread.

Here's another question: How was the lather? What kind of pre-shave routine did you use? There definitely is a learning curve to straight shaving...I just had my 7th or 8th shave and finally got it close to right (partly from bbshiver's post about scything/guillotine). There are so many aspects of the shave to keep in mind, besides the razor/angle.

Good Luck!

I did PM Lynn a few minutes ago, but thanks cwrighta. Appreciate the response.

I did nothing but use the razor straight out of the case, and I'm really finding it hard to believe that there's that huge of a discrepancy between shaving with a disposable straight and a DOVO straight that it would give me such a poor result on a brand new, honed razor. The DOVO was giving me poor results from the first stroke. Pressure doesn't change between the 2 types of straight's -- you aim for as little as possible in both situations, and the angle might need to change a bit from disposable to straight, as some posters have stated, which I also tried varying numerous times throughout the shave, but didn't help a bit.

For my lather, and my pre-shave routine, it has been the same since I started. I fill a mug with hot water, leave my brush in the mug to soak in a sink of hot water while I shower -- I get out, make, and apply my lather. Thick, and not watery at all -- it took me a while to get it right, since I use William's which tends to use a lot of water, but I got it a few weeks ago and have been doing it since -- again, no prior problems with shaves at all.

Unfortunately, since I'm fairly new to this as well, I'm at a loss at this point. From what I've heard, people using disposables have had much better results with regular straights.

Maybe some of these resident experts can shed some light on the problem!

Really? That's interesting...I'm hoping some of the experts can aid, because I'm so frustrated lol

To be honest, I dont get a smooth pull free pass with my dovo until the 3rd shave after a hone. The razor gets stropped and for some reason its like the blades have aligned with the planets after the third shave. keep at it, it will get better....Trust me.

Billy

There seems to be quite a number of posts regarding prehoned Dovo's from Classic lately, especially on some other forums. I thought I would just share my 2c of experience.

I got one a few weeks ago (Dovo Special Tortoise), no honing service. It may have just been my razor, but it was passing the HHT out of the box. Now, I am a rank amateur at honing, but I did 3-5 light passes on the DMT8EE and about 30 on a Spyderco UF, and it is shaving like a dream. Now if I can do that, then I would think there is NO WAY Lynn could not. Or even worse, NO WAY he could do a worse job, even with his eyes closed. I would think the only way you could get a dull razor from him would have been if he did something wrong, which is highly unlikely.

The point is, it is too easy to blame the razor (or the honing).

Originally Posted by RayG

There seems to be quite a number of posts regarding prehoned Dovo's from Classic lately, especially on some other forums.

The main gripe coming from the other forum in particular is from a guy who takes purdy pics, but probably hasn't honed 100 razors in his quest to be known as the King Of Straight Razors. The key here is not self recognition or blame, but to help the new guys. Because I test every one, I am confident that they shave. That said, for what ever reason a new person has troubles, I consider it more important to help that person out, re-hone the razor or do what ever it takes to get him shaving. This is not about recognition or me or defammation of me coming from that person in the other forum. You may see my name more only because I probably hone more razors than any one else out there right now at probably over 10,000. That is changing and there are a lot of more people honing. Anyone who gets on this band wagon other than in helping the new person out is not doing our environment any justice or the person needing the help. I have been asked to hone up razors that were honed by Joel and other real experts out there and never said a word. I normally ask the person to check back with the person who honed the razor first and then if no resolution, I will re-hone the razor. I don't post this in the forums or draw any negative attention to these folks. I have always maintained a gentleman's approach to this in this forum and will continue to do so no matter what the other guys do.

You would not believe the amount of guys who have been so anxious to get the perfect shave the first time and then become immediately frustrated only to tell us that after some practice and a few shaves later they are getting there and loving it.

Have fun,

Lynn

I FULLY agree with evrything Lynn has posted here. I also purchased a Dovo for my first razor, and also had it honed by Lynn before I got it. To my surprise , it was not a very good shave. I NEVER posted here for fear of it coming out the WRONG way and maybe insulting. THANK GOD I DIDN'T!!!!! After a few more trys, Dovo is a great shaver. It was NEVER the razor or the honing, IT WAS ME and my lack of experience in shaving with a straight. The first few shaves are not preety, but don't give up. THE BEST IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER..

P.S. Stay here on the forums as the info you can gather here is PRICELESS!!!!
Thank you all that help us new guys here.

I'm gonna respond to this one, because our situations are extremely similar. I went from a dull mach3 to a shavette with dorco blades to a straight that i bought from b/s/t, shave ready. The shaves from the shavette were extremely easy, close but i was bleeding more than ever, very thin weepers that i didnt even feel. but the 1 pass shave was amazing. When i received my blade in the mail, i immediately shaved with it and was disappointed that after 1 pass i still had stubble. I reread the boards and found that beard reduction rather than removal was the standard, and i now do a 3 pass shave. I have been shaving with the same straight for about 3 months and my shaves are still not as baby smooth as i used to get with the shavette, but i cut myself less and each shave i learn some new trick to work the problem areas. A really good trick that i learned is to wrap some newspaper around a wooden board and strop on that about a 100-200 times and it will refresh your blade very well. i strop on newspaper almost every shave because i like a very sharp edge, though some like a mellower edge.. you will notice little nuances that you would never see with a disposable because after a few shaves you throw the blade away and start over. All i can say is i was very skeptical that the blade i received was not shave ready but after a week or so i realized my technique required some tweaking and its a blast to learn. good luck!

Originally Posted by coachmike

I FULLY agree with evrything Lynn has posted here. I also purchased a Dovo for my first razor, and also had it honed by Lynn before I got it. To my surprise , it was not a very good shave. I NEVER posted here for fear of it coming out the WRONG way and maybe insulting. THANK GOD I DIDN'T!!!!! After a few more trys, Dovo is a great shaver. It was NEVER the razor or the honing, IT WAS ME and my lack of experience in shaving with a straight. The first few shaves are not preety, but don't give up. THE BEST IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER..

P.S. Stay here on the forums as the info you can gather here is PRICELESS!!!!
Thank you all that help us new guys here.

Just wrote a long reply to this and was cut off by a glitch in srp when i hit sumit. Piss me off. Well I mirror what you just said and added some long additions. Oh well, such is life. Once you learn life is difficult, things get much easier.

Gary