Razor oddity

Hello all,

I seem to have a problem with my razor. You see it simply will not take an edge. Now this could be due to the fact that I have never honed a razor before, but I believe it is something a little more fundamental.

You see, I bought a new Dovo 'Classic Black' 5/8" carbon steel, and didn't jump on the pre-honing option, assuming that I would have to learn how to do it someday. I think that was my first mistake. After hours of honing on my Norton 4k/8k, reading up on how to hone properly, and finally staring at my blade to see where the problem is, I believe I found it. My razor has the slightest hint of an 's' curve along the edge.

Now my question is, is this normal? Furthermore is it fixable? Anything anyone knows would be helpful.

Hi Vastall.
Welcome to SRP, and straight shaving! Yes, extremely slight curves, warpes, etc. are all part of the tolerances allowed with today's new razors.

I know you had said that you wanted to learn how to hone, and from my own experience it is much easier to keep a razor sharp than to get it sharp. Best bet would be to contact one of our resident honemeisters and get it done professionally the first time - well worth the $15-20 to protect your new razor from being irreparably damaged.

Good luck.

Mark

While a new razor may not be perfect any degree of warpage enough to prevent proper honing should not be tolerated and if that is the case with yours it should have gone back to the retailer.

Also remember that you can read all the material in the world about honing and actually doing it is very different. Kind of like reading how to fly an airplane and then trying it. Bad move. I agree, send the razor out for honing. Since you already tried honing it the retailer will probably not take it back but you might try that first before sending it out for honing.

Thanks for the advice.

If you don't mind me asking then, could you route me to a good honemeister? I've heard of The Well Honed Razor, but are there others? Or is that good enough?

For my part, I don't think the 4k/8k is fine enough to determine a finished 'pre-strop' edge and this may well be the problem. I find Dovos need to (generally) be taken to 10K+ prior to stropping, polished on the hone with very light pressure for some 20 - 30 reps b4 they take a nice edge - then get them on the strop and do about 30 reps finishing with a very light x-pattern. Seems to work most of the time! Good luck! :tu

The sticky at the top of the Newbie section entitled "CRITICAL INFO FOR NEW MEMBERS!!!" has a whole section on members offering honing services - any of those would do an excellent job of honing your razor for you.

Also, a link to that thread: http://straightrazorpalace.com/newbi...ght-razor.html

Mark