Thread: Is my razor sharp enough or is it me?

Good evening gents,

I just purchased a pre honed Dovo and I am having some problems. I took it for the maiden voyage tonight and it felt like it was doing more scraping then it was cutting. I stropped it like I learned in both Lynn's video, and from other sources on line but I am at a loss.

I have been using a Feather DX non folding for the past 2 months and that thing cuts like butter for a good 7 shaves on my beard. Prior to the Feather I used a DE loaded with a Feather for over a year. Suffice to say, I believe by now that my prep is good as I long gotten over the learning curve of bad prep and irritated skin. Also being that I have extremely sensitive skin, and I get BBS with no irritation from the Feather I would think that I have the correct blade angle down.

I have read that a real straight usually isn't as sharp as a Feather straight, but it cant be that far off can it?

Does any body think I could have worn the edge by improper stropping? (15 on canvas, 20 on leather on a brand new TM no pressure except the weight of the blade)

I am thoroughly confused and my face is on fire not to mention that I am bummed because this was my birthday present from the wife. Unfortunately, the Norton, DMT, and Shapton 16k are still on their way in the mail. Cheers

I've never shaved with a feather, but I can tell you that a properly honed and stropped straight razor will NOT be uncomfortable in the least. On the contrary, it's been the most comfortable and gentle shave I've ever gotten. And I have very sensitive skin as well.

Are you sure the razor was pre-honed? I think stropping technique is really something you have to experiment with and develop on your own, because I know I strop my razors differently than how some have told me to do on here (in order for me to get the best shave out of any particular razor I'm using).

I also have one of TM's strops. When I use it, I don't normally do as many passes on the linen -- especially on a newly-honed razor. You might try to clean up the edge by doing a few passes on the linen/canvas again, then start stropping on the leather a few laps at a time. Keep testing it on your arm hair and go back to the strop again. When the hair pops, you will likely get a good shave out of it.

Also, I think a pasted strop was probably one of my best purchases as a newbie. It's far easier than learning the stones, though the stones are important as well.

Originally Posted by G Q

Good evening gents,

I just purchased a pre honed Dovo and I am having some problems. I took it for the maiden voyage tonight and it felt like it was doing more scraping then it was cutting. I stropped it like I learned in both Lynn's video, and from other sources on line but I am at a loss.

I've had the same experience just recently. I bought a pre honed Dovo but was surprised by the sharpness, or, the lack of sharpness. It's my first straight and I still have some learning to do but anyway. First I thought that it was lack of experience but more and more I realized it wasn't sharp enough. Now I have honed it myself and the blade is sharper than when I got it. I'm still not fully satisfied and sometimes it still feels like scraping more than cutting. My honing tecnique will improve as well as my shaving tecnique and stropping tecnique, so I'm not worried at all. My present shaves are decent and my best shaves are still to come.

It would seem that some razors offered as "shave ready" really are not. That was the case with my first razor purchase.

I don't know if it's that fact that these places that offer "shave ready" have to do so many razors that they don't spend the time to get it done right, or that they perhaps think that a newbie won't know the difference anyhow, so they don't bother putting a really nice smooth edge on there.

When I recieved my first razor it would begrudgingly pop a hair off the back of my hand, and I mean POP. It would slide along the edge, then catch, and then pop it off. I took a look at the edge under a microscope, and the edge was none too smooth. From my estimation it was no better finished than with a 8000 grit stone.

I immediately honed it myself and the results were markedly improved.

Sounds like your razor just needs to be honed by someone who cares.

I too shave with a Feather AC and have experienced similar problems. What I found is that my razors were simply not sharp enough or well enough polished. Even when a razor has been prehoned, the edge is sometimes lacks a bit of polish. At a minimum, I would recommend using some cromium oxide on the razor to smooth out the edge.
Another tip that has helped my razors is to use about a hundred passes on the leather strop the first time. Before subsequent shaves, I typically use about 60 passes.

I started out shaving with a straight about 3 months ago, the first two months I obtained various razors with some being honed by various reputable honemeisters and although the shaves were good, they never cut through my stubble very smoothly, I always thought this had more to do with me needing to learning a better technique and more practice.

Then I got hold of one of the Feather DXs and I had the best shave ever, it really did cut through my stubble like butter with absolutely no pressure. None of my other straights come anywhere close, even the professionally honed ones. The wedges I find slightly better, full hollows seem to not cut very smoothly at all.

I guess I'm going to spend my 2 cents on this thread today....
I firmly believe there is a slight difference between Pre-Honed and Shave Ready.....IMHO
"Pre-Honed" means the blade has been sharpened on various stones to a nice sharp edge, they will shave, but it is up to you and your stropping ability to take that edge to a keen shaving edge...
"Shave Ready" means just that, the blade has been honed and polished to a shaving keen edge and stropped, so that you should get an idea of what shaving sharp really is...
The "Honemiester" (god I hate that word) should tell you what you should expect and what if, anything you should do before yer first shave....
Keep in mind that the guy honing the blade only has one beard to test his edges on, so the edge he sends you will be set up for his face and beard, he can't possibly tweak it to yours....
We try and send out the best edges to the best of our ability, and I know I try and learn off of any criticism of my edges that I might get, anybody can make a mistake, and send a not quite shave ready edge, for your beard, after all we are only human.... As soon as sombody invents a honing and stropping machine life will be all better
So that was my 2 cents...

I guess I'm just echoing what's been said, but I went from a Dovo shavette with DE blades to a Dovo Special (+ honed option) and was discouraged at first by the 'dullness'. I even wondered if someone forgot to do the honing. I soon got used to it, though, and also touched it up myself on a 8k Henckels stone and chrom-ox powder on paper. Now I get comfortable, close shaves and never cut myself the way I did with that supersharp shavette.

Glen, that honing machine should be adjustable... from fine to course, once you pull out the whisker calipers and determine the type of beard.Hmmm. The whiskometer?

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I guess I'm going to spend my 2 cents on this thread today....
I firmly believe there is a slight difference between Pre-Honed and Shave Ready.....IMHO
"Pre-Honed" means the blade has been sharpened on various stones to a nice sharp edge, they will shave, but it is up to you and your stropping ability to take that edge to a keen shaving edge...
"Shave Ready" means just that, the blade has been honed and polished to a shaving keen edge and stropped, so that you should get an idea of what shaving sharp really is...
The "Honemiester" (god I hate that word) should tell you what you should expect and what if, anything you should do before yer first shave....
Keep in mind that the guy honing the blade only has one beard to test his edges on, so the edge he sends you will be set up for his face and beard, he can't possibly tweak it to yours....
We try and send out the best edges to the best of our ability, and I know I try and learn off of any criticism of my edges that I might get, anybody can make a mistake, and send a not quite shave ready edge, for your beard, after all we are only human.... As soon as sombody invents a honing and stropping machine life will be all better
So that was my 2 cents...

Nicely said Glen!
I don't normally hone for others because I am so darn slow. It is all I can do to keep up with my herd. In addition, I continue to refine the edges on my razors as I learn.
However, I have had exactly the same experience with prehoned vice "shave ready" razors.
On the more rare occasion, I have had the prehoned razor that does not have a good bevel established. One razor that I received recently, I ended up taking down to a DMT8C because the bevel was really poorly set. There was effectively no bevel on one side of the blade at the heel.
The heavyduty series on honing is very good if you are looking for a tutorial.