Thread: Newbie Problem with DOVO.

I bought a straight razor several months ago. Shaved great for a while, I realized that I was ready to hone my Dovo. The problem I have is that it seems that this Dovo wasn't laying flat on the hone. It seems the blade is slightly lifted towards the middle. I tried sharpening the razor, the heel and tip ended up real sharp, no problem passing the hanging hair off a 12k chineese stone. I have heard warped razors are fairly common, where my problem comes in is that this is a brand new $90 Dovo razor. It came presharpened, so whoever sharpened it must of componsated for the warp. I have shaved several razors (ebay specials) and have been able to get them shave ready, I am having real trouble with this one. My question is, what should I do. I purchased the razor from classicshaving. Should I contact them and ask for a replacement. Should I try a rolling x pattern to sharpen it? Like I said, if I had spend $15 on ebay this would be no big deal, but this is a brand new Dovo razor. Any advice would be appreciated.

Send it back!

I recently recieved not one, not two, but three, yes three brandy new Dovos, and they all exhibited the exact same problem you have described. Recieved the first one, sent it back, second one, same thing. And finally, #3 was exactly the same.

Exact same curvature on all three. The side of the razor that did not have the gold wash/etching on it made contact only at the toe and heel, the middle of the blade did not/could not make contact. See attached pic. I simply put some marker on the edge, and gave it a quick trip across my hone. You can plainly see that it is quite curved.

The vendor was very supportive, but we both called it quits after three unsuccesful attempts.

Yes, I'm sure that with some sort of honing contortions you can get it sharp, but that is not how things are supposed to be.

You don't buy a brand new TV and expect to have to wrap some tinfoil around the antennae to get good reception (OK, maybe not the best analogy..)

I also wrote a couple of emails to Dovo directly. I encourage you to do likewise.

I read recently that production of straight razors is up 7 times over the last 4 years. Unless they start to recieve direct feedback that they are shipping out unacceptable product, they will continue to churn out mediocre stuff to a mostly uninformed public.

I had a TI Super Gnome that exhibited the same issues so closely to your pictured DOVO that it could have replaced your razor in the picture (marker test, middle not making contact, etc). I did send my razor back, not to Classic where I bought it, but directly to TI in France. approx six months later I did receive a new razor replacement from TI. It's not perfect, but does not have nearly the issues the other one did.

One issue may be that the manufacturers seemingly are under the illusion that their razors ARE "shave ready". Look at both the TI and the Dovo video, in each, someone is rapidly honing the razors. I would assume that THEY assume that once received by the buyer, they buyer is only stropping and shaving with their blades rather than taking them to the hones for a proper edge. The woman in the Dovo video that's honing the razors looks like she's taking something just shy of a black licorice stick to perform an HHT! If it severs those logs in half, it must be shave ready.

Chris L

Dovo also "offered" to have me ship the razor back to them so they could take a look at it.


I told them that I was not interested in having to pay for my brand new razor to be shipped internationally and then wait who knows how long for it to make it back to me...I told them I was returning the razor to the vendor and that they needed to address the quality control issues at the point of manufacture.

Why should a customer have to go through all that?

I figured that I let the manufacturer know there was a problem. I clearly detailed it for them, pics, descriptions, etc. Ialso sent the product back to the vendor. I would hope that a vendor who starts to get a lot of returns on a product can then also bring a little heat on the manufacturer to do a better job....


I have a Dovo Renaissance, and that razor was perfect. I honed it up in like 5 minutes to the sharpest of any of my razors to that point. I was so impressed with Dovo at that point.

One random razor with an issue, i can understand that.
After three razors all of which exhibit the exact same curvature, I realize that there is a manufacturing problem.

I'll spend my money elsewhere.

Thanks for all the replies. I just e-mailed classicshaving. I didn't even perform the magic marker test, It was just obvious when I layed it on a hone. I am pretty new at this so I was starting to get real frustrated, I couldn't get a uniform sharp edge on it. (thought I was doing something wrong) Finally, I looked at the razor and I thought, how is this going to get sharpened when the middle is not even contacting the hone. Hope classicshaving is cooperative.

Please also email Dovo, so they can hopefully fix the issues for future razors!

Originally Posted by Seraphim

Please also email Dovo, so they can hopefully fix the issues for future razors!

Will do that too.

I performed the magic marker test...Verified with visual evidence the warp.

Send that pic to Dovo too (I did)

It is the same side problem as my blade. There is definitely a production error.

Originally Posted by Seraphim

Send that pic to Dovo too (I did)

It is the same side problem as my blade. There is definitely a production error.

I sent it to [email protected] .

Is this the correct address?

Add me to the list. Brand new Dovo special tortoise 5/8.

Funny thing is though on mine it doesn't look like the blade is warped as the etched side takes a perfect bevel. It's more like the other side spine is wider on the ends or something.

I too will be contacting the vendor and sending Dovo a nastygram but I have a question for the honemeisters about this problem in case it comes up with an Ebay special.

Could this be corrected by using the marker and just honing the one bad side on say a 2k stone until it starts making contact with the blade...thus correcting the problem with the spine...and then doing a normal hone ritual?