Thread: My experience and some advice

Hi guys!
I got so much help from the forums (and Lynn) that I thought it would be polite to share my experience with the others at SRP. While I am not technically a newbie anymore (SR shaving for almost two years now) I think the newbies corner is the most helpful place to post my "findings".

I have three razors :
Dovo Renaissance 6/8
Looks pretty good at first sight, but the faux ivory scales look very faux (fake) when you take a closer look. The blade looks very good though. Shaving: This razor is generally my best shaver, and it keeps its edge for a long time. I quite like the wide blade. Maybe I should change the scales?

Dovo (unnamed, black plastic handle, 5/8)
This is a pretty nice and plain razor. It is made from high carbon steel, and needs to be oiled to avoid rust (it has one tiny spot due to my earlier laziness.) Shaving: pretty good, but a little variable, some days it almost feels better than the Renaissance razor, but normally it tugs a little more. I think this is because of the difficulty in keeping it perfectly sharp and smooth.

Thiers-Issard, Red Stamina 5/8
This razor looks good at first sight, but the gilding on the blade is a bit too slapdash for my taste. The lacquered red wooden scales look great though. Shaving: Here I ran into serious trouble. The razor seemed to be near impossible to sharpen. A close look revealed the flaw: the blade is not perfectly straight! I should have returned it, but I had already messed it up too much trying very hard to sharpen it. A small disaster, in other words. I would really like to know if this has ever happened to any others.

Sharpening:
I tried for a long time to master the sharpening stone (hone), but I could only achieve mediocre results with the Norton stone alone. My advice is to have a stone and two strops. Apply a good sharpening paste (I use the diamond paste from classicshaving.com) to one of the strops, and use this for fine-tuning the blade. Use the other strop for normal stropping. This works for me, at least. The razors are sharp enough to cut the tips of my arm hair in mid-air.

By the way: some websites that sell razors will have you believe that if the shave feels uncomfortable, it is not because of inadequate sharpening of the razor, but because of your lack of shaving skill. This is nonsense. The newly bought razors nearly always need honing. When new, the Thiers-Issard did not even pretend to be sharp (I could not cut myself if I tried!)

Please note that some of the others have had much better experience with T-I, so it is quite possible that I was just unlucky.

I generally shave with the hair growth and then across. Do not try going against the growth until you feel you master the basics (I never go against the hairs, it leads to disaster for me). Use the SR only when you have plenty of time. It should be your feel-good ritual, not your rushed shave ten minutes before running to work. I sometimes shave in the evening to save time in the morning.

That's it for now, I will write more later.

+1 with your observations...

Thanks for posting. Too bad about the TI. I have had some success honing such razors using a technique called the rolling X. If you haven't tried it there is a tutorial in the SRP Wiki that you can find here. If you have ever honed pocket knives with clip blades you may find it fairly easy to get the hang of.

A few things:
1. The recommendation for shaving in the evening is great for newbs. That's the only time I shaved with my str8 because I love to sleep in and would rather take the time to get the shave right in the evening.

2. That's what you get for buying French! When you want quality, go German baby! I'm a big fan of the Solingen blades and own a Dovo I absolutely love. While the TI's look great, I've heard nothing but mixed reviews. Some awesome, some just like yours. It's sad really...they have such potential. They just need better QA so blades like that don't get sold.

I think you're right about the aesthetic quality of those razors. I haven't owned either a Dovo or a new TI, but I have honed some for members and shaved with a few and although the TI's tend to need a little more work out of the gate to get shave ready, IMO the shave is well worth it. It's fantastic steel. At least it was last year. I can't speak for the new steel they are using. Some like it better, some don't.

X

I love your insight in a diamond paste pasted strop for easier sharpening !
Do you have the strop sides pasted with different grits?

Can anyone care to comment more on this idea?

Thanks for your comments everyone!
The paste I use is 0.5 micron diamond paste. I frankly don't understand how the hone-meisters get similar results with the honing stone only (although I have only tried one two-grit stone, I tried this for months without anything close to comfortable results. Maybe I should have tried different stones). The stone is useful to get rid of nicks in the blade, though.

I have to admit that the TI steel seems to be of very high quality. Very nice and shiny, and I managed to get part of the blade extremely sharp. It is very possible that Thiers-Issard himself was a master razor-maker but he is of course long gone. I will check out the rolling X technique. Thanks for the tip.

Judging from Lynn's comments, he seems to be happy with some of his TI's, does anyone else have good things to say about Thiers-Issard? If so, which specific razor(s)?

TIs are OK but not currently among my favorite razors. While they sharpen up fine and shave fine, I find that I much prefer a 1/4 hollow grind in either a 6/8 or 7/8 razor.