Quote Originally Posted by Rajagra View Post
Hi! Fellow noob here. Only suggestion I can make is to buy a truly "shave-ready" razor or get someone who really knows what they are doing to sharpen one for you. Not only will this be cheaper than buying a razor plus hones, it will also teach you what a really sharp blade is like.

I know this is good advice because I failed to follow it!
It took me ages to hone my factory-fresh Dovo to give a decent shave, and even now it has a long way to go. For now I'm going to stop obsessing about sharpness and work on my shaving technique, but will buy another razor (shave-ready this time) for comparison soon.
No matter how much practice, your technique will suffer until your razor is up to par, get it honed by someone who can bring it up to speed and then your technique will adapt to the razor, you will also have a benchmark/standard to shoot for when you start honing again!