Thread: New guy with a dull razor

What's up everyone? I've decided to enter the world of straight razor shaving. I love the idea of having this much control over your shave. I have pretty thick facial hair and never really get a close shave with a safety razor. OK here's what I've purchased so far:



Jemico DOVO German Razor Strop 23" Rindleder Leather & Canvas
Norton Water Stone 8 x 3 Inch 4000 / 8000 Combination
DOVO Straight Razor Black Micarta Handle Stainless Steel Blade
Shaving brush and bowl

The razor came from the factory, so what I've heard from everyone is that it is not "shave ready". OK so I watched a couple vids on honing and stropping. I'm obviously doing something wrong here. I tried the agg. pyramid method that L Abrahms used w/ the 4k/8k. I also tried doing 50 on the 4K and then 50 on the 8K. From what I've seen, the razor should at least pass the hair test after you get it sharp on the 4K? I'm regretting not purchasing from someone who would honed it, so that I could see what sharp looks and feels like, but here I am. Ha, and suggestions? Do I need a courser grit? Thanks guys!

Andy

Hi Andy,welcome to SRP ! Honing is a craft that takes some time to learn. What I ended up doing was to get a couple of shave ready razors from a honemiester and and then a bunch of practice razors off of ebay.

I wouldn't worry too much about the HHT right now. Focus on learning the TNT and the TPT. The shave itself is the ultimate test and IME the HHT isn't necessary for that.

Check out the SRP Wiki in the toolbar above if you haven't already. Scroll down and you will find a menu of great info to point you in the right direction.

You really shouldn't go any coarser for a new blade. The HHT can be overrated. It should shave arm hair after the 4k (mind you, it should shave it after the 1200 if you were to take it back that far.) Since it's already touched the 4k there's no harm in trying the TNT. If it passes, give it 30 more very light laps & move on to the 8k, then try the TPT. Keep things very light as it wouldn't have been all that far off shave ready. I think that info should be fine, but if i'm a bit out, i'll be corrected soon! After that strop the hell out of it & see how it shaves.
Oh, & if you just can't get it, send it to a honemiester.

"Get thyself to a nunnery.." Ooops, wrong context! Seriously, unless you want to learn on your new, beautiful razor, send it out to one of our honemeisters. If you insist on learning the art of honing a straight razor right now, buy an inexpensive razor on ebay or an antique fair/market to develop those skills (not a Zeepk, Pakistani, etc...). That way you won't take the chance of damaging your new razor, and you will have something to compare your edge against (the one by one of our honemeisters).

Beautiful razor by the way...

Those Dovo #105's can be one of the sharpest edges you have ever seen.. I always considered mine to be the ultimate sharpest one I had, I sold it because I was getting rid of all my round point's that were not part of a collection... Great razors though....

OK I guess I'll buy one off Ebay to practice with. Is there anyone on here that has a good turnaround time for honing? Thanks for the advice guys. I'm looking at maybe this one on Ebay, $30. What do you think?



It says Warren E Riker and Germany on the other side. I noticed some of those Ebay razors look like they have the side of the spine worn away more in the center than the sides. Is this due to the older barber hones which are narrower?

i will hone your blade free.send email i let you know mailing address.As a new buy this is gift to you from SRP

OOPS YOU HAVE TO INCLUDE RETURN postal stamp and package .

Originally Posted by ben.mid

You really shouldn't go any coarser for a new blade. The HHT can be overrated. It should shave arm hair after the 4k (mind you, it should shave it after the 1200 if you were to take it back that far.) Since it's already touched the 4k there's no harm in trying the TNT. If it passes, give it 30 more very light laps & move on to the 8k, then try the TPT. Keep things very light as it wouldn't have been all that far off shave ready. I think that info should be fine, but if i'm a bit out, i'll be corrected soon! After that strop the hell out of it & see how it shaves.
Oh, & if you just can't get it, send it to a honemiester.

I agree with all that. I bought a Dovo En Vogue too, and spent more time honing than necessary because I didn't place enough trust in the TNT (at the 4K stage) and TPT (at 8K).

I had a stage where the razor passed the HHT and gave bad shaves, and later it failed the HHT but gave good shaves. This test is not truly objective, there are too many variables like what hairs you use and how you move the hair onto the blade. I'm not saying the HHT is useless, but it can be very misleading to someone new to honing. IMO it is only useful to someone with some honing experience under their belt. Other than the obvious fact that all other things being equal, it is better to pass the HHT than to fail it.

Whatever you do, don't let a failure off the HHT prevent you from stropping the razor well (50+ laps) and trying a test shave. It is amazing how stropping improves the edge, you must regard stropping as part of the final test to see if the blade is shave-ready.

When I was starting out I talked to Randydance and he gave me some good stuff to go with on the tests. When setting the bevel whether on the 1k or 4k use the TNT but also use the TPT in conjunction with it.

This will give you a feel for the TPT. Randy suggested that I take a new DE blade and do the TPT with it to get familiar with what a sharp edge feels like under the thumb pad. This helped me get the idea fairly quickly.

Most important was his admonition to stop using the TNT once the edge passed that test. As the edge gets more refined it can do more harm then good so once it has passed that test for the full length of the blade rely on the TPT.

Popping hair off the forearm can be tried at any stage. I don't rely on that much anymore. In my early honing my forearms were hairless before too long. Now I may pop a few at the final polish and then try the HHT after stropping. At that point pass or fail HHT I shave.

Yeah I've heard a few people say that the TNT can be harmful to the blade. Maybe do it once after the 4K and not again? I plan on doing the TPT after Bud hones that Dovo so I know what sharp feels like.