Thread: From Shavette to a real straight

Hello SRP, I'm a LONG... time lurker first time poster. Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself to the community.

I've been DE shaving for about 8 months know and loving it however holding my DE I always think what would a shave be like with a cut-throat. So not sure if I would totally want to sink in the money needed I bought a Dovo Shavette. I used this for about 2 months, the shaves I got were ok. I'm not sure if the shavette is indicative of the types of shaves I will be getting from my newly ordered straight (which is a 6/8 dovo Bismarck from SRD, honed by the pros).

I don't nick myself anymore, but the shaves with the Shavette are not comfortable, it does not burn afterward but compared to my DE the Shavette seems too light and hard to "push" through the hair.

Anyway I've been reading like crazy and I'm now just waiting for the hardware. I'll let you know how the first few shaves go. I still have many questions about honing etc.. but since my razor is "shave ready" from SRD, I won't have to get into that few a while.

I just wanted to thank every one here for their help, because without sites like this I would never have even dreamed of buying a straight let alone getting into DE shaving.

You'll love the feel of a real straight razor. There's nothing like it.

X

Welcome, I did pretty much the same progression but used the shavette only about a week. I really didn't like it that much. As you mentioned it is tooo light . The real str8 with feel much better, more forgiving and is much coooler, IMHO. Enjoy the journey.

Happy shaving!

Welcome to SRP Jaydawg!

I started about the same way as you did only I only shaved a couple of weeks with a DE and the same with the Shavette.. I still use the Shavette when I shave test a razor I've honed myself and the test fails... or when I'm lazy and dont want to strop.. or when I'm go some place and dont want to take too much with me..

If you can shave with a Shavette without too much prolems your shaves with a real straight will be a piece of cake..

Maarten

Originally Posted by mlangstr

Welcome to SRP Jaydawg!

If you can shave with a Shavette without too much prolems your shaves with a real straight will be a piece of cake..

Maarten

That's good to know, I was not sure I was developing some bad habits by using the Shavette, I was thinking of selling it but maybe I'll keep it and use it as you have mentioned.

Jaydawg

Well the feel of the blade will be different it is longer and it feels like its less sharp. but i'm pretty sure it isnt

what blades do you use for the shavette and DE.. I've used feather blades and they give me a pretty comfortable shave..

I can only think of one thing that could go wrong switching to the real thing and that is stropping.. I really had to get a feel for that.. You could take the blade out of your shavette and practice stropping with the shavette.. . If you make a mistake on your real razor it could ruine your strop or ding your razor sending it back to the hones..

and beware of any other hard object near your edge.. I've dinged three razors up til now. not very bad but they needed to be honed again..

Good luck,

Maarten

I have both the black and red insert for the Shavette, I mainly use the black insert with the long dovo blades. In my DE I seem to have gravitated to Wilkenson Sword blades, I've used Feathers with no problem but the WS's seems to feel the nicest on my face.

That's a great idea about taking out the blade to practice stropping. I have my strop now as I've ordered that from Fendrihan in Canada, but still waiting for the straight. I think I will practice while I wait.

J