Thread: Beard of steel?

Hey all, let me start with this site is great! Thanks for all the help. I got interested in straight shaving by looking for my grandfathers straight, Ex-wife has it "someware", anyway Iwent whole hog and spent a bunch of money on a new Dovo, superbadger brush, norton hones, strops, paste, etc. Everything I have read on this site has been of great help, I can hone the razor, strop it and when I shave with it all starts well, but after just trimming my burns and shaving my cheeks the thing seems dull already? Help! I guess this is one of those "stuck" places you all refer to.
I have no intention of giving up, although my mach 3 turbo will give me a BBS every time without all the blood letting I have been getting with the straight. Yes I do good prep with hot towels, and use Taylors soap with a little glycerin on top.

Hard to know for sure, but if you're prepping correctly, then I suspect your razor isn't sharp enough. Where did you buy the Dovo, and what did you do in terms of improving the edge after you received it?

Thanks for the reply, I bought the razor new from classic shaving.com.
It was advertized as shave ready, a Dovo Solingen trilogy themed "Castle" 5/8 full hollow ground blade. I know I paid to much for it but that was before I found straightrazorplace. I read here that many "shave ready" razors were just not so. I studied Lynn's material and others on hones and how to and ordred up a couple of norton hones, one combo in 1K/4K and another in 8K. I followed the directions using the pyramid honing guide I printed off the straight razor place wiki after set a new bevel with the 1K stone. I also read this advise on the honing forum. It all seemed to work great, and the razor really shaved great at first, but not for long, so instead of honing it again I used the red dovo paste on the canvas side of my dovo strop and orderd a new 3" wide strop made by Vintage Blades.com to use after cleaning the paste off the blade and before shaving, I followed the directions that came with this new strop. finally I tried all the methods to test sharpness I could find here like the hair from the brush, the moist thumbnail and shaving the hair off my upper forarm. The darned thing sure seemed sharp

If all it needed was a touch-up the paste would probably do it however if your blade doesn't even last 1 shave that's a sure sign it's not shave ready unless your technique is off. I would send it out to have it honed that way you'll have a reference point for the future.