Thread: First experiences - advice welcome

Hi everybody,

first of all, I want to thank you for creating this great website, it has led me from being frustrated by the quality of Mach3-shaving to actually getting good shaves with a straight.

I bought a very nice shave ready Dovo stainless steel razor two weeks ago and shaved with it a couple of times. My stropping technique must have been rather bad, because I had the impression that the razor sharpness decreased rapidly. Then the worst thing happened: during a shave I accidentally ran part of the blade against my faucet which caused the razor to be quite dull. It was in the middle of a shave and I was stupid enough to still try to finish it and cut myself a couple of times (nothing serious, though).

Afterwards, I wanted to repair the damage by honing the razor to a shave ready state. I spent several evenings trying to accomplish that, but I don't think I ever came close. I use a Norton 4k/8k combo and I think I technically did everything right (lapping the hone, rounding the edges, doing an x-pattern stroke on the hone with very little pressure, pyramid).

A few days ago I bought another Razor, this time a relatively inexpensive one from the classifieds. I just used it and had a really good shave (my technique still sucks in some ways I guess, but the razor was really sharp and it was very enjoyable shave).

So my frustration with not being able to hone the Dovo is still there, but I now have a reference. Of course I thought about sending the razor to Lynn for honing, but then I would never learn how to do it myself.

What are your suggestions? I fear to remove too much material when trying to get it shave ready and honing it for whole evenings ... I also don't really know when I'm on the right path. I read most parts of the wiki about the sharpness tests, but the HHT does not really work for my hair (I just had a great shave with the classifieds razor, which didn't pass it). The TNT works when the blade comes off the 4k side, so I think the bevel is set correctly but I'm not really sure.

Is there anybody in the Minneapolis, MN area that can help me with this?

Send that razor off to be honed. If you've never honed a razor, you'll likely not be able to get that Dovo to work properly. It's cheap enough insurance to continue to use your new razor and send the Dovo off for honing.

In the interim, if you're interested in learning to hone, buy another cheapo razor like a Wapi and practice on that until you have the skills to tackle a more expensive razor...remember those edges are thin and it doesn't take much to grind that thing down.

Welcome to SRP. Send a PM to randydance062449 and you will be in business. He is in you neck of the woods, knows his way around a hone and is always willing to help out.