Thread: First Experience

I have just shaved for the first time using a straight. Woohoo. It was quite nerve racking.

I used my DOVO Birmark which my girlfriend got me for christmas.
Other equipment I have is a leather/canvas strop, a 5000 and 8000 grit waterstone and a cheap but new razor off ebay.

I used Taylors sandalwood shaving cream with a Taylors best badger brush.
I managed to do two passes with the razor but felt the blade was catching too much to do a third. (I had one nick)

So afterwards I used a bodyshop aftershave balm and my face is a tiny bit raw but there is definate potential here.

I have a few questions. You guys seem very friendly and helpful and I have tried to read as much as I can but there is days worth of research I could go through without getting the answers.

1) I have tried to hone my cheap razor on the 5000/8000 grits using the pyramid system but its nowhere near shave ready. Is it possible to get it shave ready with the 5000 and 8000, if so how?

2) My DOVO was advertised as shave ready but couldn't pass the hair test. Therefore I gave it 15 X passes on the 8000 grit, stropped it and used it. As I mentioned it was good for 2 passes but feel that it wasn't the perfect straight razor experience. How much do you recommend I hone the razor to get it perfect.

I'm not really keen on sending my razor away for someone else to do it. I have the time and patience at present to do it myself. But then again I really don't want to ruin my DOVO as it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever owned.

Please Help

p.s. All my family and friends think I'm mad for taking this up, but i'm so sick of using gillette abominations.

It might help if you could tell us where your g/f bought the razor from to tell if it was truly shave ready. i learned in a big hurry that the HHT is not always the best to determine if your razor is shave ready My hair is really fine and i would pretty much have to hold both ends of the hair to get it to "catch" and cut.

Welcome to SRP. I strongly suggest sending the Dovo for honing to your UK kinsman Steve of the Invisible Edge here. Once you have a professionally honed razor you not only have something to shave with but a benchmark to judge your own honing efforts with other razors.

It ain't rocket science but if it was as easy as falling off a log people wouldn't be paying someone else $ to do it for them. In the SRP Wiki here there is a pyramid honing guide as well as videos on honing.

Read my sig line below to avoid nicks and cuts.

I 'think' she got it from amazon.co.uk. We're over in England you see (i dont know if thats obvious or not haha).

Its a DOVO bismark and the cheap one was just off ebay.

My hair is quite fine too.

+1 to what Jimmy said. If it came from amazon..probably not truly shave ready. Send it out and get that benchmark I know from experience that my Dovo wasn't truly shave ready and without knowing what it should feel like it was alot of trial, error, and frustration to get it honed right. Mine still doesn't always pass the HHT but shaves beautifully

do you think I can practice honing my cheap one with just the 5000 and 8000 grit then? I understand it might take ages without a 1000, but my question is how long?

Let me start by saying..i'm definately no honemiester! lol..so I can only answer that from my personal experience...I have a 4000/8000 norton but also have a 3000 that I use for setting the bevel and this works for me.
I'll let someone else handle the specifics of if and how long with what you have though The only other thing I can add is patience is key

* I should add that my "3000" is a Col. Conk and i've heard varied opinions that it ranges from 1000 to 3000

Originally Posted by keithmoon66

do you think I can practice honing my cheap one with just the 5000 and 8000 grit then? I understand it might take ages without a 1000, but my question is how long?

The amount of time it might take an experienced honer as opposed to someone with little or no experience is hard to say. The condition of the bevel, and the quality of the steel, must be taken into consideration too. The bevel has to be adequately set before you move along from the 5k. Here is a video of SRP founder and chief honemiester Lynn Abrams in action. That may help you.

Originally Posted by keithmoon66

cheap but new razor off ebay.

this is usually not a good sign

if you have any more details im sure someone can tell you if its suited for honing practise or just a novelty letter-opener

it'll really depend on how far away from shave ready it is to start with...

The bismark may be perfect and you just may need to refine your skills, or it may be in need of a little or a lot of work. Best if you can let someone with shaving/honing experience check it for you.

I would definately recommend sacrificing the ebay razor in order to learn your honing skills. And I would reccomend that any straight razor shaver who is interested in learning to hone should go for it... but not to work on an important/expensive razor until you are very confident in your skills. Once you have sucessfully restored a bunch of cheap antique store/flea market finds you will know when you are ready to safely touch up your bismark.

If you are going to learn honing on the ebay stuff you will likely need something around 1000 to create a proper bevel. If you are just going to learn how to touch up an almost shave ready razor you likely won't need anything that coarse. On the upside, the larger grit stones are cheaper than the fine ones.