Thread: My first shave with my Dovo

I'm 52 years old, my only experience with a st8 was when I was a kid my barber used to give me a shave after a hair cut. I have always had fond memories about it so I decided to try it again. Today I got up the nerve to try my new St8 for the first time. I bought a basic Dovo this week and have been dying to try it. My new razor was right out of the box and hadn't been honed. I tried running it against a few hairs on my arm and they popped off so I thought it might be sharp enough to give it a try. I hadn't purchased a strop yet so I used an old 1 1/2" belt. I stropped it slowly and could feel the draw. I had problems trying to keep the blade against the belt when I turned the razor over, oh well I'll have to work on that. At one point I ran the razor the wrong way against the belt and it took a small slice out of the leather. Wow that was a wake up call, I wouldn't want to do that on my face. I started with a shower and then lathered up with my Old Spice soap. Once I got my beard lathered up I gave it a try. It was a little tricky and nerve racking getting my hands right in the mirror. In the end I got a decent shave and no cuts or nicks. It wasn't my closest shave but not bad. I thought I had better quit while I was ahead. I'm have a NOS stainless on order which will come shave ready so I going to wait for it before I try again. Thanks for all of the advice here, its been very helpful.

I will be buying one of Tony's fancy strops but want to improve my technique on my old belt before I attempt it on a new strop.

Good for you....I've been doing it for about a month now and have little nicks and bleeding points every time...it might just be youthfull enthusiasm though since I'm about half your age
But I AM getting really close shaves by now....and since I would almost always have some point cut even with my Mach 3 it might just be delicate skin...runs in teh family I think...my younger brother managed to even cut himself with his electric...

Congrats! Great that your learning curve for stropping is on a belt with a non perfect edge razor. I'll have to remember that for the newbies advice section in the back of my brain.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Congrats! Great that your learning curve for stropping is on a belt with a non perfect edge razor. I'll have to remember that for the newbies advice section in the back of my brain.

What do I know? I didn't think there would be much difference stroping on a well used soft natural leather 1 1/2" belt and a real strop.

Sounds like a good idea for a dual purpose traveling strop/belt.

Yea, no doubt. Also, the belt will be a good base for pastes if you ever move up to a strop. You'd be in lots of pain if you had done that to a real strop and once you learn the flip and move of a blade on a belt your chances of damage to a strop are much lower.

congrats on your tenacity...a key to effective stroping is speed...when learning to strop, going slow along the strop allows you to lay the razor spline flat on the strop helping create the proper very light pressure of the razor on the strop...rolling the razor and repeating the same stroke ...stroping is all about creating a rythmic and consistant stroke...everyone tears up strops at one time or another...slowing down will improve your sharping skills with the strop and reduce the destruction of razor and strop...as your confidense and comfort level increase, so will the speed of stroke increase...