Thread: Thinking out loud

Ok so 1st off I am new to the shaving world as well as the straight razor world. No I'm not a teen. I just have never needed to shave before so i never did. About a 2 months ago i got a promotion at work yea. prob tho as you may have guessed now i had to start shaving. i wayed my options and decided that it would be less expensive in the long run to go with a straight razor than having to buy replacement blades and/or disposible razors. (im a bit of an enviromentalist... not hard core just a bit) Anyway, as a nice jesture my wife bought me a dovo brand new from online. Now not knowing any better i didnt realize that it didnt come shave ready. also since i have never shaved before didnt realize that the pain i was feeling from shaving was infact the blade was not properly sharp. so i did some calling around, 3 days and bout 100 calls later realized that there was no barber shops anywhere around where i live that would show, help, or evan advise on how to sharpin my blade. So as you may have guessed... or not... i got online and low and behold there was much info on straight razors. so now i have just recieved a 4k, 8k norton as well as a 12k water. as of yet i have not tried to hone my blade but i will be attempting it tonight in fact. If you are wondering why i didnt research before is the fact that i new the different models i guess of razors. ie straight disposable ans saftey. just never went any farther. anyway thank you for reading my book and i will post again real soon to let you know how the honing went.

Peace out.

Welcome to the right way to shave. And congrats on your promotion. You probably won't get a very good edge with those stones. At least not easily. They are more for refreshing the edge than putting a new one on it. My recommendation is to send it out to one of our honemeisters to put a proper edge on it. It's worth the investment. The stones you now have will be needed. I've had my razors for over two years and haven't had to rehone them. I use the stones you mention above (I don't have the 12K) to refresh the edge on occasion, along with a pasted strop...

Is there anyone or place that you would recommend?

Check the classifieds under Member Services. You should find what you are looking for. Lynne from SRD has honed all of my blades, and they are working great after 2 years.

You can use those stones to hone your own razor but I would definitely recommend sending it out to someone more experienced to get an idea of what a true edge is suppose to feel like before attempting to get one to shave ready condition yourself. Also if you want to try and hone your Dovo you could always purchase a shave ready razor off the classifieds to use initially and then try your hand at honing your razor later on.