Thread: Good Choice?

Hi everyone as you can see by my post count i'm new to these forums and what interested me in straight razors was I heard they offer a shave with less irritation and there is no need to buy replacement blades.

For my first straight razor I've been looking around on nashvilleknifeshop.com and noticed a basic five piece setup with a pure badger brush, drip stand, shave soap, strop, and a dovo hollow ground razor for $179.00. If i end up buying this kit I also plan on purchasing a 4000 / 8000 grit waterstone for honing my blade.

Can someone with experience give me an idea of whether this would be a good kit to start off with? Are dovo's good razors? And finally is this a good deal?

Thanks in advance.

welcome to srp

dovo are good razors.

since you're planing to use it and not just be a decoration it's rather important that the razor is honed by somebody competent between it had left the factory and you shave with it. you can also do it yourself with the norton you're planning to buy, however you should brace your face for some extra suffering since you lack the competence factor when honing it. Plus keep in mind that should you take this route you're dramatically increasing your chances to just give up on everything after you get discouraged over the next several months.

i don't know if it's a good deal, look at the same kits at other vendors, compare the price of the separate pieces, and you can decide for yourself.

Originally Posted by gugi

welcome to srp

dovo are good razors.

since you're planing to use it and not just be a decoration it's rather important that the razor is honed by somebody competent between it had left the factory and you shave with it. you can also do it yourself with the norton you're planning to buy, however you should brace your face for some extra suffering since you lack the competence factor when honing it. Plus keep in mind that should you take this route you're dramatically increasing your chances to just give up on everything after you get discouraged over the next several months.

i don't know if it's a good deal, look at the same kits at other vendors, compare the price of the separate pieces, and you can decide for yourself.

Good advice.

To the original poster...
When you get the razor it will be factory sharp which is
often sharp enough but not always. Do give it a shave test....
Do plan to send it out at least once...

Shaving with a true sharp razor is very different than
one that is sort of sharp as is so often the case with
factory edges.

Learning to shave with a straight takes some time so
tell us what you shave with now. We can give more
specific advice...

In many cases I advise the beginner to pick up a bag of BiC yellow
handled tossable razors. Use the straight on the easy
parts and use the tossable to tidy up. As you gain skill
use the straight on more and more of the face.

I always come back to "lathering". Take some time
and practice making a good lather.... the classic
learning lathering trick is a ten dollar solution.
Eight for a boar brush and two for a puck of Williams
in an afternoon try too much water, too little water,
water in dribbles, water in a big splash, lather in a mug,
soup bowl, palm of the hand and face too. Not shaving
just lathering.....

If your hone is a Norton combo -- one time only, lap the top
and bottom eighth of an inch from the hone when you lap it flat.
A new Norton seems to have a rind (like aged cheese) that is not
as good for honing as just below the surface is. After this
just lap half the thickness of a piece of paper or less just to
keep it flat and then only as needed.

Also the Norton combo excels with "pyramid method". You will find
discussions on that method in the WiKi.

Have fun...

Thanks guys.

I do plan on doing my research and spending plenty of time learning proper technique. I also do plan on only doing a section of my face at a time with the straight and using the blue plastic gilette safety razors to clean up the rest which is what I use now.

From what i've gathered so far when honing you're supposed to lead with the edge by resting the blade flat letting the spine form the right angle against the hone and applying just enough pressure to allow the blade to rest on the stone and when turning over not to flip it on the edge but on the spine instead. And then for stropping it's opposite in that you lead with the spine. Is this right? For honing a factory edge, what would be a ballpark figure for number of laps on a hone so as to avoid overhoning?

I have an Ebook I got somewhere on the Net called "The Art of The Straight Razor Shave" by Christopher Moss that details some of these things.

Mainly I want to make sure I'm doing the honing and stropping correctly. People say it takes a while to get these things down pat and I'm more than willing to put in the necessary time and effort to learn. I've heard of using an X pattern when stropping a razor with a thin strop and the like. What are some other useful tips?

Thanks.

Here is something you should look at...

http://straightrazorpalace.com/vendo...r-designs.html

This assures you of at least one Pro-Sharpened razor always...

I started 3 months ago. After a little bit of a rough start (bought from TAOS, a TI, not quite shave ready) I bought a Dovo from SRD. I also started buying off eBay, and I bought Norton combi stones. If I had to do it over again, I would:
Buy a Dovo from SRD, along with Norton stones. Then I would buy a razor from someone here, that was restored, but not fully honed. Only bevel set. I would practice my honing on that razor. You would always have the Dovo to compare your honing technique to. I would never hone the Dovo myself until I was confident in my ability to match it, or at least come close.
Then I would buy a razor from a flea market or eBay, and restore it myself, and hone it from start to end.
So now you would have three razors, hopefully of different styles (weight, width, length) and would have a better idea of which style you like. At that point you could sell the two you didn't like, or if you are like me you could continue buying razors and end up with 40 in just 3 months.

Hope that helps.

1. Yup, Dovos are very good razors.
2. Send it out for honing, your face will thank you
3.The offer from SRD is outstanding, take advantage of it.
4. Purchase a high quality soap, it makes a world of difference for me.
5. Learn beard prep, proper stropping, and shaving technique.
6. Forget honing for now, focus on No.5

Hope this helps,

Originally Posted by randydance062449

1. Yup, Dovos are very good razors.
2. Send it out for honing, your face will thank you
3.The offer from SRD is outstanding, take advantage of it.
4. Purchase a high quality soap, it makes a world of difference for me.
5. Learn beard prep, proper stropping, and shaving technique.
6. Forget honing for now, focus on No.5

Hope this helps,

This sums everything up nicely. I'd like to expand a bit. Understanding always trumps being told in my book.

1) Dovos are quality razors, hard to go wrong with them, but...

2) They don't come shave ready out of the factory, and they need something better than the standard knife sharpening shop to get it shave ready. The importance of having a shave ready razor to start with cannot be overemphasized. It takes a certain amount of experience to shave correctly, which can only be gotten through shaving with bad technique the first few times.

3) Honing also takes a certain amount of experience to do right. The last thign you want as a beginner is to have doubts as to whether it is the sharpness of the razor or your techinque that is giving you bad shaves. As long as the razor is honed by a pro, you know it is your technique. The free hone for life special is amazing. Even if you want to hone your own razors, having one razor that you know is honed by some of the best in the business to compare your own work to is invaluable.

4 the difference between good and bad shaving soap is incredible. Invest in some decent stuff and you will never look back.

5 These are the fundamentals, which is what you should focus on. In the beginning, over do the beard prep. It is too easy to under do it, and by overdoing it you can soften your hairs up a little more which will help compensate a bit for your lack of technique.

Proper stropping is also very important, as you can ruin a shave ready razor by stropping too hard. Read the wiki, practice with a butter knife, and take it easy in teh beginning.

Focusing on proper technique in the beginning will prevent you from developing bad habits. Getting a good shave with a straight is highly reliant on technique. With good technique, you can get a good shave out of a slightly dull razor. Without good technique, you wont' be able to get a good shave even from the sharpest razor. Good skin stretching, proper angles, proper pressure (ie: almost no pressure at all) and proper strokes will take awhile to get down. Hell, I've been at this for 6 months, and I'm still have spots where I slip with one of the above items and need to correct myself.

Lastly, remember that technique is something you learn physically, not just cerebrally. You can memorize the entire wiki, but you still won't get good shaves for awhile because your muscle memory has not caught up yet. Because of this, expect your first few shaves to be sub par. Its okay, everyone's first are like that. Just be patient and keep finding ways to improve your technique and you will be getting amazing shave before you know it.

Thanks to everyone who posted with advice. I'll be sure to take everything into consideration and especially getting my razor sharpened by someone with experience.

Originally Posted by souschefdude

I started 3 months ago. After a little bit of a rough start (bought from TAOS, a TI, not quite shave ready) I bought a Dovo from SRD. I also started buying off eBay, and I bought Norton combi stones. If I had to do it over again, I would:
Buy a Dovo from SRD, along with Norton stones. Then I would buy a razor from someone here, that was restored, but not fully honed. Only bevel set. I would practice my honing on that razor. You would always have the Dovo to compare your honing technique to. I would never hone the Dovo myself until I was confident in my ability to match it, or at least come close.
Then I would buy a razor from a flea market or eBay, and restore it myself, and hone it from start to end.
So now you would have three razors, hopefully of different styles (weight, width, length) and would have a better idea of which style you like. At that point you could sell the two you didn't like, or if you are like me you could continue buying razors and end up with 40 in just 3 months.

Hope that helps.

+1 to Souschef. He and I have had parallel experiences, I think, but he's thought (and written) about them better than I have.

Dovo Best Quality razors are their entry-level blades, carbon steel, simple scales, about $80. You can get a quarter-hollow grind, too, which is a little easier to learn on than a full hollow. I've only seen the quarter-hollows at one vendor, The Superior Shave, in Florida.

If you can get a quarter-hollow from SRD, do that and use the lifetime honing deal.

If money is an object, skip any stones for now--especially if you don't have any experience honing. Honing is rewarding, meditative, but also destructive if you just jump right into it like I did. The victims are shaveable now, but with so much unnecessary hone wear that I probably couldn't resell them.

So, start with a shave-ready Dovo, a decent brush and strop, some really nice soap, then if you're hooked like the rest of us figure out where you can trim your budget, hold your breath, and surrender. Souschef's sequence and overall strategy are perfect.

One addition I'd make, DON'T take on a wedge as one of your early restoration efforts. Try one out as a shave-ready blade, and research its special honing challenges before you start pouring your time into its honing.

Good luck, welcome, and have fun!