Thread: Are new dovo's shave ready?

And please keep me posted on your experience with the blade, i'm going to get the same one....

No worries I will let you know how I go.

Welcome to the SRP! I would have to say that many razors sold as new are dull as a butter knife. My first straight had a minimal bevel and could not be used. I sent mine to Utopian and he did a great job. I would caution about buying off of ebay. Many of the sellers do know what shave ready is. I would send it off to be honed. I would suggest having the spine taped during honing as this minimizes the wear on the spine. I bought a Dovo special as my second razor and it was not shave ready either. I know the frustration. Good luck .

Originally Posted by Sweeney79

Hello,
I am new to this and have just purchased a new dovo 5/8 silver steel ebony straight razor.
The razor has not yet arrived but after reading a lot of the wikis and posts on this site I am concerned it will no be shave ready (starting to wish I had purchased from this site).
Is this the case, if so what will need to be done to get it shave ready?
If it needs honing should it be taped, is that what they do when setting the bevel in the factory?
Hopefully someone can help me out here, what an awesome site. For anyone looking to make their first purchase, do this site in detail first.

Looking forward to getting into real shaving!

Cheers

The real answer might be that it depends who you ordered it from. Some of us, when we're starting out, are so ignorant (I was) we don't even know when we've done something RIGHT.

I ordered a dovo from a merchant and then regretted it because I thought it wasn't hand-honed. But I went back to the site and found their policy statement and sure enough, they hand-honed their razors before shipping them to the buyer. One site lists the same razors as either "factory honed" or "professionally honed."

So no, it's not shave ready from the factory. But if you ordered it from a vendor who includes a honing with the price, you might still be okay. If the vendor is a mass-market source like Knifecenter.com or the like, it's just the factory edge I'm sure. But some of the specialty websites do hone the razors they ship.

Ask the vendor, or check their site, before you have anything done to the razor.

Originally Posted by Diederik

And please keep me posted on your experience with the blade, i'm going to get the same one....

The razor is great. Had to get it honed though. They are definitely not shave ready. Got it honed by onimaru55 and would definitely recommend his service, he also provided heaps of excellent advice.

End of the day though fantastic razor.

Cheers

Originally Posted by Sweeney79

The razor is great. Had to get it honed though. They are definitely not shave ready. Got it honed by onimaru55 and would definitely recommend his service, he also provided heaps of excellent advice.

End of the day though fantastic razor.

Cheers

Thx! To be honest, on my b-day two weeks ago my friends got me a Dovo Best quality. I had the same experience concerning the shave-abilty, i send itout to get honed to Bart of Coticule.be. Should get it back next week i think.

Still thinking of getting the silver steel one one day, once I get my shave act together you known. I'll think i'll use one to practise honing and all.

Anyway thanks for the info, i'll definitely keep it on my "I wants it!" list.

Originally Posted by Sweeney79

The razor is great. Had to get it honed though. They are definitely not shave ready. Got it honed by onimaru55 and would definitely recommend his service, he also provided heaps of excellent advice.

End of the day though fantastic razor.

Cheers

+10 on Os's honing (onimaru55) he does a great job and is easy to talk to and very helpful!

My Dovo Bismarck was shave-ready from the factory.

Originally Posted by Slur

My Dovo Bismarck was shave-ready from the factory.

may be that's the exception that proves he rule...

Ebay is alright for vintage stuff. I have bought a couple and had 2 out of 3 come shave ready. One was so bad that it went to Max for a restore. Buying new razors go with SRD, Vintage Blades or The Superior Shave. Also some great buys on SRP.