Thread: new vs old

I have a very old Giesen & Forsthoff I found on ebay. Nice scales, maybe horn.
Why is it I can get the G&F to easily pass a HHT, while I am unable to get my new Dovo Black star to the same level.
I am using a coticule followed by linen and a clean leather strop only, no pastes or sprays.
I am really amazed how sharp the G&F honed up.
Is it me or is the steel so different?

Is the Dovo stainless? If so, this could be the difference, and it might take a little more work on it to get the same level of sharpness.

I have ran into a similar problem with new Dovo razors on many occasions. Most old razors I've hone reach a nice consistent keen edge from heel to toe that easily pass HHT. New Dovos on the other hand pass the HHT only in spots. After running into this problem on several new Dovos, I noticed the sides of the blade's back were not completely touching the hone ~ regardless of which type of honing technique I used, the hone wear pattern would skip spots on the sides of the spine. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that the symmetrical features on 'most' of the blades were not consistent ~ the bevel's width would go from wide to very thin in various places along the blade's edge, sometimes fading to virtually no bevel at all. I also noticed that every new Dovo I had this problem with was purchased on ebay.
I really don't think the steel's quality was poor on the new Dovos I had problems with. I think the real problem was a poor grind on each blade.

The Dovo is not stainless. I did get it off ebay,...hmmm. It does what you said about passing the HHT in spots.
I'll give it some more attention and see if I can get it there.

How is the shave ?

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

How is the shave ?

Its not that bad really. It does pull a bit.

I figured it was an ebay Dovo. Sounds just like the new Dovos I had problems with. I've honed a couple of new Dovos that were said to have been purchased at the more reputable sites, (SRD & TSS) and had no problem getting them shave ready. After pulling an all-night honing session on the last ebay Dovo, I must admit, I gave up on it all together and hope I never see another one. Hope you have better luck than I did!

I've actually had this same issue with my dovo BQ. It's taken forever to get to a useful edge, still nowhere as keen as some of the vintages i've bought and honed in less than an hour.

It did improve after i taped the spine and worked on it with a DMT D8E, with the hopes of evening out the absolutely shoddy bevel it came with. that was quite a while ago though.

Originally Posted by dnullify

I've actually had this same issue with my dovo BQ. It's taken forever to get to a useful edge, still nowhere as keen as some of the vintages i've bought and honed in less than an hour.

It did improve after i taped the spine and worked on it with a DMT D8E, with the hopes of evening out the absolutely shoddy bevel it came with. that was quite a while ago though.

And how is it now? Shave ok?

I hone a lot of Dovos and I like the edge they take and keep. Are you using magnification to see what's going on at the edge when you hone? If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say the problem is using linen after a coticule. The linen might be degrading the edge. Try using just the coticule and then shaving. If that doesn't work out, hone with the coticule and then a clean leather strop. Your shave should be fine. If I were to use linen in a lineup (and I no longer do), I'd use it before the coticule.