Thread: Newbie mistakes

Send the blade out. Buy a cheapo vintage salvage blade from the Bay and practice with your stones on it. Honing is skill which takes practice and muscle memory to develop. Your Dovo is a quite respectable blade and having it professionally honed gives you a baseline for comparisons with your own efforts.

The blade was professionally honed when I received it, so I have a good idea of how sharp it can/should be. I'm going to be careful with the honing and can't see myself doing any irreparable damage i.e. beyond what a professional can easily fix (obviously the plan is not to do any damage at all!)

Whilst I fully appreciate that the Dovo is a nice blade that one wouldn't want to carelessly ruin, at this stage I can't see the merit of buying either:

1) a blade requiring any major re-honing or restoration, as I only have 5k and 8k stones
2) an inferior blade just for the sake of practice

Purely from a cost point of view, my plan of action seems reasonable - no additional razor expense and worst case scenario it costs me £15-20 to send it out

Points well made......grind away. Let us know how it develops. I wouldn't be surprised if you get a great edge.

Some of the nicest razors I have used(mho nicer than Dovo) are more than 70 years old and cost less than $25 but you can spend a great deal more. Your 5k and 8k stone would have been enough for nearly all of them to become shave ready.

Originally Posted by jaswarb

Points well made......grind away. Let us know how it develops. I wouldn't be surprised if you get a great edge.

Although it might well surprise me

Glen has a video that shows how to set a bevel only using a 4k/8K.

5k/8k isn't that much different.

Hi all, just a quick update:

Having lapped the stones (5k was pretty much flat out of the box - 8k not so much) I did a pyramid starting at 15 strokes and then did a shave test. The edge was much improved, but still not quite there. I proceeded to do a second pyramid starting at 10 strokes and the result was much improved. I realise I have also been able to reduce the blade angle (due to the sharper edge) and this has resulted in significantly more comfortable shaves.

All things considered, I'm very happy with the results.

Thanks for all the advice everyone

I think you'll be OK re-touching the blade lightly on a hone. I have almost zero mechanical ability and experience (I'm NO handyman) and I found it quite achievable. I know recommending spending more money may be something you don't want to hear, but I'd get a Shapton 16k as well. Do less than 10 laps on the Shapton, very lightly and very carefully, AFTER watching a bunch of videos. It really IS a good idea to watch honing by someone who knows how to do it for maybe an hour. That sounds a long time but it gets you into the moment. You can do less laps if you want, but don't do more for now. Oh, and buy a lapping plate or lapping stone. At least using a lapping plate or stone eliminates flatness problems. However, I have used wet and dry wrapped around another stone and it seemed to work OK.

Of course you can do it all with the hone you've ordered and the wet and dry (and maybe a glass topped table to stick the wet and dry on) but you'll want a finer stone at some stage anyway, and iof you can afford it, you may as well get one now and see if you can bring the edge back without going all the way back to 5k...

Oh, just ignore my post, a but redundant now... :-)

Great success story. Keep it up there is much more fun to come.

Originally Posted by carlmaloschneider

Oh, just ignore my post, a but redundant now... :-)

No, thanks for the advice regarding the finishing stone; I will get one at some stage as I feel I could definitely get a smoother shave after using one.

I found that wet and dry on a flat surface was sufficient to lap the hones and therefore don't see the need to get a lapping stone at this point...