Thread: First razor guidance

Hi everyone,
I've been reading the forum for a couple of days, and I have to say there's a wealth of information and advice here.

I live in the UK, which seems to make getting razors slightly more difficult (or maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places...) and I'd almost certainly decided that I wanted to get the Dovo 'Best Quality', fully hollow ground 5/8 razor (5/8 seems to have a little more versatility than the 6/8, making it easier to shave the moustache area or become a part of the PCR... (an amazing thread!) as far as I understand); however I just came across an NOS Sheffield Ford & Medley's Cutlery razor, with almost the same specs, but about £10-15 cheaper - ~£50 instead of ~£65.

I'm sure you probably know what Dovo Best Quality razors are like, but here's the Sheffield alternative: Ford & Medley Razors

Do you have any advice on which to get? Maybe something else entirely?
I'm working with a fairly low budget, but would be willing to spend probably up to £80 at a push (~$140)

Thanks,
Andrew

Andrew!

First off welcome here!

Secondly where in the UK are you? Im In Lincoln!

As far as getting your first straight and for that kind of budget have you checked out ebay? I saw a sellar on there the other day with a Dovo 5/8 special for £70 brand new! Failing that theres shaving-shack.co.uk, and a few others which I'm guessing you'd have googled??

I'm fairly new to all of this too, I found that people on here and the English version of this site are all very helpful and give great advice!

Let us know how you get on!


Chris

Welcome.

To be honest they will both perform very well and you will be hard pushed to tell a difference while shaving.
Personally I would go for the Ford & Medley. Nothing wrong with the Dovo ( I have one myself ) but the F&M will come shave ready from that seller and depending where you buy the Dovo from it may not.
May as well save a few pennies too !

Best of luck.

Andy

Andrew,

The Sheffield sounds like your best bet. Its less money and shave ready. You'll probably have to get the Dovo honed, unless the place offers shave ready.

More money does not always mean a better razor.

The other place to look is on the classifieds here on SRP. You will find some great razors at great prices and when one of the trusted memebers here says the razor is shave ready, you can count on it.

You've only been here a couple of days...patience grasshopper...

Thanks everyone for your responses, it's good to hear some other people (who have more experience than me) their opinion.

Chris, I live in a village quite near Oxford called Tackley - but I don't expect you to have heard of it! Looking on ebay, there are some interesting prospects... but they don't generally seem to be shave-ready.

Would I be right in assuming that, for a first-timer, the 'shave-readiness' is an invaluable feature?

With regards to the Dovo vs the F&M, both are from the same people, albeit they are on different websites. The F&M is on Introduction to razors, the Dovo is on Home, and they also have a sharpening service that I think you can get to on their site (I'm not affiliated to them in any way, just to be clear). They seem very reasonably priced, much cheaper than other places I've seen, and more importantly hone and strop all the razors they sell (which is the point of this semi-digression) - that is to say that the F&M doesn't really win on that account.

After paying a bit more attention, the F&M has beaten the Dovo here (although there may be something else that could convince me otherwise) for a few reasons:

1) The Dovo isn't currently in stock there and could take up to 6 months to come back into stock, and elsewhere it is another ~£10 more expensive

2) The Dovo only came with scales of a colour that I didn't like ('blonde' I think it's called), which would probably end in me trying to make and attach new scales myself... quite possibly making it unusable - not what you want for your first and only razor!

3) theinvisibleedge attach the scales on a per order basis, and as a result of this, they've said that they can also supply nicer/more expensive handles than the plastic ones that are shown. I've emailed to inquire as to what materials and the additional cost, and I'll let you know once I find out.

4) the lower price of the F&M (maybe not with the better handles! - but the Dovo comes with similar plastic handles anyway I think, so this is added value) doesn't hurt

5) I quite like the idea of an NOS - to some degree it feels like a collector's item; I know there are loads of ex-production razors circulating, but there are only 400 of these, and they're unused, whereas I could buy a new Dovo at any time. Even though I'm not hugely patriotic, I also get a little more enthusiastic over the fact it's made in Sheffield rather than in another country (Solingen, Germany).

I would be interested to know from a purely pragmatic point of view whether anyone knows of any steel quality differences between Solingen and Sheffield and whether that should be a factor.


Sorry for the long post guys,
Thanks again for all your help,
Andrew

Originally Posted by azmreece

Would I be right in assuming that, for a first-timer, the 'shave-readiness' is an invaluable feature?

Absolutely, positively, for sure, no question about it....Can I be any clearer?

The most important part of getting a shave ready razor as a novice is that it gives you a benchmark. You will know what a properly honed razor is like for future reference. With careful stropping you can go at least a month and not need any touch ups to the blade. This actually brings up another point worth considering. Having a second razor allows you to send one out for touch ups (assuming you don't hone your own) and still keep shaving.

Andrew!

Your right I have never heard of it but I know Oxford lol!

Joebehar has answered your question about shave readiness perfectly. As coming from a newbie myself its paramount that you get one thats shave ready, I think trying to hone straight away before even learning to shave could turn in to some what of a disaster! You dont want tyo end up ruining the blade that you have to send it off to be hollow ground again, So yeah get the shave ready then in time start buying cheap straights and learn to hone yourself.

You might have seen people on here talking about RAD (Razor Aquisition Dissorder!) No doubt you'll quickly contract this lol.....I Did know I have 6 Straights! 1 is my Dovo that I love! Another is a very cheap crappy razor that I'm just using to learn how to hone then the other 4 are vintage ones that I want to be able to restore!
I think I jumped in too quickly when buying them all but its exciting hahaha!

As for your question on where the best steal is.....I'd let someone else answer that, I'd be inclined to stick with Sheffield just because I live down the road lol, but Sheffield has always been renowned for its steal be it in straights or whatever!

Haha Chris I'm not sure about RAD yet, but it's very possible... I'll hold off while I can, but it's a difficult battle

Unless something magical pops up I'll be going with the Sheffield F&M (and maybe think about Dovo as a second (aaagh, RAD is setting in already!)), I'm just waiting to see the prices and options for the handle scales they offer. I'll let you all know if there's anyone interested.

Just out of interest, how easy is it to attach scales you've made yourself and not screw everything up? Is that a viable alternative at this stage or would you advise against it?

Andrew

Double post (not sure whether that's frowned upon here?) but different topic:

I'm doubting myself, I'm not sure whether to go 5/8 or 6/8... anyone got any info that might push me one way or the other?

Don't be overly concerned about that. More important to have the razor well honed and comfortable in your hand.

I have both 5/8 and 6/8 razors and my preference is for the 6/8. You'll find guys that love the big blades and some that prefer the narrow ones. I doubt very much you will be able to tell the difference at first, but after a while, you'll definitely start to build your own preferences.