Thread: New to Straight Razors, What am i missing ?? Blade not sharp

About a month a go i purchased my first straight razor from a local store. I bought a dovo razor from the art of shaving store. Along with the razor i purchased a strop, and a kit that has the brush and oil and other items. When i purchased the blade the gentlemen took it out of the box and sliced a peice of paper. He said it was shave ready, he showed me how to use the strop and all the other items that i purchased. So when i got home i did as he told me but the razor doesnt cut, its not sharp enought, i read this happens all the time with new razors. So i read about hones and the norton 8000/ 4000 seamed to be what every one was using. I called a store they said they had in in stock, when i get there they didnt have it. But they had king water stones, so i purchased a 800/4000 water stone and a 1000/6000 water stone, and i went home and using the electrical tape i tried honing my blade. I didnt get good sesults, i followed some youtube videos and how to hone the blade. then i stropped it and it was the same. When i touch the blade it fleals sharp, but not sharp enough to cut any hair from my beard, so then i read about paste and i purchased green chromium oxide paste and also a 1/4 diamond paste from norton. I also purchased anothe strop to use with my paste. When i recieved the paste, i stropped like usual and nothing happened the blade is the same it doesnt pass the hair arm test. What am i missing, Im thinking a higher grade poloshing stone which would be the 8000 grit stone, or ive read some people using 10,000 and 12,000. IS THAT WHAT IM MISSING ?? Am I doing something Wrong ??

Thanks for Helping

List Of Things That i have.
Dovo Straight Razor
Dovo Leather Strop
Another strop for my paste
King Stone 800/4000 Grit
King Stone 1000/6000 Grit
.5 Green Chromium Oxide Paste
1/4 Norton Diamond Paste

Hi Carl,
Well you can be almost certain that new blade you got was not truly shave-ready, and even if it was that guy did you no favors by slicing a piece of paper with it. I know Dovo says they are shave-ready, but they just aren't. I purchased a Thiers-Issard from Art of Shaving and after trying it for several days, ended up following the advice on these forums and sent it off to be professionally honed, in my case by gssixgun, Glen, who has done several razors for me. Very fast service, I might add. It may not seem like it, but honing just isn't that easy. It takes practice. You really ought to blow the few bucks it will cost to send it off to get it honed or you'll just continue to be frustrated. Look in the Classifieds section and you'll see that several people here will hone a razor for your, for very reasonable cost. Seriously, it's your best bet. Good luck. You'll enjoy it soon enough.
Ed

No you're not doing anything wrong. You've just bitten off more at once than anyone can chew. I have plenty of knives that cut paper (we call that the HPT, hanging paper test), but I can't shave with them.

So I'd recommend sending off the razor to have it honed by someone, like the founder of this forum, who knows how and spend the time until it comes back reading the library here. That is the way to start.

I agree with Ed. You may continue to work at the honing in frustration, and may even arrive at a shave ready edge in about six months after you have needlessly worn the edge and spine down. But I highly recommend that you get it professionally honed first to feel what shave ready really means. Then when it is time to bring the edge back you will know to what you must aspire. You have a nice setup, and it will do the job, but you need a good baseline from which to proceed with success before you spend anymore time or money.

Hang in there. The reward is worth it.

Gammaray

Put your hands where we can see them, and step away from your wallet.

Now.


I may have missed something, but I'd wager I'm close to being right on this; Your blade either A) never had a (great) bevel set, and / or B) your stropping technique marred the edge up, with AND without CrOx, C) your honing technique never addressed the bevel issue, so you beat your head against the wall further with that, and now you think an 8K stones gonna makey makey all better?

Here's what you do; contact one of the lads in the classifieds here, or Larry at whippeddog.com, or Lynn at SRD. Say 4 words; Need shave ready razor. Either a new blade of get yours honed right. They will hook you up for a lot less than the cost of an 8k. NEXT: spend the next 6 weeks learning how to use the damn thing... and replace the strop your gonna trash. No stones, no paste, nada... just don't. You've got enough of a learning curve to worry about. Then.. go back to your original purchase, and you'll be able to judge the difference...and THEN see if you want to wrestle with honing.

And read the stickies here. Buncha smart guys thought those posts might help people. (SEE.. they already posted this stuff)


And have fun... another smart guy says that a lot.

Yeah the same advice from me, send it off to get it honed and if your serious about honing your own razor buy a cheap old one to practice on first or else you will probably ruin your razor, Just show that he shouldnt sell them. you can shave after 8000 so dont worry for now. first train before you try it on a new razor or train before thinking about buying a new higher grit stone. To start with look at the youtube vidz of some of the senior members in here like Lynn or gssixgun and there are plenty more ppl with videoesin here but be aware not all on youtube can hone or they give bad advice, talk to ppl in here to find the links that are good to learn from first. SRP/Lynn have a video you can buy. Hope you cleaned it for oil before testing the sharpness, cause if it has oil on it it usaly dont cut hair. You have more then enough to start to learn with, and also did you buy a flattening/lapping plate for your stones when buying them and did you lapp your stones before trying to hone? No Stone is Flat you have to make it flat first, and no Dovo razor is sharp so send it off to someone in the classifieds, its cheaper then buying the stones you want in the end. you can get up to 30.000Grit/30K on Shapton Pro Ceramic Stones, Or Shapton On Glass but they cost 1 arm and your unborn child and not even those stones are flat. you can buy naniwa lapping plate or norton lapping plate for your set, and that will work up to 12000 grit they say. and the lapping plate dont cost much exept if you buy Shapton DRLP/DGLP/Iron Cast Lapping Plate or DMT Lapping Plate If you buy shapton or dmt lapping plate you can say from 180 dollars and up to around 600 dollars. but if you go for naniwa or norton its around 20-40 dollars. buy naniwa 220, norton or dmt 325 grit for your lapping cause even if you buy the 12000 grit stone later you can use this lapping plate to lapp that stone aswell when you get there after alot of practice on the old razor. Cheaper to let someone else fix it for you then buying tons of expensive stones you cant use. Best way is to get yourself a mentor that has the time. cause without guiding it will take forever to learn it.

You need a sharper razor the dovo is fine but unless you take the time to study and watch lots of videos and practice you will have a hard time getting it shave ready. send it to one of the many honemiesters there are a couple of good ones in texas if you want to try and keep in nearby, do an advanced search in the community section for users in either texas of TX sort the list by last log ons and that will give you some people to try ... some might even be in your area and willing for a face to face discussion. or simply send it to one the the guys in the member services section of the classifieds

You really mean to tell me that you read all of that advice in the OP, but never once saw the "Get it professionally honed" advice? Your first thing is, is it your shaving technique, your stropping technique or your honing technique? Getting it honed by someone who knows will tell you first shave for the first part, second shave for the second part and a couple months later for the 3rd part.

for the record, you should be able to actually shave off the 1K stone. if you cant shave off it, odds are the 120K super expensive stone or the single diamond crystal spray wont help you any.

Originally Posted by LameBMX

You really mean to tell me that you read all of that advice in the OP, but never once saw the "Get it professionally honed" advice? Your first thing is, is it your shaving technique, your stropping technique or your honing technique? Getting it honed by someone who knows will tell you first shave for the first part, second shave for the second part and a couple months later for the 3rd part.

for the record, you should be able to actually shave off the 1K stone. if you cant shave off it, odds are the 120K super expensive stone or the single diamond crystal spray wont help you any.

Yeah I read that its better to get it professionally honed lol, But I just always want to learn and do it my self, But with everyone stating the same thing i think i may just send it off, and go from there. Thanks for all of the answers.

I will echo the posters here...get it professionally honed. Then learn the proper stropping technique. I've read here that many folks feel that you almost can't over-strop BUT...you CAN round the edge so watch any video you can watch. THEN look into getting into honing your razors. I have honed some of monie mine BUT...to judge how I've progressed along MY learning curve I'll STILL send my Dovo and Boker to a professional, be it Lynn or one of the folks on the site. So far I've only had the Dovo honed by Lynn but at some point the Boker will need it and I have a few that I can't conquer so those will definitely go to one of the pros. The Dovo andf Boker will go tothe pros...I'm not gonna ruin them. If you ARE intent on learning to hone your razor, get a cheapie straight razor off Fleabay for the practice. The Norton hones probably need to be lapped too and the set includes a lap stone. Above all else, read this forum as often as you can do so...there are ALOT of folks here with volumes of knowledge. Happy shaves. RIch.