Thread: Is there a way to tell the difference between poor stropping and unhonded blade?

Hey SRP, first post

I bought a Dovo straight/ strop today (has leather and canvas sides - leather before and canvas after?)

The dovo looked as if it had some kind of oil on it, so would I be right to assume it was shave-ready? I asked the woman in the shop, but I don't think her english was too good, as I had to mime razor and strop.

When I was shaving with it, I could feel the razor tugging on my skin, and it wasn't actually cutting the hairs. A similar feeling to when I need to change the blade of my Dovo shavette.

So was this tugging/ not cutting caused by poor stropping, which will improve with time, or was it likely the blade wasn't honed? Is there a way to tell if it is?

Thanks

First welcome to the forum

Second it sounds as though it may not be shave ready, may I ask where you purchased the Dovo?
As factory edges are not shave ready but many tout them as such.

Welcome to the forums

The oil is there to keep it from rusting. Since you are doubting the sharpness you could get Lynn to hone it (see classified section or straight razor designs) and you'd then have the gold standard to compare the edge from now on. There are many people who do a good job honing razors, but he is the one who has honed a bazillion of them and is known as the premier honemeister.

As far as telling if it is honed now, you should see a tiny bevel on the edge and it should at least cut hair off your arm. With the stropping, you can dull the edge and it sounds pretty common that new people do this. I'm new myself, with only a few dozen shaves, and can say my stropping has improved, but I'll leave it to the more experienced to offer more info here. All I can say is I try to be deliberate, not put much pressure on the strop, leave the spine on the strop and flip it near the end of the stroke to avoid knicks.

I've heard various suggestions about the proper amount of times you should strop and on what particular surface(s) and still trying to figure this out exactly for myself.

Since you are used to the shavette, I think you'll have a good head start. It took me awhile to catch on moving from a DE. Keep reading through the forums, you'll get lots of good info.

It was from a knife/ cutlery/ sword shop in Hong Kong. They only had 4 types of razors, and the strop I bought was the last in the shop. Straights aren't too popular here, as asian beards tend to be thin and slow growing.

I'll email Lynn. Thanks for the recommendation. It doesn't really cut arm hair too well either right now.

you need to do it by the process of elimination. like other people have stated get it pro honed, despite it being sold as shave ready. that way you can eliminate one possibility.

btw canvas before and leather next

Originally Posted by Mephisto

you need to do it by the process of elimination. like other people have stated get it pro honed, despite it being sold as shave ready. that way you can eliminate one possibility.

btw canvas before and leather next

Ahh, maybe that could be it? I'll try shaving again, and if it's still bad, I'll email Lynn