Thread: Did I dull my blade?

Yeah, I spent a long time on lower grits and it never ended well.

I find the quality of the factory edge of dovo razors quite decent. The ones I have opened out of the sealed box only needed a touch up on chromium oxide, or a few strokes on a finishing hone.

In my limited experience Dovos have one thing you can count on. They are fairly consistent. On rare occasion you may get one that will give you a satisfactory shave right out of the factory but most need a little honing. Fortunately, most sellers, like SRD will hone them for you before shipping them out to you.

While I don't know what their typical honing routine is on a new 6/8 Dovo, for example. My routine is usually; Slight bevel finishing and general honing on perfectly lapped hones.

Example; 40 circles each side medium pressure on 4,000 grit followed by 15 X strokes medium pressure on same grit. Then 40 circles no pressure and 15 strokes no pressure again on 4,000. Test (shave arm hair) If so far so good I go to 10 X strokes no pressure on 8,000 grit and re-test for improvement. (if no improvement I will do a modified pyramid on 4/8K and re-test). My next step is 10 X feather light strokes on 16,000 grit. Then test; at this point edge should pick up hair mid length (I use my lower leg instead of my arm, lol). If this passes then I do about 5 laps on Chromium Oxide treated felt strop then 5 laps on 0.25 diamond spray felt strop (feather light strokes VERY important or you can make the edge sharper but 'harsher' feeling) Retest. Then 70 laps on a leather strop. All of this is thanks to Lynn. If he hasn't honed my new razor for me I at least use one of his methods like the above.