Thread: Does anyone have experience with manandshaving.nl?

Hello all,

I am another shaver from the Netherlands, still using cartridges but intending to go straight as soon as possible.

To start off with, i hope to buy a decent straight blade and a strop. I will hold off the hones until later.

The site manandshaving.nl claims to have all blades professionally sharpened. Does anyone have experience with them? My impression is that they are a bit expensive, but offer a good collection of products. They are located in Naarden so i could even pop by for a visit, which is nice.

The Dovo strop they offer that is still somewhat affordable is 3,5 x 35 cm, which seems a bit small to me. I am not in the market to spend over 100 euro's for a bit wider strop. On SRP i mostly see references to 2" or 3" wide strops, which is quite a bit bigger. Is 3,5 cm enough in width to do some proper stropping?


Suggestion for other sites that offer good deals in the Netherlands would be welcome as well.

Fellow dutch guy here. I went to demessenwinkel in Antwerpen since I only wanted to buy after looking and touchin different SR brushed and smell the soaps. The one I bought was also cheaper overthere compared to manandshaving. You also have the 'scheersalon'. No exp. with them. The messenwinkel sends for free above 70e.

Have fun selecting one and using it will be fantastic.

No experience whit that shop, what shave1975 said i want to see it live before buying.
you can go to the dutch barbershop at Breukelen, this guy have nice razors for a good price.
Barbershop Classics The Shaving Shop

Or if you want for sure thats shave ready buy here on the classifieds.
By the way Welcome here.

Hi Borr,

Ask them what they mean by 'professionally sharpened', is it a factory edge ? Or is there a honer somewhere?
If they only sell Dovo's, my advice is to stay away from them. I've seen too many issues with (especially entry level) Dovo's lately. You're *much* better off with a shave-ready from either here or the Barbershop at Breukelen. If you want a new razor that's shave-ready, you're way better off with a Revisor or a Ralf Aust. But yes, you'll pay more than for an entry level Dovo.

And please, I know you're Dutch (sorry to seem offensive), but good gear costs money. The small Dovo strop might seem a good deal, but you'll regret it, at least if you stay in this hobby. Check the Straight Razor Design website, they sell really splendid stuff for 50 USD. That quality at those prices simply cannot be beaten.

Just my opinion etc and so forth.

Something I forgot.

Even though I'm from Belgium and I met and quite liked the guy from de Koordenwinkel, the razors he sells have their factory edge, so most likely not shave-ready. I can't recommend this shop.

The same with 1Barber.be, splendid chap, lovely shop and site, but his razors have factory edges. The difference is, Gregory from 1Barber offers a honing service. By the way, make sure you check out his site, he really has an awesome collection of gear.

Originally Posted by decraew

Something I forgot.

Even though I'm from Belgium and I met and quite liked the guy from de Koordenwinkel, the razors he sells have their factory edge, so most likely not shave-ready. I can't recommend this shop.

The same with 1Barber.be, splendid chap, lovely shop and site, but his razors have factory edges. The difference is, Gregory from 1Barber offers a honing service. By the way, make sure you check out his site, he really has an awesome collection of gear.

The dovo I bought @themessenwinkel was absolute shave ready. We can discus what shave ready exactly is but since I shaved with it for two months before getting dull with perfect results for me it was. So with a lot of experience Ok it might be better but sometimes the whole honing on brand new SRs seems a bit over the edge to me.

Originally Posted by Shave1975

The dovo I bought @themessenwinkel was absolute shave ready. So with a lot of experience Ok it might be better but sometimes the whole honing on brand new SRs seems a bit over the edge to me.

Well congratulations, you've either got a good one, or somehow factory edges work for you.

I'm not saying there aren't any good ones you can shave with, I'm just saying that the quality is very variable. Especially for the cheap Dovo's. I remember my first razor, also a Dovo. Well, I could shave with it, in the literal sense. But it was not a pleasant experience at all, with serious pulling.

You can indeed discuss what shave-ready means, and yes, I have become quite difficult to please in that department.

A couple examples. A while ago there was a group buy of a Dovo on the CCC forum. I don't recall exactly, but I think virtually all members who bought such a razor (about 140 I think) had to revert to using a pasted strop at the outset to get their Dovo in shaving conditions. I'm talking a couple of hundred laps on puma paste (which is the usual way to do things with a new razor over in France). And the razor was not an entry level one either.

Another example, just a few weeks ago, a chap passed by my place because his Dovo didn't shave. A new one from said shop. Not only was it not shave-ready, it was positively blunt, you could literally not shave a single hair with that razor. I had to hone the damn thing. It also had serious geometry issues, so the honing was not an easy job either. It made me decide never ever to accept honing a Dovo again.

So there

Welcome to SRP from across the pond. If I understand correctly the strop is 3.5 wide ? Like the USA equivalent of 1 &3/8" ? IMHO, if that is what it is it is too narrow and 35cm is too short. Professional barbers in the USA, for most of the 20th century, used 2 1/2 (6.5cm) x 23" (58.5cm). Either a 2 1/2 or 3" wide strop is way more user friendly in my experience.

If you want to feel before buying you obviously need a store.
But with the big difference between $ and euro, it is often a much better idea to buy from the US, even with shipping cost included.
I don't buy anything in stores (except shaving cream) because of the big difference in cost.

ok going to check out what a honemeister can improve on my edge. Is 'Gregory from 1Barber' the only one offering quality hone services in the NL|BE? First results in google came up with zero :-(