Thread: Hello everyone

Hey just wanted to say hello to everyone as i am new to the forum.
Really not sure where to post my questions so i decided the general forum was a good place to start. So i recently discovered straight razor shaving, i am pretty young i would think, 22 , but have been shaving since 13, have a very hard beard and never really enjoyed the chore of shaving. Until i discovered straight razors. Here is the problem and i am going straight to the point to save you all time eheheh. After lots of practise i shave very nicely with my feather razor , best shave in my life and really enjoying all that i have learned when it comes to preparation and shaving with a straight razor, but i want more , i want to be able to hone and strop properly. Any way recently my dad gave me his dovo, he says i shave better than him ... of course it had been stored for a long time and needed to be worked on , i sent it oversees to the classicshaving.com (i live in Lebanon) for honnig and i ordered a norton 4000/8000 and a paddle strop . Now i recently got it back, but i was disapointed , i start shaving, not sharp enough for my beard , after few strokes i go back to my feather blade to finnish my shave... Question where to from here ? honning with my stone? can i get is as sharp as my feather blade ? what should i do , pretty sure my dovo is original , very nice details, it is full hollow i think 5/6 of an inch. thanks you for your time guys.
Marius

Originally Posted by NaijaFury

Hey just wanted to say hello to everyone as i am new to the forum.
Really not sure where to post my questions so i decided the general forum was a good place to start. So i recently discovered straight razor shaving, i am pretty young i would think, 22 , but have been shaving since 13, have a very hard beard and never really enjoyed the chore of shaving. Until i discovered straight razors. Here is the problem and i am going straight to the point to save you all time eheheh. After lots of practise i shave very nicely with my feather razor , best shave in my life and really enjoying all that i have learned when it comes to preparation and shaving with a straight razor, but i want more , i want to be able to hone and strop properly. Any way recently my dad gave me his dovo, he says i shave better than him ... of course it had been stored for a long time and needed to be worked on , i sent it oversees to the classicshaving.com (i live in Lebanon) for honnig and i ordered a norton 4000/8000 and a paddle strop . Now i recently got it back, but i was disapointed , i start shaving, not sharp enough for my beard , after few strokes i go back to my feather blade to finnish my shave... Question where to from here ? honning with my stone? can i get is as sharp as my feather blade ? what should i do , pretty sure my dovo is original , very nice details, it is full hollow i think 5/6 of an inch. thanks you for your time guys.
Marius

Welcome,

You are not really that young to be on here, I started at 22 (going to be 23 in 2 weeks today actually). If you are used to a feather blade, I don't know if you would be able to get it that sharp even by honing yourself. The person who probably did hone it would have been Lynn (who is on this forum as well) and from what I have heard his skills are amazing (never used them myself). If other members would back me up on this I believe that if you think that the straight is not as good as the feather then you won't get any better. Blades in the feather are right on the edge for sharpness...

ok i see , i have heard that his skills are amazing , but honnestly maybe something happened when it was being shipped back to me, be cause my dovo is honestly not good at all, i mean going across it "bites" and i would have to push it, maybe it cant get as sharp as the feather, but i am sure it can be better, i mean you guys all enjoying your shaves, my beard cant be made out of stone ? so obviously it could use some work. i mean i shaved my brother whose beards is not as tough as mine and the dovo worked nicely, maybe for me it might need some more rounds on the norton ? 8000 ? or 4000 then 8000, because it is pretty sharp, but just not enough, thanks for the reply man
Marius

if you are wanting to maybe do some laps it would be probably be a light pyramid. Wait to hear from others, but I would maybe think :
1/3 1/5 1/5 1/10 1/5 1/5 1/3
Meaning:
1 lap on the 4000 grit, 3 laps on the 8000 grit.
If you do not know what I am meaning for this look through the forums for how to do a pyramid as well as getting a slurry going on your stone.

ok cool , i heard of the pyramid, i will do as you say wait to hear some advice... oh i got the lynn abrams dvd as well , surely there i would get explanation on pyramid, thanks again man.

Marius

Welcom Marius,

Also, keep in mind that it takes practice to shave with a straight razor. Just because the blade is sharp doesn't mean your body knows how to shave with it. You have to get the angle right and a certain confidence in the stroke makes all the difference. Practice slowly and your strokes will improve. Also be careful stropping the blade. Many of us have ruined a sharp edge with poor stropping.

Straights are rarely, if ever as sharp as a machine sharpened blade like a feather. Be patient and enjoy

Jordan

From reading the OP's questions...I am pretty sure he will be a poor man with a nice collection of razors soon lol...especially if he notices the details....he is in trouble!

no not really got about 300 feather blades... i am doing fine hehehheeh

You might think about a paddle with 0.5µ paste after honing on the stone to get that extra sharpness.

Sean, that's not quite right on the pyramid. The full pyramid can be downloaded here.

I'd do a small pyramid
3/3, 1/3, 1/3, 1/3, followed by 12-20 laps or so on chromium oxide. That should set her straight if it has just dulled slightly. you can even add some 0.25µ Diamond paste to your routing to get that extra sharp, but the sharper the edge gets, the weaker it gets and it sounds to me like you've got a beard that will tame any weak edge into submission. A half hollow blade or even 1/4 hollow or wedge might hold an edge longer for you.

I'm one of the guys with alight beard so you;'ll get more definitive answers from some of the burlier fellows shortly I'm sure.

X

I noticed you said you have a tough beard and that it shaved someone else just fine. So... as has been mentioned, pay attention to the angle of the blade. The other major factor is the grind of the blade, as Xman has stated, perhaps a thicker, stiffer grind would suit your beard better.

Gotta agree with Xman on this one.