Not very impressed with Taylors or Dovo...

[rupert87]

Excuse the rant.

Since getting a good result on my new norton, I decided to give it a go on my Dovo Favorit. Once I'd started I kept getting the feeling that it didn't feel right on the hone. I found that, when doing the stroke away from myself, the blade and spine don't both lie flat. If the spine is flat, the tip to about half way down the blade make contact and the heel is off the stone. Vice versa if the edge is held flat against the stone. Oddly this doesn't happen when the razor's on its other side (anyone else ever seen this?!).

Having bought the thing at Taylors, I took it back there, not necessarily to return it (I've had it a fair few months) but to see if they could tell me what the problem might be and how to get round it. Instead, the chap I spoke to insisted that the problem wasn't there (his fingers were white from pressure as I tried to rock it). He insisted it was honable and that my method of putting the spine and edge on the block was wrong and proceeded to starting rubbing my blade against a hone with daylight between the stone and the spine to show me how it was done.

After getting tired of nailing jelly to the wall, I just left, cutting my losses and popped down the road to Trumpers to have a look at straights. I bought a similar entry level razor there. It says "Solingen Best Quality" on the blade. I've just got it home and it has the same problem on the same side as the other one.

I'd be really grateful to anyone that can shed some light on the issues I'm having with those two blades. I must say, I've been really rather disappointed by Taylors - their products are great but it seems they don't know a great deal about straight shaving...

[Jfala]

Rupert,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Did you lap your Norton before using it? If so, are you sure it is completely flat? It sounds like the stone is uneven in parts; since you are having the same trouble on two different razors. Make sure the stone is flat and give it another go. There are plenty of threads here about flattening the Nortons.

Good luck.

[rupert87]

I'm pretty sure the norton is flat.
I've lapped it twice now with the norton flattening stone. As I said, the blades are only rocking on one side (the side they'd be on when honing away from yourself with the tang out to the right). They're lieing flat on the other side of the razor. My other two razors are also don't have the problem. I guess the cutting edge isn't parallel with one side of the spine.

[Estroncio]

To my wapi happens that exactly to him. <img>

Greetings

[PuFFaH]

Bent spine. One side will lie flat (concave side) and the other (convex) will rock.
You need a hone with less width I feel.

PuFF

[FiReSTaRT]

DOVO's known for passing warped blades. They are still honeable, but as Puff said, you need a narrower hone and to be extra careful with the X.