Thread: New DOVO, Chinese 12k, Strop?

Hey everyone,
I am getting closer to my much anticipated first shave with a straight! I have posted a couple of threads here and already received some good advise, thanks. I have a mug, badger brush, and some goat milk shaving soap and that has already made a great improvement in the way my gillette sensor safety razor shaves. I got a new strop, not the best, not the worst but I think a good starter. I also have a Chinese 12k stone coming that I purchased here from RayG. He tells me the stone is lapped and ready to go. Finally, after getting out bid on a few dandy's on ebay and before I found the BST here, I ordered a new DOVO razor from classic shave, DOVO Straight Razors.

My first question is what do I need to do to this razor after I take it out of the box and oo and aah, before I take it to my face? Next, I do have a couple of cheapo carbon steel blades, far from shave ready that I want to use to practice my honing technique. How easily can I mess up the trueness of my stone with poor technique?

Final note, before anyone directs me to Lynn's DVD, I have a copy coming with the razor and I will make sure to watch it before I proceed to much farther.

Thanks for the help,

The 12k's are very slow cutters, really for polishing up a darn near shave ready blade. If you didn't get the prehoned option, you should send it to one of our honemeisters here. The 12k would take days or weeks to get that razor shave ready. I wouldn't bother with trying to hone ebay blades on the 12k, until you find out how dull they are. Norton 4k/8k combo's are great and could get a razor from out of the box to shave ready in just a small amount of time.