Thread: need advice!!

I just recieved my first brand new dovo straight razor in the mail less then a week ago. Website did not specify whether it was shave ready or not. Did some laps on my leather side strop before I shaved, it was NOT shave ready. Did plenty more laps with the canvas and leather, much better. Went to the store and bought an Arizona tri hone. Didnt specify how many grits, but the store clerk, who seemed to know a lot about straight shaving told me it was a good product. Went home, did some honing on the "medium" and the "fine" side. it did not pass the hanging hair test, which prior before honing, it did. I think I might have really dulled my blade...what should i do????

Welcome to SRP Deilus. There are many people around that will ahve opinions and recommendations on how to and what should be used to sharpen a straight razor. I have heard many stories similar to your's over time. The best place to get advice on straight razors, IMO, is here on SRP.

Since you asked here's what I would suggest.

1) Send you razor out to get honed by someone that advertises in the classified section on the menu bar above. The more senior the member the chances are greater that they have been honing razors for a good amount of that time.

2) Focus on learning how to shave with a straight razor. Once you get that down you can move onto learning how to hone. It can be a bit much to try and tackle both at the same time because you won't really know what may be causing problems.

3) Stash the hone you just purchased in a draw and just use it to hone knives. Read through the WIKI on the menu bar above and study up on hones. Then ask questions if you like, as you go.

Good luck!

Originally Posted by Deilus

I just recieved my first brand new dovo straight razor in the mail less then a week ago. Website did not specify whether it was shave ready or not. Did some laps on my leather side strop before I shaved, it was NOT shave ready. Did plenty more laps with the canvas and leather, much better. Went to the store and bought an Arizona tri hone. Didnt specify how many grits, but the store clerk, who seemed to know a lot about straight shaving told me it was a good product. Went home, did some honing on the "medium" and the "fine" side. it did not pass the hanging hair test, which prior before honing, it did. I think I might have really dulled my blade...what should i do????

There is a possibility, although it is unlikely, that you have over-honed the razor. How many laps did you do? Did you use proper form? It is generally a bad idea to hone on a stone whenever you are unsure of the level of grit, especially if you have little experience as to how different grits feel to the touch (which get more difficult as the grit gets smoother, depending on the stone's age).
An over honed razor would simply push the hair out of the way, not cutting it, which could be why it failed the hanging hair test.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwiki/index.php/Overhoning
Keep in mind, however, that your razor might pass other shave-ready tests as well:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwiki/index.php/Sharpness_tests_explained
I personally find that there's no better test of a razors edge than to shave with it.
I would recommend that, if you feel uncomfortable with honing a razor yourself, that you go to the Member Services area of the SRP forums and send it off to Lynn; his magic hones seem to do the job no matter what happened to the razor's edge. Good luck, and never stop shaving!

+1 to Joed's suggestion to put the hone in a drawer. Chances are pretty good it is too coarse for honing a razor and it did dull the edge. Does it have a brand name or a grit size listed on it ?

The SRP Wiki beginner's guide here is a good place to start if you haven't already seen it. In the Wiki you'll find articles such as "Which hone do I need", "razors to avoid" and tutorials on honing, lathering and shaving. Pretty much everything you need to know to successfully shave with a straight razor. If you have questions members are always willing to share their experience so ask away.

Like Jimmy and Joed said, Set that hone aside, it's not what you need for a razor. Usually Coarse, Medium and Fine are not suitable for making a razor, "Shave Ready".
I have some tri hones myself, but use them for knives only. New razors really don't need much in the way of honing. I would definitely recommend sending it out to one of the members here that hone.

Looks like you've gotten yourself some very sage advice. Time to send that guy out for a hone.

Imagine if the only car you had ever driven was a Ford Fiesta with an automatic transmission and suddenly you win the lottery and decide to treat yourself to a Ferrari Testarossa...

Now, do you really think that you are going to be able to drive that thing without a lot of difficulty at first? If you have trouble clutching and shifting it, would you tear apart the transmission to fix the car??? Would you use woodworking tools to work on it???

That's pretty much the equivalent of what you did with your razor. The most common complaint of new straight razor users is that their professionally honed razor is dull. Four outcomes arise: they either quit, try to hone it themselves, get it re-honed and discover no change, or they learn how to use the razor that turns out to have been sharp all along.

Now, in your case I suspect that the razor was already shave ready. A razor that can pass the HHT may produce an uncomfortable shave but you should still be able to shave with it--IF you know how to prep and to use a straight. I would guess that the hones you bought were ARKANSAS (not Arizona) knife sharpening stones. It is extremely unlikely that you could sharpen your razor, especially with your lack of experience, with those stones.

Because you have potentially dulled the edge of your razor, you no longer have the opportunity to learn how to shave with that razor until you get it sharpened again by someone who knows what they are doing. If you go into the Member Services section of the classifieds here you can find someone to get your razor back to shave ready. Only then will you have a chance to learn how to shave properly.

Please keep in mind, I applaud you for trying a straight and for trying to hone it. Unfortunately it's best not to learn them both at the same time. You cannot judge your honing until you can assess how well your razor shaves and you cannot do that until you learn how to shave with it. In other words, you can't evaluate the condition of your clutch if you have never before driven a car with a manual transmission.

Good luck figuring it all out!