Thread: Honing - How often

Just a quick one. New to site and yet to receive first Straight Razor.

The DOVO Bismark I have ordered from dovo.com comes honed and shave ready.

Is this ready to go and if so how soon will I have to look at getting it re-honed.

Cheers
Chris

Hi there and welcome to SRP! Honing is one of those things that is different for everyone. Some need to touch their razors up after a few shaves, some after many. It all depends on how you shave, beard type, stropping technique, and blade type.

Additionally, is your razor straight from the Dovo factory? Dovo makes wonderful razors, but even though they say that they send them out shave-ready they usually are not. I would definitely recommend getting it professionally honed.

At any rate, good luck, and keep us posted.

Thanks Maritime.. for replying so quickly!

I have purchased the DOVO Bismark (against all advice having read the beginners thread but I just fell in love with the looks of this straight razor I could not resist)

I purchased from a supplier Home who state the following,
"All razors supplied on this site are honed and stropped to shave-readiness before despatch"

The Bismark is a birthday present which I have been told by my wife shall not be made available to me until my actual birthday late April.

This gives me plenty of time to do more research. I have a cheap straight edge on the way which I plan to practice with in terms of stopping.

Most of my hours of research so far has been in terms of the blade, strops and stropping technique. I wasn't sure if I needed to get myself a honing stone as well in the early term.

I purchased a 'big daddy' 3"strop but as I said have not looked into hones/honing at length as yet.

Here in Perth I have NEVER known anybody to use a Straight Razor and on phoning local male barbers even they seemed a little perplexed....

Looking forward to starting but I don't want to damage the beautiful Bismark or my less than beautiful face.

Kind Regards
Chris

The razor is from Steve Dempster at Invisible Edge, so it will definitely be shave ready. Many of us in the UK purchase from Steve. As for honing, the rule is,as few times as possible. Depending on the coarseness of your beard that could be months away, and then it should only need the edge touching up.

I can tell you Dovo Bismarck is a great razor. I have several. I don't know why anyone would try and discourage you from getting it. Actually, the first two I purchased were in fact Bismarcks. Like you, I thought the design was quite nice for the price with the gold etched spine, and lettering on the blade. It looks to me like you purchased your blade from a shave site, and it is in fact shave ready. There is a learning curve invovled with str8's, so take your time when you do start. Do a good prep, and mind the angle of the blade.

P.S. Honing: When it needs it, you'll know. Read this link, I should make it a sticky: http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwi...)_do_I_need%3F

There are so many choices for hones, so it depends how far you plan on taking this hobby. At first, you could get by with a Barber's hone or a 12k.
A properly honed razor under normal circumstances should last around two months. YMMV...

The others have answered your question so just adding a +1 to welshwizard's assurance as to the edge you'll receive from Steve. It'll be a goody.

I bought myself a Dovo Bismarck 4 months ago and it was shave-ready from the manufacture.
I used only once the green dovo paste about a month ago, and yesterday I honed it for the first time over a 12,000 grit Chinese waterstone and it become shave ready again, passing easily the hair test.

Bismarck is a great razor!

http://straightrazorpalace.com/vbgooglemapme.php

Not to many listed in your area

+1 on Zib's remarks. Unless your beard is made of microscopic Chuck Norrises, you shouldn't need to "hone" that edge for a LONG time. Naturally, you'll need to strop it daily (some advise before and after every shave). You shouldn't need to use any kind of "refresh" paste for a few weeks, and then you shouldn't have to "touch up" on a stone for several of those cycles. However, when the time does come for the touch-up, I would suggest the natural Chinese 12k waterstone for your needs. It's slow, so you don't really have to worry as much about overhoning or damaging your blade. It's incredibly fine and gives a good, smooth shave (I can attest to this personally). And it's a very, VERY inexpensive stone. After shipping and everything, mine came out to about $27US.