Thread: Difficulty honing a Dovo En Vogue SS, Micarta

Hello guys. Had a pretty frustrating night last night trying to hone my new Dovo En Vogue. I bought it new from a respected vendor (not SRD) sold as shave ready but when I shave tested it, it was not shaving comfortably at all. A lot of pulling and tugging. I had to finish 3/4 of my shave with my vintage Sprock and got a nice shave in the end. I have other razors that I get nice shaves from (I have been straight shaving for about 3 months now) so I don't think it is solely related to technique. I tried a HHT on it and it did not cut my wife's hair...at all. At any part of the blade. My other blades that I have honed or touched up myself had no problems whatsoever. I also tried shaving my fore arm or leg hairs and it barely cut any hair at all, even when I put the razor pretty much right on my skin.

I spent quite a lot of time trying to get the En Vogue to cut my forearm hair and pass the HHT test last night. A lot of effort to get the edge sharp. Have others had any difficulty honing this "ice hardened" stainless steel blade as well? I should add that I did run the razor lightly on the edge of a glass to start over with the edge before I started honing. I know this is controversial, but it has served me well on questionable edges before that I wanted to reset the bevel on.

The stones I used were a Norton 4/8, a Naniwa 12K and eventually when the 4K was not giving me results my King 1 K.
I also finished the blade on a CrOx finished paddle for 15 laps and stropped for about 70 on English Bridle leather. After about an hour and a half I was able to get the blade to pass the HHT and cut hair above the skin but not quiiite as easily as my other razors. I am going to try shave testing tonight. But man, that was a lot of effort to get a sharp edge!

I did speak to the vendor, they mentioned that it was honed on a Coti and it was honed for comfort rather than sharpness. My beard is slow growing but quite coarse. When I shaved with a DE (which I never really do anymore) I had to always use Feather and Astra blades to get a comfortable non-tugging shave.

Coti edges are smoother but certainly sharp enough to be able to shave with. Magic marker test will tell you where the hone and edge are contacting. Some blades need to be honed other than straight laps. Heel leading, x strokes etc. So its impossible to tell without looking at it. Look at the edge with a loupe and see what is going on. If you have multiple bevels, your blade may have been honed with tape.

Thanks Bill. I took a good look at it last night with my 40X loupe. No multiple bevels. The bevel was quite narrow with fairly pronounced scratch marks, not deep but fairly noticeable when I got it.

Coti shouldnt leave alot of scratches. If there is no sharpness, I would do sets of circles on your 4k. Like 50 circles per side with 5 x strokes after and thumbnail test until it grabs. Then up from there. It may come fast or slow. Use a little pressure on the circles. Not a lot but not too light either. Make sure your hones are lapped.

I have had good results with all the Dovo Stainless blades. n my opinion, they are pretty good shavers. The biggest difference is that they feel a little more grainy on the hones than the carbon blades and sometimes a few extra strokes on the 8K and 12K can make a ton of difference. By extra I mean that I will do 5-10 more weight of the blade X strokes. Then I like to use increments of 5 strokes with the chromium oxide to bring to really sharp and smooth. I normally don't mess with HHT's when honing, but with the Stainless blades, I wait until I am done and the blade is stropped if I want to try them. No reason for this other than It's what has worked for me.

Have fun.

Thanks Bill and Lynn for your very experienced insight. Truly, truly appreciated!

FYI, my hones were lapped with my DMT 325 right before this honing session. I wanted to leave nothing to chance.

The proof, as always will be in the shave tonight.

Something wrong with the original honing. Razors should be honed for BOTH sharpness and comfort. If it's an either or decision the honer needs to find a new line of work.

That's my bet too; i.e., the original bevel hasn't been set right. Send it back to the vendor and ask him to try again! Once the bevel is set right, keeping a nice sharp edge is easy. It shouldn't be work if it's done right.

Maybe its the factory edge? My smoothest shave ever was from a factory edge dovo. I had to finish with my de but smooooth. Lol.

I don't think this vendor would take too kindly to sending the razor back to him to be rehoned... But I agree in essence, that is what should happen ordinarily.