Thread: Dud DOVO Bismarck super?

I've had two bismarks - one old one that's not marked dovo (but is similar to the current shoulderless style) and one new one that I bought a couple of years ago. The old one is straight, and the newer one was not straight, which made it a but more of a pain to hone. Both took a good edge, though.

I have had two razors, though, that refused to take a good edge. One was a sheffield W&B razor, and the other was a japanese razor with nice spine work. The second of those two is sitting in my trash can. I tried everything I could to save it, even bringing it to straw temper hoping that it was just overhard, and it refused before that to take a good edge and it gets an edge very similar afterward.

The straightness issue is one of the reasons, I believe, that the well known cutlers razors bring money. The vintage razors that are precisely ground and a bit dressy from a known maker have been straighter in my experience than razors that don't have the same pedigree. I'm sure it's not a 100% bet, but in my experience, it puts the odds in your favor a little more. A cutler straightens those razors by eye (and using a hammer) as part of the grinding process, it's a skill that takes time and effort to learn and apply, I'm sure.

Straightness certainly seems an issue with DOVO, bith this unhoneable one and six new Prima Silver Steels that arrived last Thursday for honing. All these seven razors have the same thing: the heel is slightly thicker ground on the front side of the blade and a tiny frown sitting next to it that doesn't touch the hone as well as the rest. The difference though, is that the six new ones do take an edge (and a good one at that!) and the first three are shave-tested and back in their boxes, whereas that Bismack Super did not even get close to that sharpness.

I catch your drift now. I haven't had a similar problem with a dovo, but I have had a razor before that refused to take a good edge and without necessarily showing why on a digital microscope. After wasting about 5 hours trying various things and shaving with it two dozen times, I retempered it to straw temper (but I don't know what the steel was, and thus have no clue if that even did anything as a temper temperature) and it was still no good, so I threw it away. It was a large japanese razor with spinework, so much for that...