Thread: Advice needed

Since you have all the stones, perhaps you might cruise for eBay junkers and practice honing with them to gain experience. There is an art to stropping, just as there is an art to honing. Time and accrued experience will be the deciding factor, as with many things. A factory Dovo out of the box shouldn't need much. Good luck.

The 4 weeks it takes for turn around is far less then the time it will take to learn to hone your razors.. Just in my opinion... You could always just maintain shave ready edges. That being said good luck to you and focus on one system. You will get great results faster!

As a rusty old codger, I'll chime in too.

First off, when I started, I had NO honemeister honed razors, I started from scratch with a $14 Clauss I found at an antiques dealer. It still is my favorite razor, I honed it to death, learning the ropes until it shaved well enough for me. I honed it until I had wire edges large enough to see with my old, decrepid and naked eyes.... Not good for the razor, but it was only $14 and I didn't care. Now that I have it all figured out, I have plenty other razors and I'm not afraid to take a stab at honing any of them on my Shapton Glass hones.

That Clauss is now being re-scaled and honed by Gssixgun, I have been out of the loop for a few years, and I'm finding that honing is not working out like it did when I (due to medical and other reasons) quit shaving with straights. When I returned, I once again selected a razor in my drawer that had once upon a time shaved me well, but that I don't *care* about, and used that to re-train myself to hone properly. It has taken a couple of weeks of bad shaving, but it's now close enough that I'm confident I can bring it back to full shaving sharpness/smoothness. The point is, my cherished razors are NOT being honed by me at the moment... only a razor I don't *care* about... well... I do care about it, but if I ruin it, it's not the end of the world, it would just be an "aw nuts and oh well" kind of thing.

A brand new Dovo is not in that class.... if you can swing it, pick up something less exspensive... a quality razor, but perhaps old and tarnished (NOT an old wedge razor.... those things are a different ballgame alltogether), yet still capable of shaving well and perhaps even being restored down the road. A capable razor you won't worry about. Take that razor and keep at honing until you can shave comfortably. It doesn't really matter if it is as sharp as someone else can hone it, only that it is as sharp as YOU need it to be, to shave comfortably. Once you have this one blade working for you, the next few blades will be rather easy as you know what to do and what you are looking for.

The advice to try shaving with your Dovo as is, is a sound move.... It *MAY* be shave ready, nobody knows for sure, except you, and you only know that after you give it the shave test. Then you go from there... A loupe of 30x or so, a felt marker that uses *dye* (these smell like laquer thinner or some such) is about all you need to see what's happening when you start honing. Use the dye to coat the edge and a loupe to see where your hone is cutting... once the edge is clean on both sides, it should start to cut hair and be to the point of shaving sharp, but not neccessarely comfortable. If it is, continue up the grits on your hones to polish the edge and that will bring up the comfort level.

If you can get a blade honed by one of the honemeisters, you'll KNOW what is possible in the sharpness area. If you cannot swing that, you can always do it on your own, like I did. Just don't start with an expensive, brand new razor.... Get an old, used, but still in good condition, razor... it may be dull now, but someone used it for years, so you know it's capable!

I hope things work out for you.

Regards

Kaptain "Been there, done that....... and now I'm doing it again" Zero

As luck would have it, I just picked up an old Hederer 77 and it's got some rust on the spine and tang, but the edge looks good, I'm going to be practicing on that for now.
I'll be getting a new Dovo arriving from SRD very soon, and that will serve as my reference blade.
I'm really enjoying the learning process and thanks again guys.

I would say start using your stones with circles and X-strokes.

Don't use a lot of pressure and try to keep the blade flat on the hones.

It takes dedication and persistence to become proficient at honing.

Good luck

Yup I've tried that and managed to get it sharp enough to test on a small patch on my cheek, but it's got a Long way to go.
I'm nothing if not persistent and will keep practicing, I like a challenge!

Originally Posted by DMA

Yup I've tried that and managed to get it sharp enough to test on a small patch on my cheek, but it's got a Long way to go.
I'm nothing if not persistent and will keep practicing, I like a challenge!

You will get there in that case...

Maybe just stick to x strokes, its the safer and easier way to go.

Get the bevel set on the 1k, so it cuts arm hair with ease , that's the main part of honing a blade.

Also keep checking the bevel to see what's going on. Make sure you are getting to the very edge.

Reading your scratch marks / Pattern is important ..