Thread: New dovo won't shave comfortably.

Hi guys, I need some tips. So I bought a new dovo and sty the bevel and went thru my progression and then killed the edge and started all the way back over.
When I it shaved, it shaved well for the first pass and ever decent for the second, but the clean up was really bad. I'm not sure if I honed poorly or if I stropped poorly, but it's bad!
I'm going to try to re hone the blade, and finish on running water, and minimal strop after.
I'm thinking there was a false edge, but I don't know.I don't have a scope.

Any honing tips for a beginner out there, would be very much appreciated!
Thanks guys! !

If it did not come from SRD it probably was not shave ready.
Don't know your hone and strop ability so I would say rehone the razor and try again. Or send it out for professional hone.

Maybe more experienced members will put some light... but it's difficult to recommend something with information you provided.
Which hones you used, how many laps you done, what progression you used?
You said that it shaved well first pass and decent second... so your edge last no more than to passes, maybe you over hone it (if it possible) or put too much pressure during honing and made edge fragile.

It looks like it's better to start learning with cheaper used razor.

That's the thing, I've been able to successfully hone 5 different vintage blades I own, and one other new razor perfectly. I use shapton ceramics, and tried Lynn's circle method, and also tried japanblades axe method. This blade I'd a little different than the others as it's shoulderless, I feel like maybe there was a false edge, but how can you tell if they'd what's going on?
I'm going to kill the edge, and start back over with the 1k, only this time I'm going to try doing a minimalist progression and see if that works, using the circle method. If that doesn't work idk.....

It definitely wasn't shave ready out of the box, but I've been able to get a good shave ready edge with all of my other blades, this one seems to be picky about everything. It could also be my strop...idk. my strop is super cheap. I do have a new one in the mail that's a better quality, so I'm looking forward to comparing the difference of that as well.

I've heard that you shouldn't make slurry with synthetic hones because it's too aggressive on the blade. Is this something that I should avoid?

Well if you got a really get first pass and then the edge started to deteriorate and you had a really bad third pass, it would indicate to me that the edge was falling apart. The causes of that could be too much time on the higher grit hones. The high grit hones can weaken the fin at the very edge of the bevel. Look at it under the loupe. If you did the damage stropping the edge should be bent, there are good examples of that here http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ding-edge.html and as far as progress goes there is another thread with some great advice and photos here
http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...ggestions.html and here
http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...ochipping.html These threads are all relevant to your question and situation.

Originally Posted by Dramadon3151

I've heard that you shouldn't make slurry with synthetic hones because it's too aggressive on the blade. Is this something that I should avoid?

I pretty much only use water on my hones and I slurry everything to one degree or another. You probably should not make muddy slurry on synthetics. One of the indicators for me that my stroke is effective is watching the way the water mover in front of the blade. That is always easier to see with slurry, even if it is very light slurry.

You need magnification to see what is going on at the edge, probably did not fully set the bevel.

What stones are you using in your progression? Photos would help.

I'm using shapton 1k, thru 15k then stropping.
I don't have anything to magnify, yet. I'll be getting something soon tho. I do use the thumb nail test for checking the bevel and have been doing that since day one and it seemed fine and complete, but I think I may have over done it on my finisher, or ruined it with the strop. I'll take a couple photos in just a sec, but my camera isn't great