Thread: Dovo’s honing method

There are several techniques to help with weak heels. A rolling x-stroke is best if it works, no special ‘tools’ needed. Sometimes you have to lift the toe up a little on the worse ones during that x-stroke. Sometimes a layer of tape seems to help the hone hit a weak heel, even thin Kapton.

Bill (BucaXXXX) used to put a short piece of electrical tape on the spine at the nose of Gold Dollars, effectively raising the toe, and creating a ‘hybrid’ edge, the tape had little effect on the angle at the heel then transitioned to a taped edge at the toe. But he was, at the time, prepping Gold Dollars to support noobs, so his goal was similar to Dovo’s goal, just get the razor out the door. Unlike Dovo’s razors though, Bill’s would shave!

We've all got to remember that the pinnacle of straight razor manufacturing has come and gone. When you had dozens and dozens of companies about in the 19th and early 20th century making blades, you also had a hell of a lot of men with who possessed immense skill and knowledge passed on down the generations. I imagine at places like Dovo, old timers are thin on the ground now and who knows how much the replacement employees have picked up, speaking as someone who would still be considered somewhat young(ish) many people my age that I know don't seem to have good manual skills, certainly nowhere near the intuitive use of tools my fathers and grandfathers generation have. Add in all the other externalities in trying to run a successful business in a niche market and we can't really be surprised at such things.

When quantity goes up....quality goes down. Typically.

The problem with Dovo is they refuse to walk away from a failed idea

It is bad enough that they can't hit shave ready but they continue to insist on the stupidity of using a Convex hone and are frowning about 50% of the razors

How to fix them

Just did this 2 months ago at the request of some of the guys on the FB page

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d_ymq0TmVI&t=19s

The Solingen Masters and a Convex hone Wooooohooooo

Yes I have no issue calling them out, this is a simple fix.... Learn to HONE, enough already

That's bad, really really bad.
A frown is the absolute worst, if you want to honor your city of Solingen and the craftsmanship and skill of old, you have to do better.
Quite frankly this is a disgrace. Solingen stamp unworthy.

A convex hone is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of for straight razors, there's even people making money off of that philosophy. Erm. Yeah.

Originally Posted by TristanLudlow

That's bad, really really bad.
A frown is the absolute worst, if you want to honor your city of Solingen and the craftsmanship and skill of old, you have to do better.
Quite frankly this is a disgrace. Solingen stamp unworthy.

A convex hone is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of for straight razors, there's even people making money off of that philosophy. Erm. Yeah.

The convex hone thing goes back a long way so I don't see how that is the issue, plus sloppy honing will create a frowning blade even on a flat hone. Maybe the convex thing is one of those academic exercises but the logic behind it seems reasonable and wouldn't intuitively tend towards creating a frown more than any other hone.

More likely the center of the blade is being overground or excessive use of the wheel sharpener pre honing on the stones. If you watch the TSS Dovo honing video there seems to be a lot of use of that horizontal wheel on one blade. The width of the abrasive area is such that with even strokes across the edge you'd always end up grinding more of the blade center unless you spent more time at the toe and heel.

Originally Posted by thp001

plus sloppy honing will create a smiling blade even on a flat hone.

Correct honing will create a wanted smile on a blade, yupz.

To each their own, that's fine. Convex hones may be fine, but why bother with something that ain't broken? I see it more as a shortcut by the manufacturer.

It has the potential to mess up more things than it would fix, making it slightly more difficult for users to touch up their own razors on their own finishing stone afterwards.

Depending on how you hone, the degree of your razor, the pressure you use along the razors and when and how your razor passes over the convex part it could most certainly throw things out of whack. Your convex part will never be perfect or remain perfect.

I still think it's a silly idea.
I'd rather use a flat or slightly concave hone.

Either way, they're doing it very wrong at Dovo and delivering highly subpar quality finished razors.

Originally Posted by TristanLudlow

Correct honing will create a wanted smile on a blade, yupz.

Was a typo actually meant frowning blade.

Originally Posted by TristanLudlow

Depending on how you hone, the degree of your razor, the pressure you use along the razors and when and how your razor passes over the convex part it could most certainly throw things out of whack. Your convex part will never be perfect or remain perfect.

This is surely true of most hones regardless of convexity.

Originally Posted by TristanLudlow

I'd rather use a flat or slightly concave hone.

I agree.

Originally Posted by TristanLudlow

Either way, they're doing it very wrong at Dovo and delivering highly subpar quality finished razors.

They could improve but maybe they're doing the best they can with the staff they currently have. Maybe a slight frown of a couple thou isn't considered out of spec. Could be multiple variables.

Presuming thp001 meant frown, yes it is a sad state of affairs for anyone wanting to learn to shave with a straight.
Have purchased quite a few nos vintage razors that needed nothing more than a good lashing with a strop to give an acceptable shave.
Have never tried a dovo and probably won't ever bother for reasons stated here.