Thread: dovo blade, strop, and 1200 grit gift box set.

hi guys,

some where on the net I found a gift boxed set of a dovo blade, strop,and 1200 or 1500 grit stone for about $150.

does anyone know if I'm ok with a 1500 or 1200 grit for the rest of my shaving days?

1500 or 1200 grit stone would only be good for setting a bevel. You would also need a hone for cutting ( 4000 ) , for polishing ( 8000 ) and it would help to have a finishing stone of 10000 grit or more.

and how do i set one?

Making a bevel.
Testing it.

And welcome to straight shaving.

its got a soligen blade and a strop.
its about $145 or so.

so... any feedback guys?

Originally Posted by xgenra

its got a soligen blade and a strop.
its about $145 or so.

I presume you are talking about http://www.excaliburcutlery.com/stra..._detail&p=1380 (a link would have been nice). If so, that's too much money in my opinion. You get better kit by shopping elsewhere and particularly in the Classifieds section of this site. And just for the record, I have never heard of or seen a Bismarck Strop in Germany. One from Tony Miller or Straight Razor Designs seems a more promising option to me. Oh, and "This German-honed razor is factory sharpened and ready to use with just a few strops on your new strop!" basically means "you have to invest an extra 20-30 USD for having it professionally honed".

Originally Posted by xgenra

so... any feedback guys?

Patience, young Jedi... You must learn patience.

There is an abundance of information in our Wiki. See here: Category:Honing - Straight Razor Place Wiki

I would recommend the following entries:

1. Beginner's Guide to Honing - Straight Razor Place Wiki
2. What hone(s) do I need? - Straight Razor Place Wiki
3. Bevel-setting in theory and practice - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Feel welcome to peruse the links contained in these posts. I believe the Honing section of the Wiki to be pretty much feature complete for beginners now, courtesy of the relentless support by various users, Bart in particular.

I got started with the exact set you are talking about, with a Conk branded Dovo, a decent (if small) leather/linen strop and a Conk Hone (which is actually about a 2000-2500 grit Arkansas oilstone).

The Conk hone will get the Dovo sharp enough to cut hair, but NOT sharp enough to do it smoothly. I still use the Conk hone to clean up blades after I set their bevels with a DMT, but there are definitely several stones after it in my progression.

There is nothing wrong with that set (I got it a lot cheaper, about 115$, but that's just a matter of shopping around) but it's not everything you need to get going.

eta: the Conk hone is a very decent hone for what it is, but mine was NOT flat when I got it, I had to lap it quite a bit to make it into a useful tool. Note that I've had to lap other, much more expensive stones as well when I got them, but the Conk hone was further out of true that most. It's also much harder than an asian waterstone, so I had to lap with a DMT to make it flat.