Newbie Norton 4k/8k and Stainless Dovo Query

Back when I first decided to try straight razor shaving, about 10 years ago, I purchased a little dovo inox stainless razor from a local barber. Hes not so keen on them, and from further conversation with him he doesnt have a clue about maintaining them, particularly honing. So I got what I believe was a dovo straight from the factory.

Being completely green, I took it home and attempted to strop and shave with it. After cutting up both the strop and my face, I set it aside until I found SRP. After trying to read almost every post on this forum, I ordered some new shave ready razors and had another go, with fantastic results!

Now back to my little dovo. Essentially I have a 10 year old stainless straight out of the factory, with probably some additional blunting carried out by myself after poor stropping.

After reading a lot of posts here, and watching Lynn's and others' videos, I came to the conclusion that my razor needed serious honing. Last night I decided it was time, so I broke out the norton 4k/8k combo.

Based on Lynn's recommendation of less is more, I proceeded to give it 10 laps on the 8k, strop, and test shave. It was basically the same.

I then gave it a little pyramid of 5 laps on the 4k, 5 on 8k, 3 on 4k, 3 on 8k 1 on 4k 5 on 8k. It was very slightly better, but still nothing like the shave ready razors I have received recently.

Now I know that I have a heck of a long way to go before I could even approach the level of quality I receive from Lynn, but how do I proceed from here? I would send it to Lynn, and it would come back perfect, but I want to learn how to do this myself if possible.

I definately havent made the razor shave worse than it did, but at the same time, its not a whole lot better either.

My thoughts at the moment after everything I have read, is that I have a razor that is very sharp, but is not shave ready, so I need to do some bulk laps on the 8k, but given I am now second-guessing myself, what do you guys recommend?

Apologies for the long post, just wanted to include the full history etc.

But, and especially if you rolled/blunted the edge previously, I think you will spend a l-o-o-o-n-g time on the 8K to get it ready. What you need to do is an "aggressive" pyramid, per Lynn's scheme, not the conservative one you tried. That is for blades that are very, very close, which yours is not (yet).

Specific aggressive pyramids are described on the Wiki here, I believe, but you don't have to slavishly imitate them. Try one example: if that isn't enough, try it again, or try an even more aggressive one. Once you get close, then go to the conservative pyramid(s). In my experience, most Dovos are relatively easy to hone using standard techniques.

Good luck.

I think you're already on exactly the right track.

You tried a few passes on 8k with no real improvement.

You tried a very short pyramid with the 4k and 8k, and there was some improvement, but not much.

Your next step, is simply a more aggressive pyramid. If you think you got half way there, you might do the same pyramid again. If you think you moved 1/10th of the way there, then perhaps you should do a big aggressive pyramid.

Lynn recently discussed a "big pyramid" of:

25/25
20/20
15/15
10/10
5/5
3/3
1/3
1/5

If I understood correctly, he said this this is the progression he always uses, but he doesn't always start at the beginning. For your step, maybe start at the 10 stroke level for the next go and see what that does.

Thanks! Guess I just needed some reassurance that I was on the right track and not doing anything too stupid! :)

Will have another go of it tonight when I get home from work.

makes sense to me.
if you saw improvement that means you just need to bring more of it :)
end with 20 more strokes on the 8k, as light as you can.

I would recommend starting out by sending it to be honed by one of the honemeisters here, just so you know what to shoot for when you decide to do it yourself. Always good to have a benchmark!

-Chief

Hi wedwards,

Being a honing newbie myself, I too started with the less is more approach.

I have however found that to get the edges smooth and blemish free, I have always had to use a more agressive pyramid than I thought would be needed. Like all skills there is a right-of-passage element !

I would like to say many thanks to Mr Abrams and the other Honemeisters in SRP for their sage advice, without which this honing newbie would be struggling even more !

Best regards

Russ

Hi there.
You say you cut up your strop with this razor so it is safe to say you have damaged the edge. A jewellers loupe or microscope is my preferred way to assess an edge but whatever method you choose you need to establish some tests that tell you if have the bevel set correctly. A 1 or 2k stone is sometimes necessary if damage is bad. 4k & above should go pretty quickly after that but as Gugi advised some extra & light polishing strokes may benefit.

If all you have is 4k 8k i would hone 4k untill you can shave arm or leg hair you can get the bevel back on 4k it will just take a lot longer than if you had 1k. Once you can shave some kind of body hair do 15 laps on 8k to just polish then strop. Also use marker test on the edge just to make sure the whole edge is hitting the hone do this from start to finish every now and agian. Don't worry too much about doing too many laps on 4k you have to get it sharp on that hone before you even think about going to 8k . If you get a decent shave after and feel it could be better just do small pyramids from then on untill happy say 3/3 1/5 1/5 or 5/5 3/3 1/5 1/5 .

OK so I made some more progress. Basically the bevel on this razor has been way off since day 1. I seem to be able to get parts of the edge to pop hairs, but other parts are sharp but not shave ready. If I understand correctly, this is most likely caused by an incorrect bevel?

Assuming this is correct, I do also have a 1k norton that I would use to set the bevel correct? Then once the bevel is set, I can pyramid like others have mentioned?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wedwards

OK so I made some more progress. Basically the bevel on this razor has been way off since day 1. I seem to be able to get parts of the edge to pop hairs, but other parts are sharp but not shave ready. If I understand correctly, this is most likely caused by an incorrect bevel?

Assuming this is correct, I do also have a 1k norton that I would use to set the bevel correct? Then once the bevel is set, I can pyramid like others have mentioned?

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The 1k will speed things up considerably so go easy . Maybe 10-15 passes at a time till you have consistency at the bevel then pyramid away.
A good bevel is crucial.

Some great advice there on pyramids! One thing I did notice is that you don't have a 220 Norton. I have a combo 220/1K but rarely use the 220 except to set a bevel. Then I move immediately to the 1K to start things along the right path. The 220 just makes setting that bevel so much easier! But don't over-do it.