It all happened about two months ago. I was shopping for an Arkansas Surgical Black for my cutlery. In doing so, I stumbled across ClassicShaving. Fast forward to present day and you will now find a DOVO Ebony and a TI Sicilian, both of which are 5/8’s. In addition to the razors, I have two DOVO strops, one with red paste and a linen back, and a Norton 4000/8000.

Specifically, I have been focusing my attention on the DOVO. I have not had much of a problem with my honing or stropping. I relate my moderate success to my vast experience with my cutlery—I have about fourteen Wusthof-Trident knives that are all well used and well maintained. I have used Japanese water stones on all of them since day one, which is about a dozen years ago--I apologize for the foray into knives, but I wanted to give everyone my experience with stones and honing.

Anyway, I have been getting around six shaves using only the strops. I generally go linen, pasted strop, and finishing strop. I have been able to get the razor to pass the hanging hair test, not with the relative ease I admit. Overall, I am extremely satisfied with my split-second decision to suddenly and completely rid myself of the over-priced over-bladed junk that I was using.

Regardless of the insignificant stuff, I have been reading every thing I have been able to find regarding the straight razor, stropping, and honing. In doing so however, I have started to experiment with different stones; it appears that with my razors, I purchased some OCD behavior. I admit I am obsessed with the search for that perfectly honed, ultra sharp razor. Does it truly exist oh Zen master?

The greatest aid in my quest has been the addition of the ten-dollar microscope from Radio Shack. Seeing the edge, that close, has really helped clarify a lot of the material in which I have been mulling over. All of which has made me think that adding a Belgian or 12,000 grit Japanese water stone would help polish the edge just a tad bit more, and help me take another step toward edge enlightenment.

Unfortunately, my knowledge on honing runs dry after the 8000 Norton. Achieving the ultra-sharp knife edge is much easier! In short, with everything that I described, how much better of an edge would I have with one of the aforementioned stones? In addition, I would truly appreciate some comments and feedback on my described techniques. I am sure I am doing something wrong, as it all seemed to come to me to easily. Finally, I want to express my gratitude to everyone on this site. You all helped in one way or another. This is a fantastic site, one that I am overjoyed in finding. I look forward to chatting with everyone. In closing, I wonder if my grandfather ever obsessed over his straight razor? To think of all the trouble some of us go through to enjoy a shave. A shave that my grandfather probably did not thank twice?




Regards,
Gianni Cappuccilli

P.S. I quck final word, I now use the Arkansas Surgical Black instead of the 4K Norton. I read that the surgical black is close to 5k. It has made a slight difference.