Thread: New Dovo Bismarck - honing issues

I have a norton 220 and a 1000 hone as well. I noticed about the stone. I flattened it with the flattening stone that came in the "kit". I noticed it started working a bit better after that. I think I may try to set a bevel with the 1000 stone and move to the 4000 then the 8000 stone. It can't hurt to try. I will also look up the pyramid method. I have heard about it and I believe I have watched a few videos on it. But it doesn't hurt to re-watch them and freshen up on my method. I will report back with some results!!

Thanks for all the reply's. Worst case, I will send it out and have it done by a pro. Then I will try the ebay route and try on a cheep razor!

Thanks again!

I was not able to get the razor much sharper after all the advice. I think I am going to send it out. Any suggestion on people who do good work? I wish there was a place around Utica / Syracuse NY where someone could show me what I am doing wrong!

Thanks

Try Member Services.

Jonathan

Originally Posted by gibbsj87

I was not able to get the razor much sharper after all the advice. I think I am going to send it out. Any suggestion on people who do good work? I wish there was a place around Utica / Syracuse NY where someone could show me what I am doing wrong!

Thanks

I also have "Bismarck(Best German Hollow Ground)" -- pearl scales with golden spine and a square 'Bismarck' gold logo on the face of the blade.

I use this forum for advice, this is my first post. I got the Bismarck as my first straight. Just as your Razor, mine came "not shave ready" although it claimed it was. I bought a Norton 4k/8k just as you did.

I noticed a few things while using proper honing technique:
1.) Metal was being taken off the spine -- along with the gold.
2.) The honing was scratching above where the factory bevel... was beveled.

To fix the bevel with something I could work with... I used 2 pieces of Electric tape over the spine and proceeded to spend the next 2.5 hours resetting the bevel on the 4k side with great success. the metal was obviously being honed where it was helping my edge. I proceeded with 1hr on the 8k side and then 10min on my strop.

Just after the test shave my results:
1.top 1/4th and bottom 1/4th tugged and were unpleasant but still did not prevent me from a 3 pass shave. wtg / xtg / atg.
2.the better part of the middle which was sharp, didn't cut 100% evenly.(more like 85%)
Conclusion:
I need to probably sand the top of the stones into an even flat surface and/or improve my honing technique to even laps/even along the entirety of the blade.

The shave was about 60% as "perfect" as my dovo shavette shaves which are the best ever. (But the 60% is exactly how a plastic bic disposable would stack up to the shavette.

TL;DR:
For Bismarck: 2 strips of electrical tape = almost factory bevel / +hone for hours = yield top results.