Hi I thought I better introduce myself here, I am from London England just getting started with straight razor shaving and have not been having great results up until recently.

I bought a very very cheap straight razor with plastic scales from ebay a couple of months back and found that it was just about sharp enough to shave my face if I kept going over and over and then it was not a smooth shave and gave me razor burn. After a couple of tries it got worse so I then bought a cheap strop and tried stropping the blade on the leather but it seemed to make it worse if anything and now the blade will barely cut the hair on my arm. The blade never passed the hanging hair test and even if I looped a hair around it and pulled the hair it would have trouble even when new.

Looking at the blade it does not appear to be properly hollow ground as instead of tapering to a microscopic edge in one go it seems to taper down like it should but then has a steep tapering edge starting about a mm away from the edge almost like the way a kitchen knife is ground.

Anyway I gave up with it a few weeks back just assuming it was a cheap imitation and decided to buy a straight razor that takes half a razor blade, again a very cheap one with the theory being that the disposable blade would be very sharp and I could use it to develop my skill before trying a more expensive straight razor that would hopefully have a proper edge. While I was waiting for it to arrive I read about the Miraki shavettes and saw that they were cheap so ordered one of those as well.

I cut myself quite badly on my first shave with the disposable normal sized blade razor as soon as I got down to my jaw and found it very badly weighted as all the weight was behind the small blade helping it sink into my face. Next day the Miraki came and I found it is balanced much better and was quite easy to get a smooth shave with without cutting myself.

Anyway the Miraki shavette is nice but it is cheap and doesn't really fulfil the idea of shaving with a proper straight razor that drew me to them in the first place. I have been looking at the Dovo razors for a while and couldn't resist ordering one, after much procrastination I decided on a brand new Dovo All Steel stainless razor as it should be easy to maintain the scales etc and keep it clean.

I have spent quite a bit of money on the Dovo on the premise that you get what you pay for and that a good razor costs about £100 as opposed to £7.99 inc shipping from ebay :P so I am expecting to get a good few shaves out of it while it is at its best before I have to use a strop or a hone on it. I want to be able to concentrate on shaving technique with it for a while rather than having to worry about whether the razor is sharp enough or if I have honed or stopped it wrong. I don’t mind spending the money to just have one very high quality razor that will shave well and last me a lifetime.

Anyway sorry that introduction turned into a bit of an essay but otherwise I would have just said hi and posted this somewhere else