HHT on a new Dovo razor bought from SRD

Hello everyone. My name is Cros, I live in Dubai and I am only 5 hours into shaving with a straight razor. I got my first straight razor, Dovo Prima Klang set today from Straight Razor Designs. From my very limited knowledge of SS community and vendors, this is the best place to get a pro-honed razors, especially when you a newbie in the world of cut-throats. I have done my homework prior to the arrival of the package and read tons of material about stropping, shaving, lathering and various ways to test razor's sharpness/keenness etc. When I just go the razor I decided to run all of the tests and take notes, along with a little video footage to remember the results and compare those later on to my own honing. I basically wanted to establish a gold standard to work my way towards later in my 'honing career'. And there was my little disappointment when the 'hanging hair' was pretty much ignored by the lower part of the razor and would cut it only closer to the toe. Somewhere in the middle the blade agreed to the 'violin' way of cutting the hair. I tried with 5 different specimens of hair, of different diameter, length and color, always holding them root away from my fingers. The result was consistently the same. I should also mention that I removed the oil from the blade thoroughly by gently rubbing the blade with soapy fingers and rinsing under water. After 20 rounds of stropping on poly-web and 60 rounds of leather I got somewhat better results on HHT, but not what is described as a good result.
Alas, I did shave with the razor and it was the best shave I ever had. Compared to my old Shavette, this was really smooth and much less pulling and tagging. Again, the only thing I can compare it to is Shavette, not any other straight razor.
My question is to the more experienced members on this forum: have you experienced somehting like that in the early days of your SS or have any possible explanation for this? Your comments will be greatly appreciated.

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Originally Posted by Cros

I have done my homework prior to the arrival of the package and read tons of material about stropping, shaving, lathering and various ways to test razor's sharpness/keenness etc. When I just go the razor I decided to run all of the tests and take notes, along with a little video footage to remember the results and compare those later on to my own honing. I basically wanted to establish a gold standard to work my way towards later in my 'honing career'. .

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Really ???? All the tests ????

I am not sure which tests you are calling "all the tests" but If you performed the TNT you dulled the edge and it qwill need to be taken back to the stones.

Thumb pad test ... and all parts of HHT... did not do the thumbnail as I've read it would dull the edge

Also the arm hair and, finally, the shave test.

Again, I think there is nothing wrong with the place I bought the razor from. Most probably the problem is me, just want to figure out what I could have done wrong

Welcome to the forum.

All I can say is that after over a year of straight razor shaving that I have never done an HHT and still managed to teach myself to hone and get decent shaves. To me the test is if the razor shaves well or not. There is a lot written on this site about HHT and my impression is that there are so many variables involved that it was not worth my while to bother with it. In any event you got a good shave despite the iffy results from your HHTs so that just might indicate what HHTs are worth, to me anyway. As usual YMMV.

Bob

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Originally Posted by Cros

Again, I think there is nothing wrong with the place I bought the razor from. Most probably the problem is me, just want to figure out what I could have done wrong

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The one thing you have done wrong that I can see is that you are expecting some crazy HHT , when you sad the razor gave you the best shave to date.
What does the HHT matter if the razor gives you great shaves?
Sometimes I wish the term HHT was censored from the forum, most newbies get hung onto it as if its the holly grail of what shave ready is.

You know the term "test" implies something is being done to a scientific standard in a lab and is repeatable in any lab anywhere. To me the HHT meets none of that criteria and is just a very rough ball park guess as to the state of sharpness the blade is in. I think like Stephen that too many get hung up on it and the results they get. Shaving, stropping and honing are not something you can approach in a set piece manner as a science but it is more of an skill/art.

Bob

Hi Cros! I'm also in Dubai, thought I would introduce myself! Small world...