Thread: Introductions

Just dropping a quick hello and explaining a bit of why I chose straights.
Ive been crazy about most things old fashioned for quite some time, quite a few friends even say I was born 100 years late. Suits, fedoras, vests, and long overcoats, I love all things classy. When browsing the local cutlery shop looking for new knives (another "minor" obsession of mine) I stumbled on a dovo col. conk straight razor and nearly swooned.

I had seen razors on the internet before and considered obtaining one but was never comfortable ordering such a peice of kit without being able to examine it first hand. Needless to say the razor accompanied me home along with a decent strop and a tuf cloth. My first shave was 2 days ago and was more than a little patchy but I can already tell I'm going to have a whole new type of knife collection.

Hi, and welcome to SRP!

Dovo makes excellent blades, but depending on where you purchased it, it may not be truly shave-ready. Most of the time razors bought at non-specialist shops (i.e. shops that specialize specifically in straight razors, not generalist cutlery shops) will be sold with the edge put on by the factory. This is probably not shave-ready, which might explain the patchiness. That having been said, technique is just, if not more, likely to cause such problems.

So I'd suggest considering sending it out to a pro to be honed. Quite a few SRP members offer honing services, and can be found here:

Member Services - Straight Razor Place Classifieds

Good luck!

Thanks. The edge is actually quite shave worthy (no tugs, no scrapes excepting the occasional over tilting of course). My second shave was far and away less patchy than the first not to mention much slicker. I've also noticed a tiny wear strip on the spine which I assume to be the mark of a non-factory sharpening. Am I correct in that or is that also caused by factory sharpening?