Thread: Dog dovo?

I found that I get the best results with wedges to half hollows. I have a single reworked GD, couple Bokers, Robesons, a few English wedges, a few French wedges, and an assortment of interesting other blades. I thought the Admiral gave good shaves.

I have the Dovo Bismarck 6/8 and it's a fine performer. Just as nice as my TI 6/8 Spartacus...no problems. My favorite razors are W&B 9/8 hollows!

Full hollows tend to flex to your face more, that's why you get more feedback from them, hence they can be less forgiving to beginners, as I've found extra-hollows are even more unforgiving, hence your most likely reason for favoring the heavier grinds.

Best way to get on the learning curve and have it go up is to stick with two similar grind razors, the Dovo Best Quality 5/8th, 1/2 or 1/4 hollow grind is widely recommended as a great razor to start with - I did and it's a solid performer.

Set a routine for prep, start with just WTG for a week before introducing XTG for another week before you get into ATG. Don't change between various grinds and sizes, just learn your beard / face, learn your prep and stropping and then move into experimentation.

Unless you have a lot of experience in honing razors, you shouldn't be honing your own until you know how to shave properly with a straight, and you don't need to add that equation into the mix. If you had blades honed by Lynn and Cudarunner, they would have been perfect and shave ready. If you tried to hone them afterward, you most likely compromised the edge and it's a guess as to the state it's in now.

As the saying goes, fundamentals first!

The Dovo Bismarck full hollow 6/8 is a fine blade, never had an issue with it....

edited to add: my Dovo Bismarck 6/8 was honed by Lynn, probably a little more than a year ago, and aside from being refreshed with some CrOx and the coticule, it's been properly stropped and still provides a great shave!

Originally Posted by Splashone

This morning's shave was my Dovo Bismark. I can not make that razor perform. It has been honed by Lynn, Cudarunner and myself. It seems to pass all the "sharpness tests" equally well as any other razor I own but consistently delivers the worst shave. Even my reworked Gold Dollar seems to do better!

The only thing I can point to is the design of the blade, 6/8 hollow grind with no stabilizer. Making it and my GD the widest unstabilized hollow grounds I own. I am thinking it allows too much flex at the edge. It is that or it is just a "hangar queen!" Thoughts?

I'll tell you honestly, if I relied on "sharpness tests" I'd still be waiting for my first straight shave. I couldn't pass a hanging hair test or a wet thumbnail test if my life depended on it. I don't have much arm hair so that's another test that escapes me.

I have a Bismarck, chiefly because I found a good deal on it and thought I'd want one later, but haven't done anything with it. But I did grab it to look it over.

As you mentioned, it has a different spine and the heel is graduated, but if you use electrical tape on the spine it shouldn't present a problem.

A red flag rose up in my mind when you reported that three people honed it. Did all three of you hone it the same way? With or without tape?

I have been straight shaving for close to four years and honing for about three, but a few months ago I made a mistake honing, moving straight across the surface of the hone laterally rather than diagonally. As you move the blade across the stone you need to move gradually downward. Another mistake is to lead the blade across the stone by the spine rather than by the edge. I'm not insulting anyone's intelligence but mine because I have made these mistakes.

What I do is look at the edge under a portable 100x microscope, because I'm not confident in my honing unless I can see what I did.

So I'd just make sure I'm doing it the way I know how and give it another shot.

When I first read the OPs entry I was alarmed because I'm awaiting my first new razor, a 6/8 Bismark from SRD, they have been out of stock for some time, when they got them back in I jumped and glad I did because they are out again. I'm sure glad hearing most don't have problems with them. I got started with a kit, the razor was supposed to be shave ready, NOT, It's a 5/8 Dovo. I got frustrated and bought a couple off the bay after talking to the vendor and It came shave ready, what a wonderful experience. I've come to find out that 6/8 is my sweet spot, I get better shaves from a 6/8 or larger than I do from the smaller ones, just me. So maybe the OP favors the smaller blades, isn't that why they have different sizes? Just a thought. I can't wait for mine to get here.