Thread: Dog dovo?

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?

Perhaps adjusting the angle of the blade on your face may help. The shave test is really the only true indicator of shave ready I consider when honing. With the gentlemen who honed your razor there is no chance at all that it was not shave ready unless something detrimental to the edge ocurred.
Or, just send your Dovo to me and I will give her a good home. : )

I have one too, same size. It's actually quite a beefy grind compared to other "full" hollows so I don't think flex is the issue.

I had issues with mine when I first bought it. Stropping may be the problem. Originally I found that the geometry of the spine made stropping a bit more difficult. If you pay close attention to the blade the very edge might not be making good contact with the strop during a lap, so you need to be sure to torque the edge into the strop a little more than you would with other razors to ensure good contact.

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?

Forgive me asking, but have you been straight-shaving long? I only ask because I note that your join date is september, about 3 months ago, and technique issues should be ruled out.

Regards,
Neil

I don't think it has to do with the blade style having a few without stabilizes(shoulder less) myself. One is a Revisor 6/8 shoulder less full hollow and it shaves like a champ.

Bob

Did the razor not perform with the first shave when you got it back from these gentlemen? if the answer is yes then it's your technique, not the razor.

don't know about anyone else but I got back into straight shaving the last of august and joined srp in sept. for a long time I go bad shaves from almost all my razors. razor rash bloody shaves from points and every other mistake a person could make. finally I kept c lose watch on my angle and slowed down didn't get in a rush. paid close attention to prep. after all that I've ended up with good shaves on razors I was about to through away. I've had all my razors honed by lynn. never a flaw. no one that hasn't seen you shave knows if the tech. is right or wrong but next time think about it. anyway that's more than 2 cents worth. good shaving.

I'd buy the bad technique line if it was across all/most/some/a few of my razors...but its not, Only that one out of more than 2 hands full.

I've shaved with my Bismarck three times... Consistently my best shave... No rash I did nick myself once but that was due to sloppiness... I agree with the stropping....nits a tricky thing to strop it sometimes

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.