Quote Originally Posted by cosperryan View Post
If you must get one of those two razors and it was me choosing I would just do a coin toss. I do like the shoulder less design of the blade on the palisander but the scales are just plain wood nothing special. They don't look bad and overall the look is appealing.

The first razor I bought was a dove shavette. It did fine for the time being and learning how to shave and what not without having to learn stropping and worrying about messing up the edge. However, saying that I don't think that it is to big of a deal to just get a true straight. You can learn stropping pretty easy without messing up the blade just remember slow is smooth, smooth is fast and be conscious of what your doing when you flip the razor.

Having said all this, my favorite razor was free. My second favorite razor cost me 10 dollars my third and fourth both 25 including a Dubl Duck satin edge. My least favorite razor (not saying that I don't like it just saying that it doesn't perform like the others) is my $180 Dovo Pearlex. It is my only modern production razor and I can tell. It hones up just fine and shaves real nice but there is a "feel" to it that my "cheap" vintage razors don't have. Its almost like after I am done shaving it is just scratchy. I don't get that feeling with my vintage blades. In fact I don't get any thing from my old blades just buttery smoothness. Something to consider before you buy. I won't lie, even though I will never get rid of my dovo, I regret not going the vintage razor route first. I, like you just wanted a new razor that I could start my shaving legacy with.
+1. Couldn't have said it better. My "least used" straight is my brand new dovo and my "most used" is a 100+ year old sheffield razor I picked up for $27.00 and I just hooked my friend up with a nice shave ready $17.00 razor that he uses all the time.