Dovo or Honed Vintage for a complete beginner

Hi

I'm looking at getting my first straight razor. I've been doing some research and it's confirmed on here that most of the 'new' razors on places like eBay etc are cheap crap. So my choices have boiled down to a new Dovo razor or a restored/honed vintage razor.

i haven't got a massive budget to play with so I was wondering if the Dovo's come Shave ready?

Also has anyone heard of a seller on eBay called str8razor2014? He has some nice vintage razors that he claims are honed and shave ready that fit in with my budget.

Sorry for the questions but I thought I would ask the people in the know.

thanks

Steve

Welcome to SRP. In the UK Steve Dempster of The Invisible Edge, and Neil Miller of The Strop Shop both hone and both sell new and vintage razors. If you buy a new Dovo, or a vintage razor, one should be good as the other providing they are truly honed to shave ready. Also, some vintage razors may be better than some new ones, and vice versa. Really depends on the razor. I don't know the ebay seller you mentioned.

As Jimmy said in uk invisible edge and strop shop are very good.

I started on a very limited budget, I didn't even have the luck to discover srp before I got started. I learnt a lot trying to buy everything cheap and the biggest lesson I learned was I could have bought some nice boxes stuff with all the money I wasted.

It is well worth checking out the classified on here. If restored vintage speaks to you then you will struggle to beat the value or expertise you find on srp.

Good luck!

Most factory new razors are not shave ready. Some vendors will hone it as a courtesy and some charge extra at time of sale. You need to ask the vendor about his policy.

If you are on a budget a vintage sold shave ready is your ticket.

Also many people can hone razors well. But since shave-ready means more money there are those who rush to stick the label before they can perform the service well enough.

As a buyer and a new one it's hard to know who is trustworthy and who isn't, and feedback is only as good as the person leaving it. The safe route is to go with somebody who has long experience and track record. It's also generally more expensive, but that's how it works - the amount of risk has associated cost.

+1 Shave ready has many meanings. The first few vintages I bought were sold as that but were far from. I think you got great advice here so far.... Good luck! Resist the temptation to buy a hone today and think you will hone anything and everything with it.

I am for the vintage razor. I am into old stuff anyways( tools,car,weapons and the Ol Lady) I am not big fan of buying a razor off ebay and certainly not your first one. I would think finding a nice vintage in the UK would not be difficult. This allows you to see and feel the razor. You can see if it feels right for you and what size the blade is. There is not a one size fits all.

It would suck if you bought one off ebay, only to find it is not what you expected. Then you wasted money and still need a razor

A quick search will bring up a ton of ebay problems

I am not sure how close you may be to Home page of Taylors1000.com Straight Razor resources site But Tony has never treated me wrong.

Good Luck

Wow, thanks for all the advice guys.
I decided to go with a new dovo cut throat as I got it for a good price.
Also Paid a visit to my barbers to ask his advice aswell and he gave me a dovo shavette to practice with as he recons a properly honed straight razor is a lot sharper and I'm liable cut myself a lot lol. He showed me his honing stones, jeeze I never realised they were so expensive and he has 5 of them. Bless the old boy he's even offered to hone my new razor when it turns up.
I'm going to try out the shavette tomorrow and ill let you know how I get on with it.

Good that you've got an experienced old barber who knows his razors and hones. Not all of them do. I would suggest you ask him to show you how to strop. Learning from videos is fine, but up close and personal is even better.