Thread: Dovo Silver Steel Ebony vs an old JR Torrey

Wet shaver for years, but fairly new to using a straight.

As a Christmas gift, my wife bought me a Dovo Silver Steel Ebony. She bought it from some random place online so I promptly sent it off to SRD to be honed and ready to go. When it came back I left it sitting for a long time.

I've recently tried to shave with it and I swear, I can't do it. I don't know if it's my technique or what, but the blade seems to skip all over the place instead of gliding smoothly. If I use my old Torrey razor with a barber's notch, I have no issue at all.

I'm not sure what the grind of the Torrey is, but it's certainly not a full hollow like the Dovo. My beard's pretty thick and dense, and I'm wondering if the thicker razor is resulting in my better shaves. If so, I may have to eventually offload the Dovo.

Any suggestions or insight?

How is your strop technique? You may have rolled the edge with poor stropping. Check the edge with a magnifier.

SRD stands behind their work. Shoot an email to them. Maybe they'll get you to send the Dovo in for inspection and TLC. They will be able to judge better than you, and certainly better than we on the forum, since we can't see it up close and personal.

I have that razor purchased from SRD. I had a so so shave on my first go as well. Lynn said he was willing to take a look at it for me. I decided instead to strop the razor again before the next shave and it did shave well.

Give it a strop and try a couple more shaves. Mine did get better. I have not sent it on for honing yet

I believe this is a razor that you received back, back in October 2013. Shaved well when it left and that's some distance between then and now. In any case, I'll be happy to look at the razor for you. Stick it in the mail and we'll see what's going on.

Have fun.

Originally Posted by bkendall

Wet shaver for years, but fairly new to using a straight.

As a Christmas gift, my wife bought me a Dovo Silver Steel Ebony. She bought it from some random place online so I promptly sent it off to SRD to be honed and ready to go. When it came back I left it sitting for a long time.

I've recently tried to shave with it and I swear, I can't do it. I don't know if it's my technique or what, but the blade seems to skip all over the place instead of gliding smoothly. If I use my old Torrey razor with a barber's notch, I have no issue at all.

I'm not sure what the grind of the Torrey is, but it's certainly not a full hollow like the Dovo. My beard's pretty thick and dense, and I'm wondering if the thicker razor is resulting in my better shaves. If so, I may have to eventually offload the Dovo.

Any suggestions or insight?