Thread: is this Dovo razor deficient?

Seth,

With taping, different personalities see it in differing ways. I'm a taper. I tape everything and always have, except a Kamisori or when the occasional urge to hone without it strikes.

I do urge those learning to hone a razor to tape in the beginning to avoid issues like you've run into. After you've more perfected the honing process you can decide if you want to continue with tape or quit using it.

You don't have to send your razor off to get it honed on a regular basis. Some do and just don't care about the honing part. Most think more like you and want to do the maintenance themselves. I'm just suggesting sending it out this once to get it all back in line and correct the heel and have a good recalibrated edge for learning razor honing.

You'll find, I think, that transferring sharpening skills over from knives and tools is limited. You drag metal over a hone to sharpen, but the pressure, angles and finesse are very different. Pressure and stroke angles, etc. vary greatly. Watching gssixgun's videos can help a lot.

We have members that offer to have one on one assistance, but I don't see any close to Phoenix. Here's the list..... Local Help - Straight Razor Place Library

You can also search members by area. Use the location function and remember that each member inputs their own location, so you may have to search by Arizona or Phoenix, or if Phoenix has a nickname, etc., etc. http://straightrazorpalace.com/memberlist.php?do=search

Love my Feather DX.

Again, !! You'll do fine, but this one time I'd send it off.

Regards,

Howard

Seth...I'll give you credit for wanting to stick with this project and figure out for yourself what the Art of the Hone is all about. Good on you.
When I first got into the whole honing thing, I was fortunate enough to have had a couple of my razors worked on by professionals so that I would know what the end product should be.

Then...I bought this ridiculous Chinese razor from eBay; I think it was about $3.00 or so. This is what I used to begin the learning process of how to sharpen a razor. Yep...this blade was a pathetic bit of work and never could really get it right. However I learned all the moves. Subsequently I moved on to a GD 66 for some more practice which gave me enough confidence to then step up to the rocks and begin honing my "real" razors. That was some time back. The learning process was helped along by a significant amount of YouTube tutorial videos and reading the forums.

Whatever path you choose to follow here...good luck.

Guys, I learned a new word a few weeks ago and I've been dying to use it. The word is "askhole", and it's a person who asks questions and advice from people and then doesn't follow any of it.

I don't want to be an askhole. I'm going to follow you guys' advice and send this razor off to be correctly honed by someone who knows how to do it right. Then, as Phoenix just said, when I get it back I'll know what right looks like in the future.

I stropped the razor again this morning and attempted to shave with it. It got most of the whiskers, but it's just not sharp enough for a good, easy shave. Too much pulling, too many whiskers not cut, etc. I relathered and shaved for real with the Feather SS, and there is simply no comparison. I'm simply not there yet.

So the Prima Silver Steel is going to a honemeister. In the meantime, I don't want to buy a Chinese junk razor off eBay to learn on, but what would you guys think about a Fromm? For $60 would I get a razor that's good enough I could actually enjoy using it once I master honing and stropping, yet cheap enough that I won't mind terribly if I hurt its feelings a little during the learning process?

Originally Posted by Sethbag

what would you guys think about a Fromm? For $60 would I get a razor that's good enough I could actually enjoy using it once I master honing and stropping, yet cheap enough that I won't mind terribly if I hurt its feelings a little during the learning process?

Don't have one, but here's a recent thread on the Fromm.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...mm-really.html

Originally Posted by SirStropalot

Don't have one, but here's a recent thread on the Fromm.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...mm-really.html

Hmm, well, nevermind I guess about the Fromm. Maybe I'll just spring for a Dovo "Best Quality" to use as my learning razor. Or there's the Thiers Issard "1937" razors for maybe $20 more. I'll have to do some more research.

Stabilizer is into the edge. Should be relieved a bit, Razor rehoned. It happens, not a big deal, IMO.
Does it shave??

Originally Posted by Sethbag

I stropped the razor again this morning and attempted to shave with it. It got most of the whiskers, but it's just not sharp enough for a good, easy shave. Too much pulling, too many whiskers not cut, etc. I relathered and shaved for real with the Feather SS, and there is simply no comparison. I'm simply not there yet.

Sounds like you just have not got the bevel set yet. If you tape the spine, hone with the heel leading to avoid the stabilizer on you bevel setting hone you should be able to get that flat spot out and bevel set. You could use a black marker on the edge to check your progress.

Then again like you say you are going to do sending it out for honing would be the easiest.

Bob

Grinding variance or Different thickness at the edge

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...-set-pics.html


This thread explains it with Pics, it isn't talked about much on here because once the bevel is well and solidly set it is a none issue, but it can be found now and then on New or NOS razors...

It does require a slight "Push" while honing,

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Grinding variance or Different thickness at the edge

http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...-set-pics.html


This thread explains it with Pics, it isn't talked about much on here because once the bevel is well and solidly set it is a none issue, but it can be found now and then on New or NOS razors...

It does require a slight "Push" while honing,

Wow, that was a fascinating read. It seems like that describes pretty much exactly what I was running into. I'm going to try one last thing before I send it off to be honed right. I'm going to pull out the magic marker and try one more time just to ensure that I've done my due diligence. Then it's off to the honemeister.

Originally Posted by Sethbag

Wow, that was a fascinating read. It seems like that describes pretty much exactly what I was running into. I'm going to try one last thing before I send it off to be honed right. I'm going to pull out the magic marker and try one more time just to ensure that I've done my due diligence. Then it's off to the honemeister.

Good on you. You are doing the right thing IMO to try and learn all you can off of that razor. As stated previously, those type of issues are pretty common even in current production razors.