Thread: is this Dovo razor deficient?

Originally Posted by Chevhead

Honing is not difficult until you have a problem...

Nailed it. It's easy to fall prey to the insidious and deceptive nature of our sweet little straight razors. There's only like what, two moving parts? ()

There are volumes of reasons why traditionally, it was only the very accomplished and talented cutlers who attempted razor manufacture. When everything works, it's dead nuts simple. When one small factor goes awry, showstopping complications are the result.

I remember a buddy of mine years ago who had gone native over golf. He was waxing poetically and said (I'm paraphrasing here...) "you've got a thousand things to consider in performing the perfect stroke but only one shot to execute it when you drive the ball. Arnold Palmer got it right every time, and as a result, anybody who ever watched ABC's Wide World of Sports thinks golfing is an unskilled pastime."

Guilty.

I discovered two distinct phases in my first attempts to develop the skill to hone my own razors:

1) "Hey, this is a snap! As a result of my keen new found skill at honing, my minty new old stock Dubl Duck #1 is shave ready! BRING ON THE RESTOS!"

Followed soon after by things like:

2) Why does my bevel look like an EKG blip? What the hell have I done here? THIS worked LAST time! Nothing is working the way it should...where's my hairshirt...

The lesson I learned was, at the first sign of trouble, when my solid fundamental "tools" (knowledge and skill) are failing, scream out for help before I do damage.