Thread: Question about SRD razors

I have purchased 3 aunts, a Boker and Dovo from SRD and except for the Boker that was a special as is, the razors are ready to shave with.

My Ralph Aust 6/8 Spanish point in my current rotation was honed and purchased from SRD and the edge is perfection along with my other razors done through their sharpening service, never a problem here. Those R. Aust razor are really sweet shavers.

Scott

Originally Posted by Utopian

My assumption always has been that Lynn Abrams, co-owner of SRD, hones all of SRD's razors; but I do not know that for a fact. If you do get a razor honed by Lynn, then you can be assured that you will be dealing with, in your words, "a quality honer."

Regarding the razor from Heritage, I have never heard of this seller, so I have no idea of his honing competency.

For that reason, I would recommend Lynn as the sure thing.

Originally Posted by rolodave

+1 Utopian

My SRD Aust shaves like a dream.

Originally Posted by jkatzman

I have purchased 3 aunts, a Boker and Dovo from SRD and except for the Boker that was a special as is, the razors are ready to shave with.

Originally Posted by sachemo

My Ralph Aust 6/8 Spanish point in my current rotation was honed and purchased from SRD and the edge is perfection along with my other razors done through their sharpening service, never a problem here. Those R. Aust razor are really sweet shavers.

Scott

If you buy from SRD, Lynn hones & strops each razor before it goes to it's new home. Your Dovo, I assume did not come from SRD & I have heard many say they ordered Dovo's from other vendors that were supposed to be shave ready but weren't. If you look in the Classifieds under member services, you will find that Lynn is one of a few who offer honing service & you can rest assured if it is honed by him or one of the others, you will get it back shave ready. I'm sure no member on here wants to compromise their name if they can't hone a razor to be shave ready.

I'm sorry, but I still have to see an Aust that requires professional honing prior to selling. Same for Revisor, despite claims to the contrary.

Dovo? Well, yes, especially the CNC robot made one.

Either way, Lynn can put very decent edges on razors. He doesn't need any recommendations, but if asked, I would recommend his services.

I have bought 3 razors from SRD and 2 are Austs. They were honed to perfection. I bought one Aust direct and it came in shave ready and very sharp out of the box. I just ordered a Maestro Livi from SRD and I know it will be ready to shave because Maestro Livi won't ship it any other way. I am sure Don and Lynn will inspect it anyway because they have a great reputation for the products they sell.

I have bought a few razors from SRD, Boker & Dovo. They always arrive "shave ready", I just clean off the oil & shave with them. I also have used their sharpening service many times. My razors come back from sharpening in brand new condition, and they've also went the extra mile before & tightened up the pins and such for me. I thought Mr. Abrams did the majority of the honing, but I assume the demand would get to be too much, and SRD might have honers to take on some of the load. Not sure though. In any case, SRD is about as reputable of a company as you could find.

As has been stated SRD is very good at honing.

As to your current razor I haven't had any experience with your seller but if it took two months question the shave readiness off the blade I am going to guess it was shave ready. It's not uncommon for new shavers to completely dull there blade in a month or two as there are a lot of new things to learn and all of them effect the razor.

If you truly doubt it was shave ready one of season honers would be able to look at it and tell you if someone hand honed it.

As Hirlau said it is probably best to send it out regardless at this point to get honed rather then attempted it your self.

However I know that is not what most want to here when they only have one razor to use. You can look up newspaper stropping and that may bring your blade back to a more comfortable shave for the price of a newspaper.

There's also the number two pencil trick where you take a number two pencil and rub it on a piece of paper like your trying to shade in the whole page. You then take the paper and rub it on your strop to transfer the graphite. Strop 20 to 30 times and test shave an area. If sharp enough clean your strop with soap and water and oil lightly.

The catch with this method is you will most likely never get all the graphite off your strop. But graphite also breaks down into finer and finer grit the more you go over it.

As already stated SRD sends razors shave ready. I have had the opportunity to own razors from SRD and they were perfectly honed. I did learn however that different razors require different technique's. I have some blades that require less of an angle to the face to give a close comfortable shave. Thin blades at the wrong angle tend to skip and jump caused from flexing. less angle reduces the flex. Remember this is not a race. Take your time and enjoy. Oh and I have had the opportunity to sit and watch Bro. Lynn hone and he is a perfectionist. They don't leave his hands unless there shave ready.

Originally Posted by RobinK

I'm sorry, but I still have to see an Aust that requires professional honing prior to selling. Same for Revisor, despite claims to the contrary.

Dovo? Well, yes, especially the CNC robot made one.

Either way, Lynn can put very decent edges on razors. He doesn't need any recommendations, but if asked, I would recommend his services.

Robin,

I have honed quite a few Revisor razors that were purchased from new then sent to me, but what I will say that I believe most of them purchased from Revisor do come shave ready and I rate their razors highly.

Like Cris stated, not sure how many are employed or do honing maybe on the side for SRD but every razor I have gotten from them has been 10-4! Never heard of Heritage but I assume hopefully if they are in business and advertise every razor leaves their doors "shave ready" then they hopefully have a person(s) that knows how to hone.

I do okay for myself but watched countless videos of Lynn and Glen doing it and went to some meets where the guys who organized the meet are excellent honers and watched prior to buying stones and doing it myself.

In fact, just touched up 6 razors last night on a slight progression from a Thuringian to a Naniwa 12K and pasted stop then to the leather to finish off.

I will find out tomorrow if the venture was another success. I would suggest watching some of Lynn's videos on Youtube and then maybe if you have some guys locally that meet and are good honers to go to a meet prior to jumping in. But I know you will do fine if you take your time. Good luck.