Thread: My Dovo Stainless has me vexed

My Dovo Stainless has me vexed!

Why can I not get a shave ready edge on my expensive Dovo stainless str8? This is really starting to bother me. Here’s the history… I bought this razor back in April of 07. I tried to shave with it after a stropping and realized it was not shave ready. I sent it off to Lynn to have him do his magic along with a carbon steel Fily. Once returned, they both shaved like champs. However, it wasn’t long before the Dovo SS seemed to quickly lose its edge. The Fily keeps going and going. I just don’t get it! Since then, I have bought some Wapi’s to try. Honed them up, gave ‘em a good strop and they shave like nothing I have ever experienced. Now and then I give them a tune-up on a 12K Chinese and I swear I could circumcise a fruit fly with them! A couple of weeks ago I bought a DMT D8E to use as a starting point to establish an edge on my Dovo SS. After putting it to use, the bevel looked good and dark under the scope. From there I went through the progression from 4K through 8K Norton and on to the 12K Chinese. Still, I cannot do a HHT with this razor. Stropped it on a Tony 4 sided paddle and still!! Cannot get it to shave ready shape! The thing that kills me is that I can get an inexpensive razor to shave like a champ but all my efforts to get an expensive stainless razor to do likewise is all for not.
I’m going to send my Dovo to Lynn once again and let him do his magic. After that, if it won’t hold an edge… Look for a Dovo going cheap on the buy and sell pages!

The only thing I can tell you is I have a Dovo Stainless, the one with the pearl handles and I find you need to be more persistant with stainless because it just takes longer. I would say at least 25% longer than withn the average carbon steel razor. I find mine lasts much longer between honing. I usually use my coticule but any 12K should do a good job. For that matter the Norton 8K should do it also.

Once a razor is sharp and starts to deteriorate unless you damage the edge you should not have to go back to a 4K ever. You probably undid all Lynn's hard work. Once you went to the 4K especially with a stainless you made the honing job much longer and difficult because your now messing with the bevel which was good to begin with.

So the moral of the story is to do the least you have to with the least abrasive. You just have to take your time you can't hurry it. When you get it back from lynn and it needs a touch up just use the 12K maybe 20 trips and test. If you technique is good thats all you need to do.

Yes... I cannot agree with you more. The Dovo was my first razor. After having it honed by Lynn, and not having any experience with maintaining the razor, I became impatient as it dulled. I made the mistake of taking matters into my own inexperienced hands and decided to try my limited knowledge of honing thus, making things worse. Since then, I have learned a great deal on the art but not enough to work a stainless razor back into shape. The biggest lesson learned in maintaining a razor, when stropping no longer brings it back into shave ready shape, is by using only the 12K hone. Since then, I have found it easy to maintain a razor once the preliminary sharpening has been done. As for my stainless Dovo, I figured I would give it one more attempt to undo the damage I did as a beginner. However, that is still out of my reach. The DMT D8E will be returned to my woodworking shop where it is indespensible for sharpening my chisels and planer blades. The razor, on the other hand, will be sent to Lynn for a good and proper honing!

DOVO's stainless steel is hard. It was also my first razor, and after butchering my face with it for almost a full year, and was thinking of selling it, one day I applied a bit more pressure on the N8K, and magically, it became my favorite razor.

So, if the razor was once shaving sharp, do a pyramid, starting with 15 on the N4K, and use some pressure, while using your normal pressure on the final two 1/5 strokes.


Nenad

For my Friodur I use the Shapton 5K if I cannot get it sharp on the Escher/coticule or Thuringian. Which polishing hone I use depends more on my mood than anything.

My dovo stainless blades gave me pretty good shaves but they did take an awful long time to hone, so I gues the solution Is lots of patience & a nice fine hone .
I currently use an old arkansas pocket hone with lots of water. Idont know what grade it is but it is a mottled grey & black colur.Paul

Okay guys… Today I decided to start fresh with the suggestion made here.
Once again, I pulled out the DMT D8E to re-establish the bevel only, this time no tape on the spine. I figure the wear on the spin will be minimal considering I hope to never have to go to this extreme again. Once I was satisfied with the bevel, I moved to the N4K to start refining the edge. This time however, I used considerable pressure at the onset and did the pyramid. This is the first time I actually could see metal transfer on the hone so I knew I must be doing something right. I kept a watchful eye on the edge under my RS scope and with each completed step of N4K to N8K I noticed the edge looking really dark (shiny). I finished up with a good 40 laps on the 8K easing up on the pressure until very little was used at the end. The edge now shines like highly polished silver stainless. I did a little arm hair shave to see where it stood and it wiped the hairs off with very little pull considering how course and dry my hair was. I also took a loose hair out of my badger brush and performed the hanging hair test. Cut that sucker like butter!
That was something it never did ever since I wrecked it after Lynn did such a nice job on it. So now, I’m going to give it a good strop first on the linen and then the leather with no pastes. Tomorrow morning I will try a shave and let you all know how it goes.

Thanks for all the tips! Today I learned that Stainless truly is a different animal that requires a modified approach.

You always have to be ready to modify what you hear and learn depending on the razor. Even though we always say no pressure on the hone in the finishing stages some razors require just a tad of pressure as you start and then you back off to no pressure as you finish. The thing to remember is that stainless is really not that difficult just a slight mod in your approach or maybe some more time is all it takes. Too many guys get fustrated and get impatient and start dropping down to a coarser abrasive to get results and the result is...well...abrasive if you know what I mean.

Straight,

Good luck with the shave, I hope it's fantastic!

Let us know.

- Scott

For the Stainless razors, I have always found that a couple extra strokes on the 8K side of the Norton and on the Escher works for me. That is a couple more than I would normally do on a Carbon blade.

Good luck.

Lynn