Thread: I need advice choosing a razor...

Hey all, I am a newbie buying his first razor and I've read around and done my research and I found three razors. Any help differentiating would be great. All three are round point, made by Fritz Bracht in Solingen, similar prices, and would likely need a honing. They are:

- Dovo 100, can't make out the gold stamp in the picture, white/ivory scales, blade has a few tiny blackish spots, but the actual edge looks straight without dings nicks or cracks, three pins, looks to be 5/8ths but I can't tell if anyone knows please shout out.

-Dovo 1516, gold stamped "Dovo Special", faux tortuise (sp?) scales, blade is almost immaculate, just a couple tiny tiny blackish spots, edge looks good, three pins, blade looks to be slightly thicker, maybe 6/8ths? once again if you know, shout it out loud. Claimed never used.

-Tennis 20 (someone told me this was Dovo before Dovo was called Dovo...), stamped with "Solingen", the crest and a man, then looks like the stamp was colored and some of the color has aged away (just a cosmetic flaw right?), edge looks good, three pins, 13/16ths. Claimed never used.

Also, there's a slightly more expensive Dovo 42 Inox thats NOS. Is this worth the extra money or not?
Looks like there's another Dovo 42 that's cheaper, however older and used. It is honed and ready, looks better than the NOS Dovo 42 (in style, maybe because its older) but has some of the little black dots on the blade. These two however have strange points- not sure what its called. Its like a round, but the round is shifted close to the edge of the blade (French Point?)

Thanks for any help, even if its just opinions regarding aesthetic and what not.

Sounds like it's largely down to personal choice on them really. they'll all give a great shave. With one exception they all need honing, so you have to weigh the cost of that in.
They're all carbon steel except the NOS 42. Don't be intimidated by stainless. I love them.
If you trust the abilities of the fella that honed the older 42 that would save you the honing.
I'd just pick what i liked the most & get it honed. Oh, & those last two do sound like french point.
Get a photo when you've made your choice!

Does the width of the blade matter at all? Like is narrower or wider easier to learn with? From what I've read narrower is more maneuverable for like under your nose, but wider is heavier so it glides better. Which is more important for newbies?

I think the razors listed are all hollow ground. I started with a 5/8ths hollow, and was a happy camper for many months. A 5/8ths might be easier to learn with, but there are many that start with larger blades so opinion will vary with an individual's experience.
While I like stainless, it may not be the ideal choice for a first razor. Opinion will vary on this also, but a carbon blade's edge will be easier to maintain.
Actually, I would advise you to forget ebay for a first razor and find one in the BST forum that is shave ready. You can trust the guys here, ebay is a lottery and chances are an ebay razor will not be shave ready unless purchased from one of the few really good ebay vendors. I will guarantee that Dovo Special is not shave ready just from the description, more than likely the Tennis is not shave ready either. Razors are not fit for shaving out of the box and these two were perhaps never honed. If they were it was so long ago that they would need to be re-honed anyway.
New users can encounter enough problems with a shave ready razor, starting with one that needs to be honed is almost too much to overcome unless you spend the additional dollars to send it out.
There is not much difference between the weight of a hollow ground 5/8ths and 6/8ths. Where the weight come in is for the heavier grinds. A sharp 5/8ths hollow will glide just fine.

Most guys recommend starting with a 5/8.
Smaller blades have great manoeverability, but are hard to judge the angle correctly if you're inexperienced. They're also more awkward to learn to strop there's less of them to get flat on the leather.
Larger blades, while being easier to strop, can be a bit unwieldy.
I'd go 5/8. If you really feel you want a larger blade, i'd recommend you go no more than 6/8 for your first.

So what I gather is that you would not recommend buying except from here, but all those razors are pretty similar?

If you buy from someone here, you know youll be getting a shave ready razor, well honed and ready to go. That is the most important thing when picking a first razor because it can really discourage someone if the razor isn't shave ready. If you buy from someone else, you may or may not be getting a finely honed blade. I think that's what the above posters were going for.

As far as the choices above, since they all sound pretty similar, and they are quality because they're Dovo, its down to personal aesthetics. Personally, I love the "special" because I like faux tortise. Stainless is less effort to keep clean and rust-free as well. It may be more effort to hone, but I wouldn't concern myself with that immediately.

so would the 13/16ths be too much? it's just 1/16th over 6/8
I found ou tthe widths, the the dovo 42 is 4/8s, the other dovos are 5/8s, and the tennis is 13/16.
So what I gather so far is the 42's are steel so they'll hold edge longer, whish is a plus if i send it to get honed, the 5/8s are the best newbie size, and the 13/16 will be easy to strop, so I won't mess the edge up. So what do I do now... I wanna say the wide one cus it's easier to strop and I think I'm gonna send whatever I buy to Lynn anyway, but then again... the SS ones will hold Lynn's edge longer... argh... decisions...
Thanks for all your help guys btw.

I'd recommend the Dovo special (1516). If I were getting a razor myself I'd have picked the Tennis (it was Tennis before Dovo bought the brand and if it says FritzBracht on the back it's Dovo), just because I like them and haven't had such a large one yet. I find 13/16 getting too large for my taste, but I'd still like to try it and there's always the possibility of reselling.
But as a first razor the 5/8 is better, and it may actually 11/16 which I'd say is ideal. You may end up liking wide blades, in which case you'd hate yourself for missing the opportunity, but I still maintain 13/16 is not the optimal razor to learn shaving with. It's 1/16 more than 6/8 but it's also 1/8 more than 11/16 and 3/16 over 5/8 (60% wider).

I'd stick with the carbon steel, even though the vintage no 41 which I sold recently could easily be mistaken for a carbon steel if you'd go by how it feels.

Thanks. That's really helpful. The special sadly, was on ebay and I've been outbid. I am now thinking of two things. There's a shave ready no-name solingen (the seller specializes in shave ready stuff and his reviews affirm that they are truly, not just factory shave ready) for like ten bucks. I think I will get that and the Tennis just because I love the Tennis and I don't want ot let it slip away, vs. the Dovo 100 which is not quite as nice, and costs a little too much to be a learning razor I mess up, but I don't think is nice enough to graduate to. Unless I'm really off the mark here. Another option is once again still getting the Tennis, but there's an almost free Red Head I could get and send out to get honed. I don't see Solingen stamped on the Red Head, but it's an old Fromm and is still stamped Germany. Does anyone know anythign about this? I've only seen like two relevant posts anywhere, here, B&B, etc. Not even an official website.