Thread: shave ready or not

Hi,

I am totally new to all of this, but have been watching from the sidelines for a while. Anyway I have bought a Dovo stainless steel from gentlemans-shop.com. My query is would this probably be shave ready or not?

Regards

Paul

Hi Paul

I bought a Dovo from the same shop maybe 18 months ago. It was my first straight and definately not shave ready. Great shop though and to be fair they never said that it was.

Gary

Hi Gary,

I agree they never said it was, but because it is the first razor I have bought I was not sure whether or not it should by default be shave ready or not.Thanks for the clarification anyway. Now I will have to invest in honing stones....

Hi Paul

I guess I was in the same boat as you and I really struggled to get that Dovo sharp. A lot of the experienced guys here on SRP suggest either getting the razor honed by an expert or getting a shave ready razor. This gives you a benchmark as to how sharp it should be. I've found honing to be a real challenge and still do. If you're going to have a go yourself it may also be worth picking up a cheap razor on e-bay to practice with.

Gary

Hi Gary,

Thanks for the advice. I will see how things pan out once the razor arrives in the post. I might try find someone to hone it for me in London or buy stones and try to do it myself.

Regards

Paul

Welcome to SRP Paul. If it was up to me I would say have Steve at The Invisible Edge in the UK here to hone the razor. Then buy another shave ready razor as well. You'll have a rotation and if one needs attention you'll still have another to work with until the other is back up to speed.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Welcome to SRP Paul. If it was up to me I would say have Steve at The Invisible Edge in the UK here to hone the razor. Then buy another shave ready razor as well. You'll have a rotation and if one needs attention you'll still have another to work with until the other is back up to speed.

Sterling advice. My first straight razor was not shave ready and I eventually sent it to Steve at Invisible Edge. He put a fantastic edge on it and it really helped me when I eventually started honing myself. If you do decide to get another razor then look at the razors that Steve offers on his site, or buy a blade from the classifieds here that is advertised as shave ready.

I bought this razor off of ebay to learn honing on.

Vintage MERIC Open / Straight Razor, Carcassone, France on eBay (end time 13-Sep-09 16:13:58 BST)

Originally Posted by Pauld1

I bought this razor off of ebay to learn honing on.

Vintage MERIC Open / Straight Razor, Carcassone, France on eBay (end time 13-Sep-09 16:13:58 BST)

That razor will come shave ready. It has been honed by Neil Miller.

seriously,,dont waste that dovo..buy a cheap 9$ razor from ebay and practice on it..this what im gonna do,,,im gonna buy and complete my full rotation (guess i'll be done february) in the mean time practice on honing a stroping.

dont waste that dovo