Thread: Brand Spanking New Out Of The Box, But....

You can always give it a try if it seems reasonably sharp and potentially shaving.
That's just the current reality of a fairly small market with fairly cheap prices and not too much competition. Decades ago virtually all razors came shaving sharp from the factory, these days sometimes they do and most of the time they don't.

Welcome!

I'm in the UK as well, in London, so if you're in the area drop me a PM and we can meet for a beer or something!

Most razors from the factory are only honed on a flat spinning wheel and then stropped before being sent out. Hand honing involves running up a variety of hones and to a much higher grit, plus stropping, before sending the razor out to the end user. There is a real difference in the finish of the blade, but its mostly a time thing as to why they dont do it in the factory.

The pro honemeisters will spend the time to make sure that the razor is in the best possible shaving condition before sending it back to the customer. The factory do an Ok job, and you might get lucky and get a good one, but they dont want to spend 10 or 15 minutes a razor getting them truly shave ready. They spend about 2 minutes a razor!

Theres a youtube video of DOVO making razors, and you can see the honing process there.

Thats a great razor you're getting though! Hope you enjoy it!

We have discussed this before and I have a different view because most of us are used to buying shoddy products so we just accept it.

However if you buy a razor that is designed for one purpose-shaving and it can't do it out of the box that's like buying a new car and the transmission won't shift past 2nd gear or the tires are so cheap they are unuseable.

In the old days if a new out of the box razor wasn't shave ready it would be returned as defective mdse. I'm not saying the razor was honed to it's 100% potential from the factory but it was honed enough so it worked and worked very well.

I think if you talk to people who were around in the 1920s and 30s they'll tell you in general products were manufactured to a much higher standard than they are now. Yes we have better technology now but I'm talking about the overall fit and finish of a product.

My Grandfather was a Furniture maker in the early 20th century and if you look at the work he did ( mostly by hand) and compare it to modern versions unless your willing to pay so much few can afford it similar looking work is a joke by comparison.

It's all part of the disposable world we live in.