Thread: Are they Shave Ready from the manufacturer, or not?

I have had new Dovos that would give a good shave right from the factory, good not great. Nobody at Dovo shaves with them before shipment, the edge may be good but not shave ready.

I personally have a Dovo special...I can state for a fact that I would not consider it shave ready from the factory knowing what I know now. Did it shave right out of the box...sure...but was it comfortable and up to par with what I know now...nope. So in some ways it boils down to what you know and what you would consider shave ready

Glen / gssixgun sums it up nicely. I have never ever gotten a Dovo nor a TI that was shave ready from the factory.

Ok gentlemen, it is clear. They are not shave ready.
Thank you all.

Originally Posted by Otto

Glen / gssixgun sums it up nicely. I have never ever gotten a Dovo nor a TI that was shave ready from the factory.

It's probably useful to say also that this is not a slam on Dovo or TI. They provide us with new razors made of good steel with a range of styles and sizes, a variety of scale colors and styles, with tight pivot pins and no hone wear, nicks, waterspots, etc. that we contend with on used razors. These razors are easy enough to hone to shave-readiness by a competent honemeister.

Imagine if no new razors of that quality were being made and we only had vintage blades needing rescue

So I just want to clarify what I know the others mean as well--we're not slamming these companies at all, just stating that mass manufacturing won't produce an optimally shave-ready edge, but most of us are happy enough to have a hone-ready edge that can be brought up to par by our favorite honists or on our favorite stones.

Well stated Lawson...

It is amazing that this still comes up.

The manufacturers would like us to believe the razors are shave ready as in my opinion, it helps their vendors who can sell razors stating the manufacturer says this. I am aware of no manufacturer that hones their razors and shave tests them to make sure and if they are not shave ready, re-hones them and tests them again. It simply is too time consuming for them and I'm sure would increase the cost of the razors for us.

I totally agree that the new razors are better now then they have been in the past. I continue to hone thousands of them and it remains the exception that one comes out of the box shave ready.

One of the main reasons I believe in honing new razors is that I am committed to new guys having every chance of success possible when they are learning to shave with a straight razor. Learning the technique alone can be challenging enough without undertaking the learning process with an almost shave ready razor. This commitment is directed to growing our population and was the basis for founding the original forum. To me that is the most important thing for all of us. Let's be here to help people take the chore out of daily shaving and make shaving with a straight razor something to look forward to.

Have fun,

Lynn

Originally Posted by Lynn

It is amazing that this still comes up.

The manufacturers would like us to believe the razors are shave ready as in my opinion, it helps their vendors who can sell razors stating the manufacturer says this. I am aware of no manufacturer that hones their razors and shave tests them to make sure and if they are not shave ready, re-hones them and tests them again. It simply is too time consuming for them and I'm sure would increase the cost of the razors for us.

I totally agree that the new razors are better now then they have been in the past. I continue to hone thousands of them and it remains the exception that one comes out of the box shave ready.

One of the main reasons I believe in honing new razors is that I am committed to new guys having every chance of success possible when they are learning to shave with a straight razor. Learning the technique alone can be challenging enough without undertaking the learning process with an almost shave ready razor. This commitment is directed to growing our population and was the basis for founding the original forum. To me that is the most important thing for all of us. Let's be here to help people take the chore out of daily shaving and make shaving with a straight razor something to look forward to.

Have fun,

Lynn

I can certainly testify to the problems that arise when a factory-only edge is employed by a newbie. I started with a Kriegar and canned shave cream, and you can imagine the outcome. Then I stepped up to a Dovo Astrale but just with the factory edge, again, disappointing results and I almost quit. That's when I found this site, ordered a Dovo hand-honed from SRD and started making progress.

I suspect as long as there are newbies, the same questions will come up and beginners are often in a hurry, see a friendly forum, and figure they can just ask instead of taking a little time to read up on the topic on the wiki.

Maybe we need to have some kind of entrance test, nobody can post anywhere except in the Beginners forum until they have read the basic wiki articles and know a few basic facts.

I know. Not gonna happen!

So do new Dovos & TIs out of the box still need or still get the full honing treatment from the bevel setting process all the way up or are many of them now only needing lighter work on finer hones to get satisfactory edges? Or something in between?

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

So do new Dovos & TIs out of the box still need or still get the full honing treatment from the bevel setting process all the way up or are many of them now only needing lighter work on finer hones to get satisfactory edges? Or something in between?

Trick question! you're an old pro who knows better than we do!

I like the statement someone, made in another thread. The guy said "If I did not set the bevel, then I do not regard the razor as having had the bevel set."

Kind of like I treat every gun as though it is loaded unless I have personally cleared it. Except in reverse. And it's guns, not blades, and....