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

Dear Gentlemen,

I am a Greek straight razor shaver. In my country there is a shaving forum with a few members.

The reason I am opening this thread is to have some expert opinions about a debate that we have in our Greek forum.
Some of us, including me support that a new straight razor, especially a new Dovo or a Their-Issard is actually shave ready from the manufacture, while others support that these razors do not come shave ready from the manufacture, and they always need professional honing before shaving.
I base my point of excellent manufacture’s honing on my experience with a new Dovo Bismarck 6/8 which was indeed shave ready from the manufacture, and the edge is the most perfect I have ever seen. However, other members from our forum insist that they also bought a new Dovo straight razor (one member in particular bought the “Best Quality” Dovo straight razor) and it was absolutely non-shave ready.

Since this forum (SRP) is the largest worldwide in regard of straight razors, I would like to have some opinions regarding your experience with new straight razors and especially Dovo or Thiers-Issard but not only.
Do they come shave ready from the manufacture, or do they not ?
I cannot believe that some of them are shave ready and some others not. It does not make any sense to hone professionally some of them, but not all of them.

Thank you very much.

"Shave Ready" is a subjective thing; a razor that is "shave ready" to one guy might be unacceptable to another.

The general consensus here seems to be that, for the most part, most razors straight from the manufacturer do not come shave ready. To some guys they might be, to others not so much. Just depends on each guy's opinion of shave ready.

i haven't seen any shave ready blade from factory yet. some vendors sell them shave ready and they mention it has been honed etc.
gl

Originally Posted by Slur

I base my point of excellent manufacture’s honing on my experience with a new Dovo Bismarck 6/8 which was indeed shave ready from the manufacture, and the edge is the most perfect I have ever seen.

I'm surprised you generalize from a single positive event. I have two objections:
(1) single events are usually irrelevant for drawing general conclusions
(2) a negative is enough to disprove something, a positive is not enough to prove something.

Now if you go ahead and get a sample of over 30 razors from the factory and are happy with the edges, then I would agree that you have a good reason to consider them shave ready.

Originally Posted by Slur

I cannot believe that some of them are shave ready and some others not. It does not make any sense to hone professionally some of them, but not all of them.

I don't see why wouldn't this be a possibility. We have seen the video from dovo and we know they have people hone them and we have some ideas how much time is spent on honing and how the edges are tested. I would in fact expect exactly this - most razors don't have very good edges with an occasional exception.

I have heard many people make both claims; some say they come shave ready, some say they are butter knike dull. While factory shave-readiness seems to be improving (and perhaps more common) I certainly would say it's still the exception and not the rule.

Originally Posted by gugi

I'm surprised you generalize from a single positive event. I have two objections:
(1) single events are usually irrelevant for drawing general conclusions
(2) a negative is enough to disprove something, a positive is not enough to prove something.

Now if you go ahead and get a sample of over 30 razors from the factory and are happy with the edges, then I would agree that you have a good reason to consider them shave ready.

I believe it is more possible that the procedure is standardized in order to produce shave ready blades, and in some cases, the technician doesn’t pay attention and the results are not excellent, than the opposite, that in general they don’t really care about the edge and they routinely produce non-shave ready blades but in some cases the technician really gives much more than usual to a single blade and it comes perfect.
For sure, mine was perfect.

I'm sure that the procedure is standardized and it produces what dovo considers shave-ready razors.
However, none of mine with a factory edge on them was anywhere near perfect, and I've had more than the single one that you've had.

well in my experience i bought a dovo best quality from the factory and it was not shave ready i did hear Their-Issard razors come in better shape

No they (Dovo's and TI's) are not "Shave Ready" to most people's standards...

And Yes there are exceptions in there that will shave "OK" but I haven't ever seen one that could not be made much much better then when it came from the factory....

See that last statement I added Bold too??? re-read that one again...

Yep what he said

Originally Posted by gssixgun

No they (Dovo's and TI's) are not "Shave Ready" to most people's standards...

And Yes there are exceptions in there that will shave "OK" but I haven't ever seen one that could not be made much much better then when it came from the factory....

See that last statement I added Bold too??? re-read that one again...