Making a DOVO straight razor

This link shows the making of a straight razor from piece of steel rod to the finished end, made by DOVO in Solingen Germany

YouTube - Making DOVO Straight Razors

Do other manufacturers use basically the same proceedure of extra stamping the steel to give it better strengths and lead hardening, then oven tempering?

The grinding bit, and final honing I would imagine would be pretty much a regular thing with any straight razor manufacture, whether DOVO or Thiers-Issard, Boker, Hart, Reviisors, or others. However that extra press of the cut out steel to compress the metal may be sort of unique. I am sure they use a high carbon steel for these. Would also the others use a similar steel?

this is already in the video section. I must say tho I still enjoy watching it.

Well, maybe some "probie" will stumble in here in the next day or two and take a look. Quite a process. I don't think they hone and strop them near as much in real life as they let on in the video.

The gals honing towards the end is pretty impressive. I see the finished razors laying there and all im thinking is 7 day set 7 day set.

Gibbs,

I don't know if you have seen it, but there is a short video of the Thiers-Issard works on YouTube:

YouTube - Thiers Issard

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

thanks Russ, seen it. I saved it to my hard drive and have seen it a couple of times. I thought it kind of looked like "old shcool", sort of rustic to the way that Dovo seems to do it in their tooling.

The most critical part of straight razor making(grinding) is missing in these videos.

I am wondering if other makers, such as Thiers-Issard, Boker, or Revisor also oven treat the blades after the initial dipping in lead?

Great post! That's a really interesting video. Is it just me or was she flipping the razor on the edge when she was honing?

I saw this video two years ago. After seeing how they are made and how much effort goes into making them, I have no issue with the prices.

Pabster

Gents,

I appreciate all the vid links and it makes me wonder as it seems they all use wheels then hone on stones so how is it possible they have such wonky bevels on the TI’s

I realize it all comes down to the guy or gal that’s honing them but you would think they would look at the razors and say that bevels all wrong especially since they command a pretty penny on the ones I am looking at.

You have to watch closely and think about some of the stuff we say right here on the forum

They lift the spine to set the bevel on the Platen stone then they slam the razor on the finisher for 20-40 laps and call that good

Now think about how many times people here argue about 1 layer of tape being the problem with touching up the razor,,,,, they LIFT the spine!!!


Hmmmmmmmm

It doesn't surprise me at all that the bevel is wonky and shave ready is mostly miss

The Germans have always been better grinders than the French. :tameshigiri:

Remember, time is money.

I think more razors make it past QC with warps & bad grinds than I would accept but yep time is money & without these makers the vintage pool would get smaller :eek:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by criswilson10

The Germans have always been better grinders than the French. :tameshigiri:

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Almost as good as the Japanese...

I remember a thread that asked what you think makes a good quality razor, some of the answers were the ease of honing or the shave itself, etc.

which are two big factors, if the steel is good and treated properly and takes a good edge the rest is in the grinding shaping of the razor itself

if your blade is warped, that's a low quality blade imo ergo I chose for the ease of honing where I meant not that I disliked the hard steel on TIs for example, au contraire, but that I feel how the blade geometry is formed and made tells me a lot about it's quality and the skill of the maker

Oh my

A Dovo Vendor named Jarod got a huge dose of reality and got upset,, :p

Isn't it funny how we can all see exactly what is going on, not only in the Vid but under magnification on the edge

You must ask yourself, why is it that the only people that defend this stuff, are the people selling the products, yet admit they also Re-hone factory edges


Things that make ya go hmmmmmm

With regard to Dovo, I have seen in the last 6 months two new examples that would not make me want to buy one of their razors, or at least their cheaper products. These razors had nasty little hooks near the heel with frowns extending about a cm up the blade. These faults did not require magnification to see. This is clearly the result of carelessness in the grinding, or possibly even in the honing stage. Those razors passed their QA procedures; maybe they shave OK but to a experienced eye they look like rubbish. I've seen a ZY fresh from Shenzhen with a better grind than these razors.