Thread: Dovo Bergischer Lowe

Originally Posted by johnmw1

Hi,

With a fancy type of razor such as this, does more care have to be taken when sharpening one of these beauties? I mean because of the heavy gold plating along the back and on the blade itself. Does this not wear off in time? Or do you have to take extreme care and know what your doing.

What sort of shave does this razor give?

Thanks

John

I have one of these razors, and it's among my favorites. It's a great shaver.

With a special looking razor like this, I take great pains to keep up the gold. I tape the spine whenever I hone, and I'm careful not to use any kind of abrasive on it. Just the same, the gold fades with use, and it will be gone with time.

I haven't noticed that it rusts more or less than any other razor, but if you want to preserve the looks, you will have to be extra careful.

Thanks Joe,

I do really like the looks of this razor a lot, and I wonder how it would compare shave wise with the DD Wonderedge. So I'm not real sure if it would be a wise purchase buying something that maybe very similar to the DD. I truly don't know.

John

New wonderedges are difficult to come by, and quite expensive when you find them.

Hi,

I recently purchased a wonderedge, but as yet I have not seen it. I have recieved an email from another member here who is shipping it together with some other goods that I have on order. He tells me I have a very special razor.

John

Originally Posted by johnmw1

Thanks Joe,

I do really like the looks of this razor a lot, and I wonder how it would compare shave wise with the DD Wonderedge. So I'm not real sure if it would be a wise purchase buying something that maybe very similar to the DD. I truly don't know.

John

Well, they're not making Wonderedges anymore. If you could find one in mint condition it would cost you twice as much as the BL.

They're also very different razors. You can tell that just by looking at them. You really can't compare a rare antique and a modern, commercial razor. I'm really not sure what you're looking for: a collector's item, a fine quality, stylish razor, or just something that'll give a great shave.

Originally Posted by johnmw1

He tells me I have a very special razor.

The Wonderedge certainly is. As I said, it's an antique and it's pretty rare. The BL is commercial. They both give a great shave, but it's not the way I would compare them.

How would you compare an antique Rolls Royce to a new Porsche?

Originally Posted by Joe Lerch

Well, they're not making Wonderedges anymore. If you could find one in mint condition it would cost you twice as much as the BL.

They're also very different razors. You can tell that just by looking at them. You really can't compare a rare antique and a modern, commercial razor. I'm really not sure what you're looking for: a collector's item, a fine quality, stylish razor, or just something that'll give a great shave.

Joe,

I'm primarily looking for something that will give me a great shave, but also have the looks to go with it. If it happens to be a collectors item such as the DD I have just purchased, am I being silly in thinking of using it, as opposed to putting it away in the drawer. In other words am I devaluing it by using it?

John

Originally Posted by johnmw1

Joe,

I'm primarily looking for something that will give me a great shave, but also have the looks to go with it. If it happens to be a collectors item such as the DD I have just purchased, am I being silly in thinking of using it, as opposed to putting it away in the drawer. In other words am I devaluing it by using it?

John

I think you may be asking the wrong guy. I believe in using every razor I have. But if I were a collector and had a mint Wonderedge, I would probably just keep it on display. For a collector a razor loses value if you degrade it's condition. So, if you used a mint razor and put hone marks on it the value would decrease a lot.

The BL will give you a great shave, and it looks beautifully stylish, but there are other commercial razors that IMO shave better. For example, the premium quality TIs. The SRP razor is a perfect example, and it's also a collector's item. Some of the TIs also look very stylish.

Joe,

I'm sorry I have to call it quits now, I have my works xmas function to head off to.
I shall be back on line in about 11.5 hrs time.

Many Thanks

John

I just got one of the BL's a few months ago and I really like it, except that I think that, for whatever reason, full hollow razors don't work well for me. It is a wonderful razor and much better than my others but I think full hollows are too flexy for my face.

anyway as for the rust this is a carbon steel razor and is much more prone to rusting than a "stainless" razor. It rust spots super easy and must be dried very carefully, but my problem is that I can see some rust developing in the hinge (just a little red oxide residue when its pivoted, but since I can't get into the hinge to clean it that's not good; it will possibly eventually eat out the whole pivot area under the gold and break off, since rust is self-propagating due to the anodic effect resulting from the oxide layer.

gold plating and coating in general are great for protecting things, but if rust starts forming under a plating you're way more screwed than if it were bare metal because you won't really see it and you definitely can't strip it off without removing the coating.

anyway this is a razor that must be THOROUGHLY dried after use and kept dry.

I have a lot of pocketknives and carbon steels are much preferred for this because they hold and edge better and are much harder than stainless steels, but for a razor which will get wet all the time the jury is still out for me.

but, generally speaking, carbon steels make much better blades than do stainless steels. i would NEVER buy a stainless pocketknife, and indeed the blade steels I like most are the hardest tool steels that are available, e.g. M2HS, S30V, S60V, and my personal favorite D2. These are the hardest and therefore most brittle and prone to chipping of steels (and typically more expensive), but they are tool steels and are hard enough (and intended to) cut other steels. If you are even sort of nice to them they won't chip or break, and they'll stay sharp well over twice as long as 'softer' steels like 440C or 154CM (which are both very hard carbon steels and are fine blades in their own right) and several times longer than stainless steels.

D2 is a martensitic steel, for those of you that know what that means. It's the hardest material phase of steel but is also the most prone to breakage, but if you don't abuse knives it's worth it being able to keep a razor edge for several months of normal use. someone really should make a tungsten carbide or boron carbide straight razor blade. i don't have the machining resources (or heat treating resources) to do it myself but I would buy one. no rust, edge holding superior even to D2 (carbides are actually metal ceramics) and it would probably never need stropping. But it wouldn't be possible to make it a full hollow without it being uber-fragile.