Thread: Gonna divorce my Dovo!

You might pay Lynn to hone the Geneva too! It would be sad if you got the Dovo back and find the Geneva is lacking!

Good work on not giving up on er after all. And very gracious of Lynn I think you'll find it'll be a much better relationship when she comes home. I still have my Dovo which was my first blade and its still in my rotation even though I've acquired..umm, a few other blades since

From common exposure to negativity regarding Dovos I have honed up my own (6/8th BQ) beyond what I'd given it for a first-timer's shave (I left it at the Norton 8k) to max out on my finishing hone and then gave a thorough chromium oxide pasted paddle stropping. In other words, I went all the way with my available equipment to really see what kind of an edge the most economical of Dovo's line was capable of. I understand there have been some quality control issues with these, recently bad scales that literally fall apart, spine warpage issues before that, etc. But seriously, this stuff is the modern day mass-produced 21st century metallurgy.

My Dovo has gotten just as sharp (with my available equipment) as any other blade I've used. Different types of steel may respond differently to my single finisher, or two the high-grit paste if I decide to finish beyond that, but without a doubt the Dovo takes and holds a very keen and smooth edge. Cleaves through facial hairs from the beginning of the shave (after prep but when the hairs are at their hardest) with a level of smoothness and ease that lets me know if I'd gotten used to shaving with a less than stellar edge I definitely have to be on my best behavior, shaving-wise. Modern Dovos are a very good shaving steel.

Already thought of sending Lynn the geneva too. Just means I'd have a few days of growth to try both out. I will admit I like the scales better on the geneva they are thin! Sometime I'll have to drive to the other side of the state and thank Lynn personally.

AxelH, I agree with you. I am content with my DOVO prima klang. Excellent shaving steel.

Coming at it from the other direction, having gone through dozens of vintage razors, I bought my first (and probably only - I'm cheap) dovo last week, new.

I don't know what they use for their drill rod that gets forged into razors, but it feels like modern steel for lack of a better way to describe it. The oldest razors were probably mostly simple high carbon steel or something with little alloying in it.

The dovo that I got is a carbon steel razor (and not stainless), but a little bit of chromium oxide to finish off the hone and it gives up very little or nothing to the vintage steel razors that I have. Maybe it would give up a little straight off of a natural stone and maybe not.

I'm extremely pleased with it, 3 days in and it'll probably become my daily shaver for quite a while. It (a bismarck) has something that is difficult to find in a lot of vintage shavers, a good bit of weight but at the same time a thin delicate straight bevel that's easy to hone.

At any rate, any decent razor can be brought to a great edge as long as the last abrasive is similar hardness or harder than the carbides in the razor (chromium oxide III, aluminum oxide, diamonds, silicon carbide, ...). The hardest abrasives, diamond aside maybe, tend to be some of the cheapest available, too.

Originally Posted by thumper15

Looked it over, did the wet thumbnail test and thought it felt about the same as my new Dovo so I decided to strop and give it a try....

I'm surprised no one caught on to this from the OP....

Methinks this is a large part of your problem, as the thumbnail test is only for the bevel setting stage and will ruin a good finished edge. Before getting the lawyers involved and the accompaning trial separation, rehone both razors, STOP doing the TNT and I will almost guarantee you will change your mind about the Dovo. Sometimes it's the operator, not the equipment...

I have 3 dovos in my rotation as of now (two of the ebony spike points...long story and crappy post office My third is a Carpe Diem...a bit heavy in the handle, it says multi wood in the description, but it's diamondwood as far as I can tell. I do however have a Fred Dolle "presto" on the bench now, I think I will do most restores on the US razors; as so many do the W & B's, Henckels, TI's, and other sheffield type steels from Europe, I could be wrong, but I just don't see alot of the smaller US manufacturers and companys being done...a shame I think

Originally Posted by DaveW

Coming at it from the other direction, having gone through dozens of vintage razors, I bought my first (and probably only - I'm cheap) dovo last week, new. It (a bismarck) has something that is difficult to find in a lot of vintage shavers, a good bit of weight but at the same time a thin delicate straight bevel that's easy to hone.

At any rate, any decent razor can be brought to a great edge as long as the last abrasive is similar hardness or harder than the carbides in the razor (chromium oxide III, aluminum oxide, diamonds, silicon carbide, ...). The hardest abrasives, diamond aside maybe, tend to be some of the cheapest available, too.

Really? Hmmmm. What is this "cheap" of which you speak?

Well, enough chromium oxide powder for about 10 years of stropping is $15 or so, there are alumina abrasive based stones just about at every turn, right? Even the house brand stones that are 10k grit and $60 or whatever are some sort of alumina and one would provide a shaver (vs. a razor restorer) a lifetime of honing.

diamond is about $1 a carat on ebay loose.

it's a good time to be sharpening something! Imagine if we were all fighting over natural stones. By now, we'd all be fighting over the carbon steel razors if that were the case.

There is probably some finer inexpensive artificial stone that I'm not remembering, too.