Thread: New razor: Dovo 88 (NOS)

[QUOTE=DDTech;1157849]



Yes. I think they still produce the 88, but appearance has changed over time. Today the serration consists just of a few lines.

This one already (one of the others from that auction) had a different (though interesting) serration and the blade is done the way they do it today:
Letters and ornaments are being etched into the surface and on top of that gold is being electrolyzed using a more or less simple mask.

Under certain light or point of view only the mask is visible, which - to me - actually looks quite cheap.

I would almost be willing to bet that your razor is an older one and was made by Dorp and Voos while the second one is newer and was made by Fritz Bracht. If that is true then over time they might likely have used much simpler decorations and methods to keep costs down and that is discounting the loss of craftsman skilled enough to do a certain level of work also. I like you would prefer your razor too.

Bob

Worked spines and engraved text are expensive to produce, so the reason they are uncommon these days is that people don't want to pay for them.
If this razor was a current factory production it would've cost several times what you paid for it on ebay.

Originally Posted by BobH

I would almost be willing to bet that your razor is an older one and was made by Dorp and Voos while the second one is newer and was made by Fritz Bracht. If that is true then over time they might likely have used much simpler decorations and methods to keep costs down and that is discounting the loss of craftsman skilled enough to do a certain level of work also. I like you would prefer your razor too. Bob

You win! The box says "Dorp and Voos" above DOVO. I was wondering, when I first saw it, because I never realized it on another DOVO-Box. You can see some of it in the first picture of the initial post.

Yesterday evening I did a short examination of the edge under the microsocope. Not as sharp and polished as I get them after honing, but a perfect straight edge from head to toe. Even the part where the egde used to touch the scales seems to be undamaged.
In contrast modern DOVOs I recently bought where rough and full of pits and hooks (microscopically).

This is getting more and more interesting.

Thanks
Frank

Originally Posted by gugi

Worked spines and engraved text are expensive to produce, so the reason they are uncommon these days is that people don't want to pay for them.
If this razor was a current factory production it would've cost several times what you paid for it on ebay.

Yes, that's what I thought when I first saw it. And even if You were willing to pay extra money, You would not get it, because things are not being produced like this anymore and knowledge and skills to do so is lost in the factories. There are some individual craftsmen that still can work wonders as I see on those custom made razors sometimes shown here. But not in the production places.

The "shareholder value" approach has done no good to craftmanship and product-quality

I love the blue on that razor. Very pretty.

Morning Frank

You may find this interesting then http://www.strazors.com/index.php?id...ingen_germany_ . It is from a forum member's site.

Bob

Originally Posted by coachschaller

I love the blue on that razor. Very pretty.

Yes, the blue caught me first too.

Bob,

Originally Posted by BobH

You may find this interesting then STRAZORS.com - all about classic razors - DOVO, Fritz Bracht, Solingen, Germany. . It is from a forum member's site.Bob

how nice, great source. Thank You so much.

BTW. If You scroll down on that page, You'll find a 2006 made DOVO 1516 (that I also own). On that picture You can see the poor exactness of the electrolyzing-mask, that I've been writing of earlier. It looks the same on mine.

Frank

After the examination of the blade under the microscope, I thought it would be a sin, not to try anything less destructive than honing.

That's the way the edge came. I did nothing more than a few strokes on the strop in order to remove the oil.
it is not as smooth and polished as I would have it comming from the stones, but even and without pits





a bit of a "saw" as seen in backlight, but not bad


tip


so I just gave it an extended strop with 40 on linnen and around 100 or 120 on the leather. After that, the blade felt sharp on the thumb and performed a good "standing hair test" without pulling too much - I use to go over my head in a distance of one or two inches and see if it is catching and cutting free standing hair and, if it does, how much the pulling is. As the skin on the head is highly sensitive, this works very well. In this case I'm looking more at the pulling than the cutting. - so I thought, I could give it a try.

And yes, it worked. Not as good as comming from the stones, but no pulling, no pressure necessary, no cuts or nics, no irritation. I would say, this blade was truely shave ready ex works.

I'll probably strop it on cr-ox (should tape it even for that) and see, if I can enhance it a bit more.

Today I shaved with a 75 year old edge - wow!

I am sure a good stropping on chromium oxide will make a considerable difference.