Thread: Shavettes, the whole truth.

Great comments everyone. Very helpful, indeed. I think I'll back off my Diamond Edge cheepo "shavette" wannabe, and look for a used 6/8 full hollow, shave ready, and a strop. Christmas is coming...

Originally Posted by Smyth

Great comments everyone. Very helpful, indeed. I think I'll back off my Diamond Edge cheepo "shavette" wannabe, and look for a used 6/8 full hollow, shave ready, and a strop. Christmas is coming...

If your on a budget you may want to look at whipped dog shaving supplies. You'll get a shave ready 'sight unseen' straight and 'poor mans strop kit' for moderate coin. I used his travel strop for months. Eventually you may want to upgrade.. but it's a start. If you don't like it, you haven't sold the farm :-)

Whipped Dog Straight Razor Shaving Equipment

While I have never tried a shavette, that is a great read, and very informative. Sort of confirms you get what you pay for. Thank you.

I have been using the Dovo Shavette for about a month now, using Merkur DE blades. I have had a fairly easy time of it (though to be fair I don't shave my whole face, only my neck to the jaw line and the tops of my cheeks as I have a beard). I have found the experience great, and I am moving towards SE world soon (holidays seems to be a good time for the transition as my family wants to buy the razor and strop for me).

I have found that the shavette is a good training tool because it is reputed as so unforgiving, and I can attest to that nature. One has to be extremely thoughtful when putting the blade to the face. To be fair the nicks at first didn't hurt so much as they bled, but one gets a VERY ginger hand after a couple of those. I followed each shave at first with an Alum bar...which also told me quite profoundly where I was doing a good job and where I could apply less pressure. I feel as a result the learning curve was fast for me. Maybe that is the way I work, but I think it is a good learning tool and look forward to getting my hands on a SE sooner rather than later. Thanks for the great post!

Originally Posted by Phrank

For me, I would agree with that, I had a Parker for awhile to give it a try, very harsh with the Shark Blades and very unforgiving...the Parker at least I think would be more difficult to master than a real straight.

I too started with a Parker and the Shark blades and I had my fair share of cuts. I think I may have one or two that still can be seen in the right light. I was so scared of the straight razor at first and the stropping and all that I decided the shavette would be best. I wish I had started with the straight, but I can say I've not had a serious cut (will probably have one in the morning now) since making the move to my straight. I tried shaving with the shavette last week for the first time in a few months and it was very unforgiving for me still. I guess the best thing that came out of the shavette is that I'm super careful with my straight because of all the blood spilled with my shavette.

Now that I've been shaving with some form of a straight for about 2 years, I find it interesting that we consider shavettes to be "good training", despite the fact that we also know that they are less forgiving than a traditional straight. I was sold a shavette because the dealer told me it would let me know if I was serious about straight shaving, as to save me the money of a large investment if I didn't like it. What I would now recommend to beginners is a whipped dog or similarly basic blade for the same price of a shavette, and then get a shavette later for the closeness or the practicality, or the simplicity. I love my shavettes but not because I learned on them!

I really am on the fence about this issue. I myself used a shavette as "basic training" for straight razor shaving. While it's true they are far less forgiving than a traditional straight razor, what it did do well was isolate factors. Here's what I mean, if I'm a new guy and I pick up a traditional straight razor and have it professionally honed there's about a million things I can do to break the edge on the razor (most often it's poor stropping technique). Nevertheless, I've got to learn not only technique (how to hold it, maneuver it, make it work) but how to strop it. How to hone it can come later but while I master stropping I may trash an edge or two and have to send it back to get rehoned. If this happens my practice time is interrupted so when the straight comes back I pretty much start from scratch.

The shavette makes it possible for a new guy to take it one step at a time. Most of us who started with one will attest to the fact that it's a crash course in techinque as a shavette will definitely let you know about every mistake you make. I think that probably in some strange way helps with the initial fear or apprehension you start to understand that "yeah, I might cut myself time to time, but it's not fatal and it's not a big deal." For me at least, once I mastered the shavette, by comparison a traditional straight was a piece of cake. All I had to concentrate on was learning to strop correctly, after that, honing. This made sense and still makes sense to me. At the end of the day, it's probably a six in one, half a dozen in the other proposition. Had I started with a traditional straight, I may have lost less blood but the problem then would be keeping an edge keen enough for the shave not to suck. Today I use and enjoy both shavettes and traditional straight.

Pretty much on par with my beginnings in this hobby. Great read. Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by 1OldGI

I really am on the fence about this issue. I myself used a shavette as "basic training" for straight razor shaving. While it's true they are far less forgiving than a traditional straight razor, what it did do well was isolate factors. Here's what I mean, if I'm a new guy and I pick up a traditional straight razor and have it professionally honed there's about a million things I can do to break the edge on the razor (most often it's poor stropping technique). Nevertheless, I've got to learn not only technique (how to hold it, maneuver it, make it work) but how to strop it. How to hone it can come later but while I master stropping I may trash an edge or two and have to send it back to get rehoned. If this happens my practice time is interrupted so when the straight comes back I pretty much start from scratch.

The shavette makes it possible for a new guy to take it one step at a time. Most of us who started with one will attest to the fact that it's a crash course in techinque as a shavette will definitely let you know about every mistake you make. I think that probably in some strange way helps with the initial fear or apprehension you start to understand that "yeah, I might cut myself time to time, but it's not fatal and it's not a big deal." For me at least, once I mastered the shavette, by comparison a traditional straight was a piece of cake. All I had to concentrate on was learning to strop correctly, after that, honing. This made sense and still makes sense to me. At the end of the day, it's probably a six in one, half a dozen in the other proposition. Had I started with a traditional straight, I may have lost less blood but the problem then would be keeping an edge keen enough for the shave not to suck. Today I use and enjoy both shavettes and traditional straight.

Great summary and post. I feel much the same as you, and agree on one of your biggest points most...the isolation of the shave. I am now learning on a Whipped Dog Vintage and a TI straight, and I am not worried at all about the shave, but rather at this point am focussing on my stropping. It is coming along nicely. Had I not learned the shave first, I fear my attention may be spread a bit thin and this process would slow a bit.

Originally Posted by Denvernoob

Great summary and post. I feel much the same as you, and agree on one of your biggest points most...the isolation of the shave. I am now learning on a Whipped Dog Vintage and a TI straight, and I am not worried at all about the shave, but rather at this point am focussing on my stropping. It is coming along nicely. Had I not learned the shave first, I fear my attention may be spread a bit thin and this process would slow a bit.

Great points, the other side of the coin is that if you start with a straight you add in all the other variables first, versus starting with a shavette and getting the technique down but at the cost of blood... Tough call, I'm rethinking my earlier post...