Thread: Shave Ready

I just received a new Dovo Bismark ,,,,"shave ready"/ My first shave was without stropping. Should I strop on the next???

Originally Posted by alschepis

I just received a new Dovo Bismark ,,,,"shave ready"/ My first shave was without stropping. Should I strop on the next???

In a word, yes. How was the shave?

Just curious, was the Dovo "shave ready" in your estimate? Meaning a smooth flawless shave.

If it was by stropping it before your next shave you will know if your stropping is good or not. Meaning if the blade performs less well after the stropping you need to improve your stropping technique.

Bob

Where did you order it?

As others have mentioned, in trying to get the best results possible, we ask how the shave was in order to find out if the blade is shave ready (or technique is faulty).

Stropping is done before and also usually after each shave; we indeed recommend when receiving a shave readily honed and stropped blade to not strop it on the first use, so one cannot roll the edge on the strop.

Factory shave ready is hit and miss but if ordered from say a supplier they may have honed it before going out the door.

Originally Posted by Jnatcat

Factory shave ready is hit and miss but if ordered from say a supplier they may have honed it before going out the door.

My thoughts precisely.

Before answering any question regarding stropping, it would help to know what kind of shave ready we are talking about.

The shave ready that Dovos leave the factory with seems to need some more work before it really deserves that name.
That is also the reason why some merchants advertise that they will do some extra honing before shipping razors.


Regarding your question; even if the razor was truly ready for the first shave, before the next shave I always strop my razors.

The reason that you may not need to strop a new razor is that it was (hopefully) stropped before shipping, but I personally believe that even then some stropping before first use would not hurt the razor.
The risk of rolling the edge through overstropping is IMO overstated, but it can happen to novices who use an incorrect technique.


B.

If you enjoyed the shave and felt that the edge is there strop before the next shave, actually most strop after the shave to ensure the edge is clean and dry. Then give it a good stropping again before the next shave.

Originally Posted by RezDog

If you enjoyed the shave and felt that the edge is there strop before the next shave, actually most strop after the shave to ensure the edge is clean and dry. Then give it a good stropping again before the next shave.

My current method is 20 on linen or Kanayama cotton and 40 or so on leather for the preshave and then just 20 on linen or cotton on the post to dry the blades edge and so far it’s been working out nicely

I received a "shave-ready" Dovo Bismarck as a gift several weeks ago. It was purchased from TSS and the edge is excellent.

The seal on the box was unbroken, so I'll have to conclude that the edge I shaved with is what came from the factory, and it truly was shave- ready.

Very sharp, and a very smooth shave. A real pleasure.

Originally Posted by FWiedner

I received a "shave-ready" Dovo Bismarck as a gift several weeks ago. It was purchased from TSS and the edge is excellent.

The seal on the box was unbroken, so I'll have to conclude that the edge I shaved with is what came from the factory, and it truly was shave- ready.

Very sharp, and a very smooth shave. A real pleasure.

You could always contact Jarrod from TSS and ask him if he touches up edges before they leave his shop or if you know what to look for under a loupe you can look for that scratchy coticule edge as Jarrod uses coticules solely, he used to offer a service where one could send him a razor of good quality and he would put a coticule edge on it free of charge which included free return shipping it was his way to let the user know what a coticule was capable of and he could sell you a coticule but I don’t believe he does this service anymore.