New Dovo first straight shave - oddness
Ok so last night I got my strop in from SRD and decided it was time to give it a go with straight shaving. Mixed up some Tobs and did my usual pre-shave prep (shower, clean face). Cleaned off the oil from the dovo and stropped it some to get it ready. (Leading with the spine like I've been reading up on) Everything seemed ok but then I looked at the spine and saw that it had some pretty serious honing marks on it a few thou deep. This was a new 5/8 best quality from SRD as well. SRD states that each razor is pro-honed and ready to go when they ship, but was that amount of honing needed? Seems like a lot of metal missing. Anyways, I proceeded to go slowly down the side burn area with short strokes at what looked to be a good cutting angle from the sound I was getting. (very vocal blade btw) Didnt seem to cut that well and was putting up sizeable resistance trying to cut the hairs. I would need to make 5 or 6 short passes to get a cut and it wasnt that deep. Does this sound out of sorts when shaving with a straight? Felt like the blade needed to be sharper yet when observing the blade it looked clean and straight with no shiny spots or belt contours. Have I gone wrong somewhere here? I wonder if my bristles are just a little too thick for this razor to deal with. Perhaps a half hollow grind or wedge would work better? A little discouraged and scratching my head on this stuff. I dont want to give it up but I sure would appreciate a better shave.