Thread: 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.

cigarm...

I'd suggest getting in touch with Lynn or Don via the personal message route to learn if they may have some suggestions for you as a new straight shaver and at the same time they can learn about your concerns with your new razor.

good shaving,

Why did you strop the razor when you knew it was good to go? Most likely your poor stropping and bad technique (youve no experience with either) degraded the edge and gave you a bad shave.

Sounds to me like a very typical first shave!

To address your first point, you'll always get some spine wear if you hone without tape (which is what they do in the factory before they send them out and also what Lynn does). I have a Boker Edelweiss from SRD and there is a tiny amount of spine wear (less than 0.5mm) which is totally fine.

You'll never get a razor without some spine wear, even brand new from the factory. I've had eBay razors with over 2mm of spine wear that still shave great, so although 2mm of spine wear isnt the best looking thing it doesnt affect the shave.

As to the shave itself, this is purely a technique thing. If you look back through past threads you'll see so many where people are saying "I got a razor from X and it was supposed to be shave ready so I used it and it was terrible!" and then a month later they've had this epiphany and the shaves are great. This thread is a case in point:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/shavi...n-apology.html

Honestly, truly it will be shave ready. The problems you encountered will be due to a poor shaving technique (nuthin wrong with that, it just takes practice! ), poor prep/ lather (a bad lather will add no glide or cushion and make even the best honed razors feel terrible) or you may have inadvertantly dulled the edge while stropping.

You say the razor cut hairs, so lets rule out dulling the edge by stropping and focus on technique and prep:

1) Take a hot shower and rub a good load of conditioner into your beard. Rinse thoroughly and make sure the beard gets good and wet.

2) Lather up. Put hot water on the soap and soak the brush. Load the brush with soap and use a teaspoon of hot water in the mug as well to create your lather. Splash your face with hot water and really work the brush over the beard.

3) Slap a hot towel/ flannel over the top of that. When I say hot it should be as hot as you can stand without leaving blisters! After a minute or two remove the towel and reapply more lather.

4) Start the shave. The angle should be 1-2 spines widths away from your face but you might have to play around slightly to get the best angle for you. Start going WTG only and think beard reduction with each pass. Its unlikely you'll be able to make one pass and be totally BBS simply due to the way your beard grows. Most guys need to do a couple of passes and then some touching up in the awkward spots.

5) Post shave, rinse your face with warm water and then cold water. Again, get the cold water as cold as you can stand. Then apply your balm or AS.

It really is a practice thing, so just keep at it and you will get the results you want!

If you think you have miscued whilst stropping then the best thing to do is to get in touch with Lynn or Don and arrange a re-honing.

Good luck and keep us posted!

If I had to guess, I would say that your angle was a bit wide. I did the same thing when I started not that long ago. bring the back of the blade closer and go really slow to start. I would get frustrated that it wasn't giving me a great shave and that is how I cut myself. It is going to take some time to get used to this kind of shaving.

Stropping is another beast completely. This took me even longer to figure out. The key is doing it over and over. I got a butter knife and practiced with that just to get the motion down. If your technique is off it can cause bad shaves. Once again just take your time, the more time you spend now the faster you will be down the road.

I haven't been doing this very long compared to a lot of people on here but I had similar problems. I bought my first razor from the same people and blamed it on them at first, but realized that it was all my fault. With that said everyone has an off day, and they might have made a mistake on your razor. With the limited experience I had with them they seemed to be very helpful. If you send them pics and ask questions I am sure they will help you out.

I absolutely don't mean to discount your concerns about how your new razor is working, but I will say that they are consistent with what we hear from new straight razor users on an almost daily basis.

First of all, its not impossible that your razor is not sharp enough. Anything is possible. Based on past results it is safe to say that it is extremely unlikely, so lets look at other variables.

If you are getting good results with a DE let's assume that your prep is OK. By far the most common problem that most new (straight) shavers have is controlling the angle of the blade itself. We all know that approx 30 degrees is what we are going for as a general rule. Unfortunately, much of the time we are using a straight razor it's hard to tell exactly what the blade to face angle is. With experience you will be able to angle the blade based on feel. What you are describing would most likely cause me to lower the blade angle until I felt it cutting instead of scraping. An easy way to get started is to keep the spine of the razor 2 to 3 spine widths off of your face.

I would also suggest just shaving the sides of your face ie: sideburns to jawline until you are comfortable with the quality of the shave.

You've already gotten excellent advice so I will only address one thing you mentioned. I have seen Lynn do enough honing to be able to assure you that he only does the amount of honing necessary to get the blade shave ready. The amount of steel he removed from the spine pretty much was the minimal amount possible to get your blade shave ready.

Some hone wear is inevitable. It is a necessary part of the life of a razor. (Taping is only a temporary "fix" that can ultimately alter the bevel angle to an un-useable degree.)

I can add nothing to what's been said, technique-wise. Six months ago I was in the same spot, but probably not doing as well. 'Much more blood-letting.

You're in the position of starting on what will be a long learning curve, justified only by the quality of shave you will very soon have. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say you will have the best shaves of your life very soon.

I wasn't worth a damn at stropping at first. 'Destroyed several strops.

I read the material many times & still didn't 'get' blade angle (I still have much to learn). I read 30 deg and thought it was the objective for all WTG parts of the face, regardless of where, or what condition. This caused me to grouse about full hollows just bogging down and flexing.

This heartburn will change. Maybe not overnight, but you'll soon have enough 'victories' to get you thoroughly hooked and very happy you stuck with it.

Keep posting and asking questions. The help and attitudes here are better than any forum of any type I've ever seen. The responses you've gotten thus far are really really good. If you read them 6 months from now, you'll see that much more clearly. One of the critical things the mods & members 'get' here is that 'noob friendly' is critical, and they do it well.

I look forward to seeing more posts from you - especially those first shaves that have you excited the rest of the day. They're sweet, and you'll have some soon.

Cigarman-I am a grizzled veteran of 1 year. I started last Christmas with a Dovo Best from SRD, honed by Lynn. Like many, my first several shaves were a mess of tugging, skipping, and occasional bloodletting, but I persevered, read up as much as I could here on SRP, and was getting enjoyable, BBS shaves within a few months if I did everything right (which becomes more automatic as you go).

One thing I found helpful was to read about the learning journey of our own LawsonStone, who seems to have the ability to crystallize in words what can be very daunting for the beginner. For instance, his advice to go "tight and light" on the strop and during the shave (where a light touch and stretching are key) really helped me.

As for the Dovo Best, I can almost guarantee you your razor is plenty sharp if honed by Lynn. In fact, though I own some other razors now, the Dovo is still probably my best shaver, and my easiest to touch-up the edge on; incidentally, I still haven't sent it in for the free lifetime honing, though I plan to soon (and then I'm going to learn to hone!).

Merry Christmas early, and keep us in the loop! Aaron

Thank you guys. Its good to hear these tips and words of encouragement! I do usually have a decent DE shave with my setup so I (erroneously) figured that it wouldnt be that far off the mark to get results. Obviously, the artform must be learned here for me. As far as the stropping went I read and saw what the pros were doing when they did it and followed their lead. I lead with the spine and dont press to hard, go slow, listen....it does seem that carbon steel likes to sing on the strop so maybe I am holding it a bit incorrectly since the one soundbite I heard had no metal ringing noise.

I understand the hone-wear thing better now and it doesnt unnerve me like it did last night. (I thought, wow this thing has been thru the ringer! But no.)

I want to try waiting longer for my next shave as that seems to give me the best results. Its very dry here in Maine so my lather wanted to dry up if I didnt keep splashing. At one point there were magic floaties when I leaned down to the sink! It was the foam flaking away.

I must practice with the strop more and find/make a good hook for it to hang from so I can hold it with more confidence.

Onwards and upwards as they say! Im sure there will be bleeding in the future but that's part of "manning up" with this skill set.

Again thanks to all.