Is it normal to have difficulties with Shavettes?

Hi. For about 6 months I had been using a Dovo classic straight razor. I had gotten to a point where I could quickly shave my whole face without cutting myself one time. So, I felt pretty good about myself. Recently, I decided to finally go get one of those professional straight razor shaves by a barber. Here where I live in Las Vegas, the health department forces the barbers to use disposable shavette razors. It was the first time I had ever been shaved with a shavette, and it was GREAT! The barber never cut me one time and it was absolutely the closet shave I have ever had. I was so satisfied with how great the shavette worked that I went to 'Art of Shaving' and purchased a Dovo Shavette. Now, the problems I am facing is that for some reason I am cutting myself every single time I use the shavette. When I switch back to my classic straight razor, I don't have any problems, but whenever I use the shavette I bleed like crazy. Is there a different type of technique that you need to use with a shavette compared to a classic straight razor?

I don't even know if i should answer this considering I have only shaved with a SR 3 times in my life, but still I think I have some descent guesses as to why there can be a difference between you and the barber. Technique I would guess is one thing. You say that the barber shaved you better han you did yourself when you used a classic SR. This doesn't sound like the information I have read, on the countrary I have read that the classic SR should do a better job than the shavette. This would make me guess that instead of trying to find the better shave buying a shavette, maybe you should work more on your technique as this is where you are lacking, and naturaly the barber will be better than you in this department since this is his job and have way more hours of practice than you possibly can get in 6 months.

The second thing that comes to my mind is the disposable razors. Could it be that he is using a better brand with sharper razors than the ones you have?

As I stated in the beginning of this post, this is just my guesses and I am a real rookie on the subject, but I still like to give my point of view :)

The Shavettes can be sharper (when new) than a straight that hasn't seen a touchup in a while. The blade seems to flex more and different blades perform differently. The Shavette is less forgiving and more susceptible to too much pressure. I still keep mine around, although it rarely sees any use now...

+1

remember any disposable blade is a manufactured piece, and is "machine sharp". 2 points abouts this is

1) it's very sharp indeed. but made with steel that is not meant to retain that edge.
2) Sharp in terms of QC in a manufacturing environment does not take into account such things as smoothness that matter to a straight shaver. as long as the edge is straight (defect free) and "sharp" (however it is the quantify that) it passes QC

with straights we have the luxury of tuning the edge, smoothing out scratch patterns as we progress up the grits, examining the edge much more intensively as we go. You should take a look at some of the microscope pics of bevels and edges thats on the forum and you'll see what i mean. Some guys here can get their bevels mirror smooth which translates into smoothness of edge where the planes meet

Also, a barber who has been shaving with straights will have much more experience than you, and will be able to compensate for the differences between a real straight and a shavette. weight is a factor as well. i have a rattler type grind that is still considerably heavier than a shavette. You may find that you are using much more pressure than with the dovo (unconciously) to compensate for this difference in "feel"

those shavette blades can deffinatly be sharper than a straight when they are brand new....just a thought, maby you just need to watch the pressure, let us know if you figure it out! :)

Worst cut I've ever had while shaving was while using a shavette. Angle of the blade plays huge part. I had the best luck when I kept the spine of the shavette against my skin. I don't recall seeing you say what kind of DE blades you were using with the shavette, but that's another piece of the puzzle. My shavette with half a Feather in it was too much for me to handle. With half a Dorco, it was much nicer.

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Originally Posted by SuperMilkChan

Hi. For about 6 months I had been using a Dovo classic straight razor.

Now, the problems I am facing is that for some reason I am cutting myself every single time I use the shavette. When I switch back to my classic straight razor, I don't have any problems, but whenever I use the shavette I bleed like crazy. Is there a different type of technique that you need to use with a shavette compared to a classic straight razor?

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It's very likely after 6 months your Dovo is no longer optimally sharp & you compensate by heavier pressure. That same pressure with a sharp blade of any kind = blood.
My advice is get your Dovo honed & lighten up on the pressure in general.

I started with the Dovo Shavette and found that when I moved up to a real straight that the shave became less difficult. Recently, however, I picked up the fairly new Feather DX in Stainless Steel (black handle) and that is the same basic style as a Shavette but much more forgiving. It requires zero pressure, and the shaves with it have been great. The structure of the blade holder creates an easier, less dramatic, shave. If I had started with the Feather SS, I might have stayed with it.

The feather system and Kai's are completly different than the shavettes.Used with no pressure,they will get you BBS quickly,usually in 2 passes.

the feather is allegedly light years ahead of the shavettte, but it's extremely expensive. I have a Dovo Shavette and HATE it, Every time I've tried to use it I get cut, also after a 2 pass shave i have severe razor burn (and that's with concentrating on extreme NO pressure) compared to my EXTRA hollow straights which do require attention to pressure give me a comfortable shave every time :)

I want to try the feather, but I cannot justify that kind of dosh on a shavette style razor..

Yeah being that straight razors, especially shavettes, are more cheap than the gillettes and whatnot was the first reason why I started thinking along those lines in the first place. That and the possibility of waiting a week between the shaves and being able to shave right away with longer whiskers. It feels like the feather could run you up in costs quite quick, but I might be wrong?

I started off with a cheap as chips shavette that came with two packs of Supermax blades, the first two shaves were an exercise in bloodletting, but I developed the knack of shaving with it, when you consider that the 'razor' is comprised of bits of chrome plated tin, and the blades are of dubious quality it's amazing that the combination shaves at all, but it does, comfort however is another issue which is why I quickly moved on to 'proper' straight razors.

Yes, I see my shavette as an entry model just to see if this whole thing is something for me. If this is taking to my liking my plan is to move over to a classic razor and even look forward to it hearing about the problems people are mentioning about the shavette.

Yes, it's completely different. One is a straight razor and one is NOT. Shaving yourself with a Shavette is hard. You would be better served with a Parker disposable. They are rarely discussed but are hands, arms, and feet way better than shavettes, and more closely aligned to a traditional REAL straight razor.

Your only hope now is to try a duller DE blade in the Shavette and deal with the poor balance and design.

The only thing on the planet that is dramatically worse than a Shavette is a Feather. They are the only two options WORSE than glass shards. Not that I feel very opinionated on the subject or anything.

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Originally Posted by AFDavis11

The only thing on the planet that is dramatically worse than a Shavette is a Feather. They are the only two options WORSE than glass shards. Not that I feel very opinionated on the subject or anything.

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Do I understand you correctly when you say that a feather is WORSE than a shavette? This would stand against what all others here in the thread says? I am not second judging you, I just want to make sure I don't missunderstand anything in your language that I havn't picked up since I'm a swede and all :)

I think AFDavis11's bias against the Feather is in part because of the extreme sharpness of their blades. Their DE blades have a scary reputation among the safety razor crowd. I do agree with him about the Parker disposables. Although I haven't used a Dovo shavette, the Parkers are much less expensive and have a more secure blade holder. I started my journey to straights with a Parker, and it's my backup when my noob honing/stropping skills haven't produced a good edge on my "real" straight-which is fairly often so far!:)

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Originally Posted by MotoX

Do I understand you correctly when you say that a feather is WORSE than a shavette? This would stand against what all others here in the thread says? I am not second judging you, I just want to make sure I don't missunderstand anything in your language that I havn't picked up since I'm a swede and all :)

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You are correct. I do not like Feathers. They use proprietary blades instead of DE blades and produce too many nicks. I'm sure if I had more fortitude I could have learned how to use one. I developed a phenomenon referred to as skin thinning. This is where the Feather starts to remove part of your face due to using it a few days in a row. I can't imagine a more disturbing outcome from shaving.

I use the Feather and Kai exclusivvaly and they will give you a BBS shave if you take the TIME TO LEARN HOW TO USE THEM PROPERLY. Since the Kai or feather blades are inherintly sharper than you can get any straight edge,of course they will shave you closer

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Originally Posted by AFDavis11

You are correct. I do not like Feathers. They use proprietary blades instead of DE blades and produce too many nicks. I'm sure if I had more fortitude I could have learned how to use one. I developed a phenomenon referred to as skin thinning. This is where the Feather starts to remove part of your face due to using it a few days in a row. I can't imagine a more disturbing outcome from shaving.

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Hi,I am a new member here as well and started with a vintage straight when I was about 19(many years ago).I sharpened it on 1200 grit wet and dry and proceeded to butcher my face and gave up untill recently.

I purchased a shavette for $10 that came with 2 DSBlades and have never had a problem with fresh new blades-they glide like silk compared to my traditional straights.
Most of my problems with the traditional straights are due to my lack of honing ability but I am working on that and am getting a reasonable result now.
I just need to find someone who will tutor me.
Cheers John

You will cut yourself with a Dovo shavette only if you use slicing type motions. If you use too much pressure, you will get irritation. Note that the Dovo shavette blade holder has a nub at the tip which prevents the tip from digging in. I get the best results from the shavette when moving the blade perpendicular to its edge, and with ultralight pressure - esp around the contours of the face and ATG.

Hi

I got exactly the same problem with a parker "shavette" variant.

The biggest factor for me was the edges of DE blades catching folds in my skin. Being REALLY careful to stretch skin as much as possible, and taking short strokes helped, but I think the disposable blade format, especially using halved DE blades, is just inherently a higher risk.