I have been using a parker shavette using half of a double blade for the last few months to get used to straight razor shaving and make sure i like it before spending the money on a real one. i'm sure most people do this. anyway, just bought a 6/8" standard dovo from straightrazordesigns along with a 3" strop, and a few other odds and ends. I was really looking forward to using a well honed SR.

after a few shaves i'm a bit concerned. for one, it isn't nearly as smooth as i expected nor does it seem to cut quite as closely. as a test I broke out the old parker and a fresh blade. shaved one side of my face with the parker the other with the dovo. while visually there doesn't seem to be much difference, i can definitely FEEL the closer shave of the parker. also, the dovo seems to have a lot more drag, which is probably the worst part. i don't know what else i can do. i feel like my technique isn't that bad and i'm stropping the 60-80 times correctly and my preparation is the same as i have always done with decent results.

one thing i do like is the dovo seems to be much more forgiving on cuts/nicks etc. even if it shaved just as good as the parker i'd be satisfied but i guess i was expecting more.

do you think SRD didn't do as good a job on the honing as they could have? should I ask for a redo?