Thread: New Dovo Tortoise, problems and pictures

I'm new to straight razor shaving and I'm having difficulty with my first razor even though I sharpen knives well and I'm familiar with the sharpening process. I bought a 4k/8k Norton as well as a canvas/leather strop just for the straight razor. I have sensitive skin that will blemish easily.

Even though I bought the knife off a recommended website that hones each razor by hand, the razor did not come sharp. I did not test each section of the razor but it had difficulty shaving arm hair at the root with moderate pressure. I shaved with it anyway and the results were not pretty. I stropped the razor on the canvas and leather side 40x each and shaved two days later with little improvement.

Since then, I've watched every video by Lynn Abrams, read pages and pages of these forums and I still have no luck. I've tried every sharpening method I could find. Often I have reset the edge on a glass or by reverse honing to make sure there is no wire edge. I've even used 600 grit sandpaper to try to start anew. I've lapped my stones on 400/600/800grit so many times in the past 3 weeks I think I've taken off 1/2" of the stone. I had a friend try to sharpen with his equipment and he could not achieve better results.

I test almost every sharpening with a shave but I also have used the thumb, fingernail and hair tests. The edge I usually make does not feel very sharp on my thumb but can pass the fingernail test. I rarely can get the edge to split hair without extensive manipulation of the hair, which is odd because I can get my regular knives with 30 or 40 degree edges to split hairs lengthwise. The best edge I've achieved so far is when the half of the razor towards the tip made the hair fall over on itself but not cut all the way through. I did not have irritation after one pass and the razor did not catch on the hairs. The second pass started mild irritation under the chin but was not uncomfortable. I did not try a third.

Below are pictures of my Dovo Tortoise. The last 1/3 of the edge came with a curve that has been difficult to sharpen.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks for the advice. I ordered a 1000 stone and will try again before sending it in.

How would you recommend honing the edge near the tip? I can sharpen the straight edge to just barely shave-sharp but the last 1/5 with its curve will not sharpen. I find the end of the razor the most used part and this may be the source of most of my irritation.

Pete;

Once you get your 1k stone. Tape the spine of the razor to prevent any excess wear. Begin using an X stroke. That way each part of the blade comes in contact with the hone. Don't rest your elbows on the table. Stropping is a wrist and fingers based activity, but honing is a full arm activity. If you have difficulty keeping the toe of the razor on the hone, hold it more securely with your hand, and/or put your index finger of your other hand gently on the toe (without any pressure) just to keep in on the stone as you move the razor across.

X strokes should take care of that edge. Double check the wiki and the videos to make sure you're performing it properly.

Before leaving the 1k, every single part of that blade should pop an arm hair, not always easily like a shave ready razor, but they should cut cleanly.

Once off the 1k, check the Wiki again and try an aggressive pyramid. Again, using X strokes.

I hope this helps

Originally Posted by Maxi

Pete;

Once you get your 1k stone. Tape the spine of the razor to prevent any excess wear.

Maxi - this is good advice. I can hone a knife that can scrape the hair off. It also became very aparant that honing a razor is a week bit different thank a knife. However, my question is won't the electrical tape affect the angle of the bevel? I know the tape will cut down on wear on spine but I thought that that would also alter the bevel edge?

Thanx - Eric

It will affect the angle of the bevel slightly, but as long as you set the bevel well, and then polish it up nicely, it shouldn't affect the shave, should it?

If you are new to honing, better send it out to a pro to be honed. Straight shaving will disappoint you if you don't start with a shave ready straight. It is better to learn honing after you know what a shave-ready straight feels while shaving.

Razor bevels are similar to knife bevels in some ways, and yes, the honing is different. Knife and razor bevels don't have to be at a specific degree, but can exist within a set of degrees.

A razor works well between 16 and 18 degrees IIRC, and a piece of tape will account for less than a 1/2 a degree increase.

Taping is debated regularly. I tape everything, at every stage. I do this because my short term memory has more holes than swiss cheese. I'd be up the creek if I only taped a few razors.

Taping also protects goldwashed spines and such.

Hope this helps a bit.

I believe knife bevels set at a factory come between 20 and 30 degrees, but I can't remember exactly.

As many before you have realized honing a knife and honing a razor are not near the same, and the next lesson comes after you get it sharp and realize that smooth is more important

Here are some links to some Vids I did, one of them is specificaly for working the Norton 4/8 it might help you a bit...

That slight smile is desirable BTW that is exactly the edge profile you want, as it make for a easy shaving face friendly cut... Believe it or not there are special adaptive strokes to create that over time o a straight edge

http://straightrazorpalace.com/video...-gssixgun.html

Originally Posted by gssixgun

As many before you have realized honing a knife and honing a razor are not near the same, and the next lesson comes after you get it sharp and realize that smooth is more important

Here are some links to some Vids I did, one of them is specificaly for working the Norton 4/8 it might help you a bit...

That slight smile is desirable BTW that is exactly the edge profile you want, as it make for a easy shaving face friendly cut... Believe it or not there are special adaptive strokes to create that over time o a straight edge

http://straightrazorpalace.com/video...-gssixgun.html

When I said I know how to sharpen knives, I didn't mean to imply I would automatically be good at sharpening straight razors; I meant I am familiar with the general sharpening process, bevels, honing, stroping and the physics behind the process. If anything, sharpening knives is more difficult because you do not have a spine to drag on the stone for a consistent angle. Nevertheless, both have difficult nuances to learn.

When setting the bevel on the 1K stone with small circles as Lynn demonstrated, how do I handle the curved tip? It won't be touching the stone with light pressure.

The standard fix for smiling edges is to use a "rolling X stroke".

That involves either pressure changes:

. . . start the stroke with pressure on one end of the razor,
. . . end the stroke with pressure on the other end of the razor

or (for serious smiles) actually "rocking" the razor from one end to the other, as it moves down the hone.

There's a Wiki about the process.

Charles