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.