first straight razor delusion!!!

[danzyc]

hello my friend! i have bought a pearlex 5/8 carbon steel dovo..... this is a new razor...i have tried to shave with it .......and my dovo shavette with merkur blades is far superior !! it is possibile?? the blade is very bery sharpest!!

ok...dovo made the razor NOT READY TO SHAVE this is a true .... i have tried to make 35 laps with the belgian cocticule (white part) x pattern not pressure and wetted with water.........shavette with merkur blade is superior YET!

could we tell me the next step?? is it possibile that the merkur blade for shavette is far superior to the straight??????

thanks

[JohnP]

There is a learning curve to straights,
Keep at it. Perhaps even send the razor off for its first honing, unless you are very patient. Honing, Stropping, and shave technique all need to be learned with a straight. If you are used to a DE a shavette will be quite close to that. It takes work to make a straight as sharp, since you are competing with a computer controlled machine...but I've shaved with straights that were every bit as smooth and sharp as any DE I've tried. I don't always get mine that sharp, but once you are really good at it and have the "technique" down pat, edges like that will become more and more common.
Keep at it!
It gets better.
John P.

[joel]

could we tell me the next step??

thanks

Send the razor to someone who is experienced with honing so that you know what to expect. What country are you in?

[SSLStudio]

Send the razor to someone who is experienced with honing so that you know what to expect. What country are you in?

I would second that , that was my reason to buy a new Straight ready made by Tony to have the best start possible a prof. honed straight by someone experienced. that way I have a standard to uphold to.

I also bought the DVD Lynn made which has 3.5 hours of straight razor memorablia on it a big part is dedicated to honing aswell.

and If I can find a prof. hone barber/shop that is willing to teach me 1:1 I will.
sharpening knives is an art aswell im not surprised straightrazors would be different.

[LX_Emergency]

Actually...Rene if you're ever in the area of Noord Brabant....you'd be more than welcome to come over to my home. I've had some good comments about my honing recently so I'm feeling quite confident at the moment.

As for what to do next/.....practise practise practise. The Merkur blade might shave better at first, but it'll also dull faster. Plus this being your first honing job it's MOST unlikely that you've gotten good enough at it already. It took me weeks to get my Worldmaster (first razor) sharp enough so that I could get a comfortable shave. It was sharp enough to shave but left me a bit irritated. After a few weeks of honing everyday (no-one to show me) I finally shaved and felt like a million bucks.

[SSLStudio]

Actually...Rene if you're ever in the area of Noord Brabant....you'd be more than welcome to come over to my home. I've had some good comments about my honing recently so I'm feeling quite confident at the moment.

As for what to do next/.....practise practise practise. The Merkur blade might shave better at first, but it'll also dull faster. Plus this being your first honing job it's MOST unlikely that you've gotten good enough at it already. It took me weeks to get my Worldmaster (first razor) sharp enough so that I could get a comfortable shave. It was sharp enough to shave but left me a bit irritated. After a few weeks of honing everyday (no-one to show me) I finally shaved and felt like a million bucks.

thats a great offer !

unfortunate Brabant -> Dronten is quite some km away... that sucks.

i'll do some homework first so we are on the same page, learned alot by watching Lynn hone in an X pattern way lots of Hone stones he has and the Norton is talked about. very interesting ,there is something special to a razor that you prepared yourself. very COOL ! :cool:

[catatonic]

It's a learning curve.

I've been learning to hone my own straights, and almost got it. Thing is, some razors are more newbie friendly than others (harder steel used). My Henckels twinworks is one of the easiest blades for me to get a decent edge on, but it's also the toughest steel of the lot...so it takes a lot of work to sharpen it.

I noticed as well that a freshly honed edge needs more time on the strop the first time around than usual, otherwise it's not as smooth as it can be.