All right, I've been pondering making this thread for a while, but refrained, basically because I'm not really a kind of negative person.
So I didn't wanna start a "look how bad this is" whining-thread.
But I just read a thread with another member having the exact same issues with this exact razor...
That threw me off.. People needs to be warned...
Anyhow;
A while back a colleague asked me to hone a razor he just picked up because he wanted to try straight shaving.
He told me it was a Edwin Jagger in ebony. Cool I thought, never handled & shaved with one of those.
They are made by DOVO & DOVO sells the same model also in ebony.
But when I got it I had a hard time keeping my face straight.
It was the most horrific example of bad craftmanship I have ever seen on a razor.
People mock the Double Arrow, but let me tell you, this atrocity isn't far from it.
When I got it it had a rather pronounced frown.
And I can see why, because the heel is so big & off center, that if you hone this normally
it will only make contact with a few spots on the edge.
It took me over 30 minutes to correct this on a SHAPTON 220 STONE.
The Shapton 220 is pretty close to a belt-sander in speed. This wasn't honing, it was grinding..
When everything was ground reasonably even, I also noticed a slight warp..
But, after some tweaking, it took a decent edge & the shave was decent. Nothing spectacular, but OK.
Onto the scales...
They claim this is ebony.. And it might be, but it must be the lowest grade ebony that is possible to find.
Open grained & not nearly as hard or naturally oily as ebony should be.
And it's covered in some sort of lacquer or grain filler or whatever crap they smeared it in. Maybe only a very low quality oil that didn't harden properly? Or it might just be dipped in the quenching oil in the forge, who knows...
And to top this ratty wood of, they have done such a poor job of sanding & finishing & fitting the blade,
that the pins are bent, very badly pinned, the scales are not the same thickness, the wedge must have been sanded flush with a belt-sander & nothing more, the edges are just nearly broken, no roundness at all.
Just look at the pics for yourselves...
This EJ retails for 990 SEK, that is about $155 the same model of DOVOs own retails on SRD for $113.99
A Gold Dollar comes to you for $10 shipped. Buy the kids some popsicles, save two of the sticks, smear them with black shoe cream & pin them to the GD & you have just saved yourself $100.
And hey, the etching on the blade on the GD will last longer & looks better
My apologies for the rant...
So I didn't wanna start a "look how bad this is" whining-thread.
But I just read a thread with another member having the exact same issues with this exact razor...
That threw me off.. People needs to be warned...
Anyhow;
A while back a colleague asked me to hone a razor he just picked up because he wanted to try straight shaving.
He told me it was a Edwin Jagger in ebony. Cool I thought, never handled & shaved with one of those.
They are made by DOVO & DOVO sells the same model also in ebony.
But when I got it I had a hard time keeping my face straight.
It was the most horrific example of bad craftmanship I have ever seen on a razor.
People mock the Double Arrow, but let me tell you, this atrocity isn't far from it.
When I got it it had a rather pronounced frown.
And I can see why, because the heel is so big & off center, that if you hone this normally
it will only make contact with a few spots on the edge.
It took me over 30 minutes to correct this on a SHAPTON 220 STONE.
The Shapton 220 is pretty close to a belt-sander in speed. This wasn't honing, it was grinding..
When everything was ground reasonably even, I also noticed a slight warp..
But, after some tweaking, it took a decent edge & the shave was decent. Nothing spectacular, but OK.
Onto the scales...
They claim this is ebony.. And it might be, but it must be the lowest grade ebony that is possible to find.
Open grained & not nearly as hard or naturally oily as ebony should be.
And it's covered in some sort of lacquer or grain filler or whatever crap they smeared it in. Maybe only a very low quality oil that didn't harden properly? Or it might just be dipped in the quenching oil in the forge, who knows...
And to top this ratty wood of, they have done such a poor job of sanding & finishing & fitting the blade,
that the pins are bent, very badly pinned, the scales are not the same thickness, the wedge must have been sanded flush with a belt-sander & nothing more, the edges are just nearly broken, no roundness at all.
Just look at the pics for yourselves...
This EJ retails for 990 SEK, that is about $155 the same model of DOVOs own retails on SRD for $113.99
A Gold Dollar comes to you for $10 shipped. Buy the kids some popsicles, save two of the sticks, smear them with black shoe cream & pin them to the GD & you have just saved yourself $100.
And hey, the etching on the blade on the GD will last longer & looks better
My apologies for the rant...