EJ / DOVO QC is a joke... (warning - rant inside)

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...

NO WAY. Are you sure that's a Dovo and not a Wang Chung or a Hwang Ho?

I almost at a lost for words looking at that. I am glad I decided to get me a
Feather instead of a Dovo. Do you think this was a fluke?

Kentos said:

NO WAY. Are you sure that's a Dovo and not a Wang Chung or a Hwang Ho?

I almost at a lost for words looking at that. I am glad I decided to get me a
Feather instead of a Dovo. Do you think this was a fluke?

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I hope so...but the member in a recent thread in the newbie-section ( linked in the beginning of my post) posted about pretty much the exact same issues unfortunately

Doesn't surprise me. I've never owned a new Dovo, but have honed a couple for some people. I'll agree with the assessment that they shave ok, but nothing great.

Pretty much any vintage razor I'm come across has given me a better shave and I'm pretty sure it wasn't just my honing.

Wow. I think Dovo have started hiring employees with "special needs".

If I had turned those scales in to my high school woodwork teacher for marking he would have made me stay after class to do them again.

legion said:

Wow. I think Dovo have started hiring employees with "special needs".

If I had turned those scales in to my high school woodwork teacher for marking he would have made me stay after class to do them again.

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Not to mention what would have happened to you if you were an employee at a razor forge 100 years ago & you had made scales like this...

honed said:

Not to mention what would have happened to you if you were an employee at a razor forge 100 years ago & you had made scales like this...

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They'd have quenched you. Until the bubbles stopped coming up.

legion said:

They'd have quenched you. Until the bubbles stopped coming up.

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Pretty much so. Or at least the Master would have made good use of the shop strop

No wonder they had better QC back then

What in the Wide Wide World of Sports are you all doing up at 3-4am???

Maybe the Edwin Jagger is just a low-price entry razor made by Dovo? No excuse for this kind of workmanship, but maybe that's just the kind of thing that Jagger specced?

Woodash said:

What in the Wide Wide World of Sports are you all doing up at 3-4am???

Maybe the Edwin Jagger is just a low-price entry razor made by Dovo? No excuse for this kind of workmanship, but maybe that's just the kind of thing that Jagger specced?

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I've been doing crack for 79 consecutive hours

Oh sorry, wrong forum... then the explanation is that I'm in Sweden & hence a rather different time-zone than you are...

I've owned three Dovo razors so far and two of the three were about of the same quality. I'll never bother to try another.

honed said:

I've been doing crack for 79 consecutive hours

Oh sorry, wrong forum... then the explanation is that I'm in Sweden & hence a rather different time-zone than you are...

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We dont get much crack in Aus. I'm mostly on speed. I havent slept for days! Man, those Americans are soft, going to bed every night!

I have 2 NOS stainless Dovo razors, both a #42 from different years in the FB period. Let me tell you, even in that "better" period, quality is so-so. The plastic scales are cheap and poorly pinned. The razors needed spine correction to hone properly. They are supposed to be french point but one is closer to a round point. After repinning and correction, they are execellent shavers (best I've ever had really), but in my opinion, they should not leave the factory like that!

I know there are more expensive models that do not have these issues, but there is no excuse for these "cheaper" models to be as shoddy as they are.

legion said:

We dont get much crack in Aus. I'm mostly on speed. I havent slept for days! Man, those Americans are soft, going to bed every night!

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Yes, I've never gotten that, especially since they all ready are half a day behind! I'm soon to have dinner & they have just merely made it out of bed!


The things is that this razor isn't advertised as a starter razor, it's one of the pricier more "fancy" razors, & the ebony scales gets a special mention as being a very exclusive choice of scale material.
But they don't mention anything about the exclusive craftmansship behind those ebony scales

That's sad to see.

In the last year, I bought four new Dovos, and with the exception of one blade that closes a bit too far to one side for comfort, they were all very nicely done. I guess this is, and will remain, a hit or miss business.

I'm confused here. You say your colleague picked up this razor. Is it new or second hand? It doesn't look new and if it's used who knows what the previous owner did to it and if it's new why would you accept something like that. I have several Dovos, nothing bought in the last few years but they were all perfect and are great shavers. I know there have been issues like the QC issues at TI and shave readiness at Dovo.

To tell you the truth when it comes to factory made razors these days I expect little.

I've posted this before, so forgive the repeat; a couple years back I purchased a brandy new Dovo Pearlex stainless. I went to hone it up, the blade was warped, not making contact in the middle on one side. OK, stuff happens, I sent it back to the vendor for replacement.....The replacement had exactly the same warp!

So, back to the vendor it went as well....we decided to try one from the ebony scaled batch.....nope! EXACTLY the same warp! Same side, same everything. The vendor and I decided to quit trying.

I sent all of my aquired data, with pics to Dovo, and instead of offering to replace the razor, they wanted me to send it to them to take a look at. Forget it....they lost me as a customer due to their obvious lack of QC.

I then went out and bought a older Dovo stainless from the Bay, and it is a very fine, exclent razor. But no way will I be purchasing a new Dovo.

I've never been a fan of the boxy Dovo scales, they lack any sort of refinement. But your example is lacking in craftsmanship as well as refinement. Really poor.

Thats quite sad, as dovo have always appealed to me as a good name, i am actually waiting for a 1950 vintage dovo to be delivered, i just hope that is in better shape, the other thing i have noticed is price, i have looked at the ej and cyral salter straights, both made my dovo, but no real saving on the price, if i did buy one of these razors, it would be a dovo over a ej or cyral salter, though that may not hapeen now

It's a shame to see new products like these pictures.

I bought a new Dovo BQ over a year ago, and it was a very fine razor. Excellent shave qualities and no QC issues other than a little imperfection on the scales near the wedge.

Sure, the scales were kinda cheap plastic, but its the low end model. The steel was great and shave was excellent. It's off to a new home now, but I'm glad to have owned it.

Sad to see this happening to a good company with a (previously) good reputation.

Thebigspendur said:

I'm confused here. You say your colleague picked up this razor. Is it new or second hand? It doesn't look new and if it's used who knows what the previous owner did to it and if it's new why would you accept something like that. I have several Dovos, nothing bought in the last few years but they were all perfect and are great shavers. I know there have been issues like the QC issues at TI and shave readiness at Dovo.

To tell you the truth when it comes to factory made razors these days I expect little.

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He picked it up second hand.
So the rust & frown isn't DOVO's fault.
Albeit the frown happened because the heel was so out of shape....