Ouch!

[smt659]

Hello Gents,

Obviously I’m new and apparently clueless at almost 50 years old. I have been following your forums, advice, techniques, gear choices and everything else you guys have to say as if it were the gospel. Today I finally took the plunge and tried straight razor shaving…I have a new Dovo Special #1516 because it was so highly reviewed by you guys, a descent Russian strop, good soap and brush. I showered, wet the heck out of my face and lathered up like nobodies business….so here’s the deal. It pulled like a MF no mater how I held it or how much water and lather I put on my face.

What am I doing wrong…it’s not as if I didn’t look at and read everything you guys have on here (very nice forum BTW)…do I need to hone my brand new Dovo more that it already is or what?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Eagle]

Barberpole.gifDudeDance.gif

Welcome to the B&B. Lots of good info and friendly folks here to help out. I know next to nothing about straight shaving but what you're describing sounds to me like the blade needs to be sharpened/honed. Others will point you in the proper direction. Good luck.

[Not A Nice Person]

. . . my brand new Dovo . . .
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Like the previous poster, I'm more than a bit out of my element when it comes to straights, but from what I've gathered just hanging out here, brand new is NEVER shave ready, unless the seller specifies they'll hone it for you before shipping it out.

Plenty of folks here can help you with that, though.

NANP™

[Alacrity59]

crumb . . . I'll duck considering how new I am here. . . from what I've read you might want to have it made shave ready from . . . .well find your favourite here.

[mmain1]

Like the previous poster, I'm more than a bit out of my element when it comes to straights, but from what I've gathered just hanging out here, brand new is NEVER shave ready, unless the seller specifies they'll hone it for you before shipping it out.

Plenty of folks here can help you with that, though.

NANP™

+1
the sticky in the Straight thread said something to that effect.

I believe "honemeister" was the terminology used; a honemeister should make a new razor shave ready before you attempt to use it.

[frank85]

+1 Razor needs to Honed

Welcome Aboard

[riooso]

Needs to be honed and sharpened. Where are you located?


Take Care,
Richard

[Disburden]

Everyone is right. When you first get your Straight, for the love of god DON'T use the thing right away. You need to hone it and strop it before your first use. Factory sharpened blades are never sharp enough to use for a straight shave. There are many tutorials on honing. I don't use a straight, because it's complicated to care for, but you should be happy with it once you get the ball rolling.

[smt659]

Thanks for the welcome and good info...I kind of figured that I needed to hone it. Any whetstones recomended...I see from the forum that the Norton 4000/8000 is a big hit as well as the Chinese 12000.

[Garrett]

Your razor is not ready to be used - it needs to honed by a professional honer - do not take it to a knife shop - they will ruin your razor! Send it to Lynn Abrams at Straight Razor Designs as he does great honing (as do many others).

I would not try to hone it yourself now - send this out to be done! Buy a cheap E-bay razor and practice honing on that or you will most surely mess up your good razor. I almost exclusive use straight razors and have learned the hard way what I am relaying to you.

THe norton is best for restoring a razor (i.e. E-Bay or a damaged razor). If the razor is properly honed and it needs a touching up to keep its sharp edge, you can either use diamond pasted strops which work well or use a Belgian Coticule stone to MAINTAIN the edge of a properly honed razor!

Do not use a NOrton to maintain a good edge - they are too rough! You need a finer stone, such as a Belgian yellow Coticule or an Escher. THese are expensive but they are what you need, not a Norton!

Straight shaving is wonderful but a very different shaving style than using a safety razor - don't use it the same way you use a safety razor or it will not be pleasant for you!

[battlemonk]

+1 to everything that Garrett said.

I just wanted to jump in and comment that I quite like the avatar. (I'm a son of a Deadhead, and it's an inherited trait.)

[jholen]

Welcome to B&B! Don't know anything about straights as I'm a DE guy myself but it seems you already got all the advice needed! Keep at it :)

[AverageJoe]

Honing isn't the rocket science it's made out to be on these forums! Yes, of course there is a right and wrong way to do it, and many RIGHT ways, but plenty of info is available online. Actually, honing a str8 is EASIER than sharpening a knife IMHO because the most critical part--the angle---is "built into" the razor. Lay the razor flat on it's side on the stone and that's your angle---same with stropping.

Obviously, you can make this as complicated as you want, but if you read the str8 tutorials on this forum, especially the honing/stropping, you'll have it figured out in no time. Look under the "General Straight Razor Talk--hones/honing" interactive guide by Joel---it's excellent.

[riooso]

+1 to what AverageJoe said. Just remember that everything with straights is a very light touch!

Take Care,
Richard

[Garrett]

Honing is not rocket science but when you are first learning it I would not recommend doing it on a nice razor. That's all. Most people have to do it for a little while before they get the hang of it and how it should feel. It just takes some practice but its better to practice on something that if you make a big mistake it will not cost you anything.