Thread: Marks on my Dovo Solingen

Honing razors is quite different from honing knives. We start at 1000 grit and don't think about shaving until we've come off an 8000 grit hone.

I suggest you PM our user unit (that's his screen name, unit) and ask him how well knife honing translates. He's got a lifetime of knife honing experience and, if I remember right, about a year of razor honing experience.

It's best, if you're still learning to shave with a straight, to have your honing done professionally. That way you know you're learning with an edge that is actually shave-ready. I spent about three years fumbling around with antique-store razors and woodshop hones, not learning anything useful about either shaving or honing, then finally bought a new, shave-ready blade and realized how wide of the mark I had been.

Also, if you have a nice razor, that's not the one you want to learn honing on. Find a junker and practice on that.

Where are you located? Fill that in in your profile; maybe there's someone nearby who can help you in person.

Good luck with it all.

That oxidation on the bevel means your razor is dull and will not give you a good shave until it's properly honed. Unfortunately stropping won't fix that - it may improve it very very slightly, but the edge is no good. I'd say your best bet is to have it honed, or learn to do this yourself (you are saying you've not been successful so far, so if you go this route try to get as much help as possible from the forum).

Hey guys!

Thought I would tell you guys first! I have just had my first reasonably successful shave with the razor !

I managed to strop it sharp enough to shave with. The right side of my face went easily enough, but the left side went a lot rougher... Needless to say that I am not ambidextrous, but I think my left had will learn fast. I am generally happy and found that with a steady hand there wasn't much tugging this time round. I think my stropping technique has improved a lot !

Thank you for the wise words roughkype, I am going to wait till I get my metal polish and give the honing a go once the blade is polished up and I have had a chat with unit. I think I will give honing a go myself as I have a Norton 4k/8k as well as a lower quality 400/1k grit stone. I should be able to figure it out with a bit of practise. (Gratz on the 2k posts btw !!)

What astounded me really was how easily it rusted... I am not an idiot and knew that I had to keep the razor dry and was pretty sure that I did... I will oil it with pre-shave oil after every shave (attempt). I hope I can get rid of the spots using some good metal polish and the waterstones.

Overall, I think I might come to like this! =)

Congrats on a good start, however, do you know the ingredients in the pre-shave oil to entrust anti-rust qualities to it. ?

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Congrats on a good start, however, do you know the ingredients in the pre-shave oil to entrust anti-rust qualities to it. ?

Thanks onimaru55!

The store manager at Taylor's of Bond Street in London recommended that I use it saying that in the end it would be nicer to oil the blade with something you wouldn't mind putting on your face. To treat the hinge I dripped some mineral oil on to it and then worked it in.

Does the product I use need to have any other attributes than being a fluid lipid ? Surely virtually any oil would work, of course the less viscous the oil, the more I would have to oil the razor.

Something I learned from my knives back a "few" years is that certain oils have too high of a moisture content and can actually accelerate rust rather than prevent it. That being said, if your particular preshave oil was recommended to also be used as a rust preventative I would try it and see.

Hi,

You want a thin oil, not a thick one. Thin oil has more 'creep' and will cover more easily, while thicker oil tends to pull back on itself and is harder to get off the blade. Tuf-Glide is good (but expensive), thin sewing machine oil (mineral oil) is OK and wipes off easily on a tissue, but I like Ballistol. both for its mildy antiseptic properties and its skin-friendliness. Of course, the blade should be thoroughly dry before you oil it, otherwise all you are doing is trapping moisture in the microscopic crevices of the metal, and it will tarnish anyway. So you want to thoroughly wipe it, strop it for 10 - 20 laps to dry the bevel and let it air dry in non-humid place with the blade open for an hour or two before oiling it. If you use the razor everyday and dry it properly, then you will have little need for oil, anyway.

Products available in the UK for polishing the metal include Solvol-Autosol, Peek and Maas, plus others.

All these can be found online by googling for them.

Regards,
Neil

PS: rather than experiment on and completely ruining your new razor, perhaps you should get a cheaper shave-ready razor (so you know it doesn't have enough defects to make it un-honable) and practice on that.

Sounds like Ballistol is what is needed. 50ml is about £2.5 so there should be room in the budget for that ! I bought some Autosol to polish the razor with.

What cheap shave ready razor would you recommend ? Do you mean a specific brand ? or a second hand razor?

A used razor, preferably by one of the members here who knows what he is talking about - there are usually some bargains in the classified section or if you are looking for some help nearer to home google The Shaving Room - they have a number of members who use straight razors there and it is in the UK.

Regards,
Neil

Just another note on oils... for blade storage, I'd stay away from anything that was plant-derived. That's because those oils will eventually polymerize (like linseed oil, the base for a lot of paint) and get very difficult to remove. Not an issue if you have just one razor, but if you get a collection where a single blade might sit unused for a month, that's enough time for some of the plant oils to start turning gummy.