Thread: I have reached the promised land!

Hi all,

Firstly a hello - I've been observing the SRP forums for the last couple of months, absorbing the knowledge here, and of course watching Lyn Abrams excellent videos on Youtube. I'd love to say I'll keep this short, but I fear my post may end up being the upper side of short - for that I apologise!

I started traditional DE shaving on the advice of a work colleague just before Christmas. Fell in love with it, and about 2 months ago took a further step by purchasing a Dovo straight.

As was to perhaps be expected, the Dovo was far from shave ready, despite being brand new. I sent it to Neil Miller (of UK honing fame), and it came back to me within 36 hours, beautifully honed. My first three attempts were laden with trouble. As seems to be the case with most beginners, I struggled with the change in angle from my cheek/chin to under my jaw line. And my upper lip simply made my eyes water! So I certainly felt quite despondent - desperately wanting this wonderful method of shaving to work for me!

Getting quite caught up in the idea of straights, I also purchased a couple of vintage razors on ebay. Next stop was some hones, so I got some King combination stones, and a Chinese 12k. Working out some significant chips from the razors I purchased, I began to practice my honing skills. Mixed results at first, but I felt I was certainly learning. The road certainly seemed long though!

Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago, I dropped my Dovo, burring the edge over at the toe. I honed this out easily, but at this stage my skills weren't up to scratch, so the razor went from being professionally honed, to being a painful shaver once again.

I didn't really want to send it straight back to Neil Miller, as I kind of felt this would be admitting defeat - although the amazing job he did on it seemed so wasted - so I felt quite discouraged. But at the same time, I didn't want to hone my new razor to within an inch of its life, knowing that my skills might not let me get it shave ready. So I concentrated on one of my vintage razors - a Bengal hollow ground - trying to set the bevel on my King 1000 grit, and moving through 4000, 8000, and C12k - this honing has continued on and off for the last couple of weeks, and I've tried various combinations, but never quite achieved what I'd consider shave ready. This weekend I made myself a balsa strop, using Chrome Oxide .5 paste. Today, after progressive honing, then quite a few passes on the balsa wood, followed by a good stropping on my excellent SRD brown latigo, I went for a shave. I fully intended to just do my cheeks (if the razor was up to it!) and revert to my Merkur DE for the neck etc, but was amazed to find that this vintage straight was amazingly comfortable. So I carried on... Low and behold, a relatively short time later I had managed to complete a perfect shave, no nicks, no cuts, no burn on the previous problem areas. Just a lovely, comfortable shave.

The sense of achievement was simply amazing! I probably won't head straight for honing my Dovo, but try to get the other vintages I bought up to the standard of the Bengal. If I can do this, then I'll tackle the Dovo, without fear of ruining it.

I couldn't have achieved all of this, without the great advice and information I've been able to absorb on these great forums (albeit stolen from other peoples threads!).

This wonderful tradition is an addiction, but one that I am glad to have!

Looking forward to taking part in conversations here at SRP.

Cheers.

Al.

Kudos to you for not giving up. I'm really happy for your victory and I'm sure this is just the beginning step to become a full blown RAD carrier

Cheers

Wellcome to SRP,glad all turned out well for you,You have the hones,keep working with them because IMO pastes work to a point,but they are not the end all be all.Keep at it.it will all come together.

It's a great feeling, isn't it?

I'm certainly not the most experienced when it comes to honing, but It's such an awesome feeling to be able to take a blade from butter knife sharp to BBS shave ready.

Great job!!

Awesome... it IS a great feeling. Like a lot of people, I like the satisfaction of having to maintain the tool. Obviously I haven't been at this long but still satisfying, nonetheless.

Congrats on the shave and the repair is the edge.

I second what pixelfixed said. You can hide a less than perfect honing with paste but only for a shave or two. Setting the bevel is where it is at. If you can get there then the rest is relatively easy. When you set the bevel right for the first time you will be amazed at how much faster the rest of the honing will go. Not that I am an expert. I only came to this realization the other day! Congrats and here's to many more vintage shaves! It truly is a satisfying feeling to take a dull razor and make it come to life again.

If I were you I'd send your Dovo off to Neil again - for the reason that you will have that to compare your own honing attempts against. It's important that you have a known level to measure against when you first start. One thing Neil always recommends is a jewellers loup so that you can check on your progress when setting a bevel - I won't go into the detail here but if you make a search you will see what the advantages are.

Good luck.