Shave ready or not? Explained! (Straight Razor Honing)

Mark

Mark

Ze Honemeisterer
Artisan Producer
Joined
Nov 25, 2014
Location
Sydney, Australia
Is a brand new straight razor out of the box shave ready or not?
I wanted to answer this question as clearly as I possibly can. Not all factory edges are the same.

What is a factory edge?
It is an edge honed by an employee who works for the manufacturer before the razor is packaged and sealed.

Of course they're not all the same, some are better than others and I have seen edges that weren't too bad and not great either. I've also seen edges that are shocking and required restoration work before honing. Some of those examples are frowns, excessive hone wear, uneven bevels, dual bevels and the list goes on..

I'm only referring to brand new straight razors in this thread.
Here is a picture below of a brand new Dovo that was sent to me yesterday to get honed, it is brand new and the end user complained about tugging and pulling which is very evident in the microscopic photos.

Photo on the left (before): The edge has deep scratches in the bevel and microchips on the cutting edge, I wouldn't dare to put this blade to my face.

Photo on the right (after): I have set a new primary edge (bevel) and worked through the progressions and finished this razor on my Wakasa Toishi with an Asano Mikawa Nagura set. There isn't one scratch on the bevel and the microchips are gone. The bevel is left with a nice uniform grainy texture as expected from a natural finisher.



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Wow! Such a difference.
No wonder using a razor like the one on the left might mean you'll be turned off from straights for life!
 
Completely agree @filobiblic. The amount of times I see guys turning their back too quickly is disappointing, especially for reasons like this. It's not easy for me to convince them otherwise because I sound biased. Hopefully this thread will get around and open some eyes.
 
Photos make it easy to see the difference. The one on the left seems more like a guillotine blade than a razor...
 
filobiblic said:
Photos make it easy to see the difference. The one on the left seems more like a guillotine blade than a razor...
Click to expand...
That's true, all that is invisible to the naked eye considering I took those at 400 x. Otherwise, to the naked eye it looks like a perfect mirror polish because we're dealing with microns here, but when you see the bigger picture it's more of a vintage hacksaw, yep the one that was buried in your grandfathers shed.
 
Its funny - but the first thing I have read about straights, is that a new straight is in 99% of the cases NOT shave ready. I wonder, why the big companies (like Dovo) still pretend otherwise...
 
This was my understanding too. "Shave ready" I guess is so dependent on so many things. Shave ready could be referring to arm hair (from the corporations - technicality). I know that I - like so may others - test the edge of my blade on my forearm, to ensure a smooth cut. Maybe the corporations are using this as a loophole. The first thing I did with my blade when I got it, was to put it on my arm. Then I honed it 3000, 8000 and 13000 grits anyway.

The images speak volumes, Mark. Thanks for sharing them (and to JayDee for bringing them to life!).

And while honing is so very important, it isn't complete without a visit to Mark's Stropping thread, as it is an important finish to this task.
 
@Arnold J Rimmer. It's definitely the better choice to take them back to the stones, especially if you have the convenience of owning a set of hones.

It is a big hit and miss, straight shaving can be misleading for new guys as the first impression is, that's how straight razors are which can throw them off and result in them giving up, unfortunately I've come across this too many times. Lately there have been more misses than hits to the point where I don't bother with them anymore, instead I purposely kill the edge and go back to the 1k and reset my own primary bevel rather than trying to polish or put a band aid on another monkey's half assed job that works for the manufacturer. Yes, I said monkey and that's being nice because more than half the time they cause damage to the brand spanking new razor which I have to repair before honing them up, I would much rather that they left it for me as a blank.

I'm not trying to bash any brands but I only speak based on my own experience only. I've commonly seen flaws with G&F Timor being number one in the shit list followed by Dovo "Best Quality" 5/8". The only blades that I have no issues with at a 100% hit rate are the Bokers, they're ground more precisely than anything else that I've seen and the top notch QC is very uniform across their range, Ralf Aust and T.I come second. Again, I'm only referring to brand new blades that are being manufactured today.

I'm not trying to steer anyone away nor am I trying to choose a razor for you, take this as a guideline, but the bottom line is, if the razor has been taken care of and honed properly, it will shave very well without a doubt. Those are just the fine details and not many people see the entire story behind the scenes, in the end, they'll all do what they're designed to do.
 
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