I finally received my freshly honed brand new Dovo Prima and a strop in the mail today. I could immediately tell the difference between what it was like from the factory and after a competent person with stones got through giving it the business. Hone wear... WAY more sharpness... Man... Here we go... I hammer a nail into the wall in my closet, bend it upwards, hang my strop on it, and get right to it... Practicing with my blade free Feather AC SS, that is. I find that my stroke doesn't appear to be all that bad as far as what I was seeing in my hands and what I was seeing on YouTube. I practice to a point where I find a comfortable rythm while maintaining good spine contact... My shoulder hurts... Let's go antagonize the new puppy first.
After that short break I break the razor from it's little spectacle case resembling tin and land it on the strop. After a quick pucker I give about 50 up and downs, all the while hoping and praying that I'm not screwing up my new edge... After I was done I gave a quick test on the arm hair and it seemed fine... Whew... Let's hope my face agrees...
A cool shower and a fine lathering of Jermyn Street later I'm standing there, razor in hand, ready to get after it. My first pass is a straight forward N to S pass. I'm treating this shave the same as I normally do with my AC or my Universal shavette. I can feel the blade pass over my skin VERY smoothly. Much smoother, in fact, than the savage Feather AC. This pass wasn't without mishap. I managed to nick myself right below my left eye. I managed to catch my skin just above the lather and I just ever so slightly opened the skin... The caveat? NO BLOOD. I did this exact same thing the very first time I ever used a shavette and I bled like a stuck pig and it left an inconspicuous scar. It seems the notion that a real straight is more forgiving than a shavette is very, very true. With the first pass out of the way, the shave is just a bit behind that of the AC and the Universal... Albeit, it was a MUCH more comfortable shave.
The next pass was the exact opposite of the first, straight up, S to N. This pass proved to be a bit more precarious than the first. My beard isn't very thick... But, I swear, the stubble is like little shards of piano wire. The razor was absolutely screaming. It sounded like Velcro being separated into a microphone at an Amon Amarth show. The marked difference is the feel between this blade and the AC was the weight. The AC is able to power through this stubble with much less effort. This Dovo required a lot of caution when maneuvering the chin and jawline. I managed to do it all without further incident. I will say that I was extremely cautious. When I finally got to my upper lip, the razor pretty much surrendered to the mustache. I did not go through with the fools pass as I normally do. I simply shaved outside in, relathered, and went inside out. DONE.
Ill say this, upon first inspection after rinsing and drying off, I wasn't overly impressed with the result. It seemed that the stubble had beaten the razor and I. I splashed on that awesome, awesome Jermyn Street aftershave and left it to dry. Man... Hopefully my wife isn't put off by the leftover roughness. I clean up my mess, dry up every millimeter of the razor, and run it across the strop a few times after the fact. I took one last look in the mirror and noticed that my face didn't look all that bad. There was a hint of redness in a few places due to using too much pressure, no doubt. That AC does require me to use a little bit of pressure in some places and I didn't really change much for this first shave as far as that goes. So no surprises here. It wasn't so much that it caused discomfort, so I'm considering this a win. What got me was the post shave feel. After my face calmed down a bit, I'll be damned if I didn't have a nice, DFS quality shave. HA. I was glad about that because I was already considering a legendary PIF, hehe.
In closing, as long as this edge doesn't deteriorate after a week or two of shaving, I'll be committed for the long haul. Cheers, gents!
First Shave With a Freshly Honed Dovo Prima
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