DOVO Solingen Straight Razor: Best Quality Black 5/8" Carbon

I would recommend spending some time honing before using as the edge was out of line with the spine and needed quite a bit of work to straighten but it is a nice razor to use now. Great value for money.

After a very light honing and stropping, I found my new Dovo Solingen straight razor to be of excellent quality, well balanced and effortless to use. It exceeded my expectations and I recommend this razor to anyone, whether new to straight razor shaving or highly experienced.

Simple, practical and performs well. I do recommend honing it before use.

This is a nice simple, no frills blade. The steel is of high quality like all other Dovo blades. The celluloid scales look and feel real nice, but they seem a little flimsy. I've heard that people often crack these scales and after handling it too firmly. I can now understand why.

My blade wasn't really up to my standards for a shave out of the box. After a good strop it was better but still not great.

I took it to my finishing hones first but actually had a little difficulty putting a good edge on it. I attribute this to a slight geometry problem with the blade. The edge didn't sit completely flat on the stone when the spine was laid flat. This is a fairly common issue, and easily correctable with a good honing.

I decided to set a new bevel and took this blade through full progression on stones starting with a Shapton 2k and finishing with a Shapton 12k. This corrected the geometry problem and put a great edge on the blade. It's now the sharpest and best shaving blade I own.

Good quality razor with no problems. Very sharp right out of the box - I just stropped it on chromox loaded balsa, followed by a leather strop, and it's shave ready. Excellent service from Mensbiz, as always.