Strop damaged?

D

Defender

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13
Hello,
I was wondering if you may be able to advise me, I wanted to try the art of straight shaving so purchased a second hand kit (Cyril Salter) that includes a razor, DOVO strop, strop paste and a hone.

The kit has arrived today and it looks like the previous owner has been trying out the sharpness of the blade on the strop and it has two large cuts in the middle.......my feeling is that this would make the strop ineffective but wanted to check with people who know a bit more than me before returning the kit :s

Many thanks,
 
It depends on how deep and long the cuts are, nicks in strops can be sanded down, most often. But if the cuts are massive, the strop can cut in half. Most strops get damaged in the beginning, much like you get nicks when shaving with a straight as a newbie (well, you get nicks later aswell, but strops usually gets by without it, once you get the hang of it).

So, pics would be useful, for a more certain answear ...
 
Hi Mikael,
Thank you for your reply, please see the below pics. I would say they are about 1 inch long and 0.5 - 1mm deep.

[attachment=3713]

[attachment=3712]
 

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Defender said:
Hi Mikael,
Thank you for your reply, please see the below pics. I would say they are about 1 inch long and 0.5 - 1mm deep.
Click to expand...

they look like they can be fixed, as long as the leather is not loose where the slice is then it should still work okay
 
Defender said:
Hi Mikael,
Thank you for your reply, please see the below pics. I would say they are about 1 inch long and 0.5 - 1mm deep.
Click to expand...

It looks like you can sand the nicks down with a fine grit sand papper (the razor will then slide over the wounded part without touching it) ...

Now you need to find out if the razor's up to snuff, many cheaper Dovos (read Salter blades) has quality issues (warped spines etc) and can be hard to get a true shave ready edge on... I would suggest you contact some of the pro honers around (Neil Miller on this site or Andy / Arrowhead, should be able to help you out with this).
 
Many thanks for the replies I will give this a go.........I suppose it doesn't really matter for my first strop as I read most people damage them anyway!

To be honest I'm not 100% convinced the razor is what it was described as it's the cheapest nastiest thing I've ever seen and says 'SOLINGEN' on the blade with no markings at all on the tang! It's so blunt it won't even cut paper, you may be able to see how flat the edge is on the attached.
I was more interested in getting the hone and the strop from the kit to be honest.

[attachment=3714]

I have seen a vintage Cornish cutlery straight razor locally so I may buy that instead.
 

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If you're lucky it's an old Solingen razor, instead of those (often) tatty Salter razors ... Can't really see what it is on the pic though.

How sweet of you Andy, to let Neil take this one :D
 
Yeah, I know how he loves 'em.

I'd be prepared to wager that the razor in the photo was at least assembled by Dovo: the pinning is unmistakeable. The blade etch looks familiar too - probably a bottom of the range genuine article which should mean decent steel at least ... the grinding may well be a different matter (which is what that honing banter was about). The absence of a struck mark and jimps suggest that this one was made down to a price. My guess is that this would be a perfectly usable if unglamorous shaver, provided there's no gross distortion.
 
I would send the razor to Neil Miller. He did a great job on my Dovo razor which, though brand new, was definitely not up to shaving standard. I am sure that if it wasn't salvageable he wouldn't fob you off and make out he'd got it usable. You can contact him by PM through this site.
 
Defender said:
Many thanks for the replies I will give this a go.........I suppose it doesn't really matter for my first strop as I read most people damage them anyway!

To be honest I'm not 100% convinced the razor is what it was described as it's the cheapest nastiest thing I've ever seen and says 'SOLINGEN' on the blade with no markings at all on the tang! It's so blunt it won't even cut paper, you may be able to see how flat the edge is on the attached.
I was more interested in getting the hone and the strop from the kit to be honest.



I have seen a vintage Cornish cutlery straight razor locally so I may buy that instead.
Click to expand...

That edge looks like its been through the ringer. And that's without any magnification!

I wonder what the other guy looks like.... :p

As for the strop, as has been said, looks perfectly serviceable with some work. Could potentially use it as is if the nicks don't flare up. Not sure if I'm using the right words.
 
im glad im not the only one with ones of these things, if you look closely at the handle it used to say cyril r saler

but the writing can easily be scratched off with a fingernail
 
Arrowhead said:
Yeah, I know how he loves 'em.

I'd be prepared to wager that the razor in the photo was at least assembled by Dovo: the pinning is unmistakeable. The blade etch looks familiar too - probably a bottom of the range genuine article which should mean decent steel at least ... the grinding may well be a different matter (which is what that honing banter was about). The absence of a struck mark and jimps suggest that this one was made down to a price. My guess is that this would be a perfectly usable if unglamorous shaver, provided there's no gross distortion.
Click to expand...

I am amazed that you all seem to agree that this is a DOVO razor it just seems so cheap and nasty I really thought someone had replaced it with a cheap Jap copy. I'm not impressed at all in fact it's really put me off DOVOs.

In fact I hated the feel of it so much that I purchased some vintage George Butlers over the weekend............this is not good is it, I've not even had my first straight shave yet and I'm collecting razors already!!!
 
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