DOVO Straight Razors

Dovo is one of only two major makers of straight razors still in operation today that are both high quality and mass made; the other is Thiers-Issard from France. There are several artisans around who create individual pieces, such as Tim Zowada and Mastro Livi; very high quality, but harder to buy due to limited supply.

Incidentally, there are mass produced pieces from companies out of Pakistan and China, but I do NOT recommend them, because the blade metal is not good quality. There have been many complaints from people who have bought these blades about how hard they are to keep sharp and some blades have even snapped while sharpening! You won't have that kind of problem from Dovo, Thiers-Issard, or any individual artisan.

Choose a high quality Dovo and you won't regret it!

Straight Razor Types

Straight razors are classified based on several attributes; some of the more common are blade metal, blade width, and the scales material.

Straight razor blades are usually made from carbon steel, stainless steel, or some variation alloy such as silver steel and Damascus steel. The general difference is that stainless protects better against rust and is harder, which means that it will hold its edge better than carbon steel, but is more difficult to sharpen when it does get dull. Alloys will vary in their advantages; some have even better rust protection and some just make the blade shiny. However, their use is limited; carbon and stainless are the most common metals by far.Blade width is the distance between “edge” (the sharp side) and the “back” (the part opposite the edge) and is measured in eighths of an inch. A ¾” blade is called a 6/8 blade. 5/8 is the most common size. Few men like anything smaller (you know how we are), but the smaller blades (usually no smaller than 4/8) are easier to maneuver in the tight spots like the upper lip and just under the chin. Some men like the really large blades, 7/8 or 8/8, also called “Lip Loppers”, because you can let the weight of those blades do the work and just slice right through your hair. The disadvantage to bigger blades is that they are less flexible (less “giving”), so there’s a higher chance of cutting yourself, unless you’re very careful and experienced.

Scales are the handle pieces; two scales riveted together form the handle. Scale material comes in five general categories; plastic, wood, bone, fossil, and exotic. Each category, of course, has several or many individual items. For instance, “wood” can mean redwood, cedar, snakewood, bocote, olivewood, kingwood, ironwood, and many others. Plastic includes celluloid, polypropylene, and “tortoise shell” because those are always faux shell and made from plastic. For bone, I’m including ivory, horn (usually ram or buffalo) and oosik. Fossil scales can include bone fossils, fossilized ivory, and fossilized oosik. Exotic actually means anything that doesn’t fit in the other categories, like mother of pearl, micarta (a laminate that one could argue is actually a plastic), and metal, like steel or brass. Now bear with me on this topic of oosik. As you may or may not know, almost all male mammals have a baculum, or penis bone, with the exception of humans (of course), horses, cetaceans (whales & dolphins), rabbits, marsupials, and hyenas. Oosik is the baculum of native Alaskan carnivores, specifically pinnipeds (walruses, seals, and sea lions) and polar bears. Oosik is often used in Alaska for making knife handles and I’ve seen it used for razor scales as well.

CLICK HERE to find the Dovo Straight Razor that's right for you!

Back to Basics

Have you noticed lately that a lot of people are “getting back to basics”? Granted, I love technology; I would HATE to not have my computer or my HDTV or my cell phone. However, there are certain things that I really feel are better when they’re done the "old-fashioned" way. For instance, although I have a cell phone for when I’m on the go, I still have a landline at home and have no intention of ever getting rid of it; it’s just too reliable. Also, my wife and I shun the microwave; we have one, we’d just think that food cooked in a regular oven tastes better.

The one thing I’ve really gone back in time for, though, is a nice, comfortable, luxury shave using a straight razor. Cartridge blades, disposables, and electric razors either just don’t shave close enough or do so at the expense of your skin. How many of you HATE shaving? It's irritating, it leaves you itchy for hours.... For some of us, it leaves you with razor bumps or severe razor burn, and that foamy stuff in a can has way too many manmade chemicals in it; it can’t be good for you.

Straight razors, like those made by Dovo, along with a good, old-fashioned shave soap (or cream), a shave brush, and lots of water will give you the closest, smoothest, most comfortable shave you’ve had in a long time. Plus, there’s practically no chance for razor bumps. Razor bumps occur when a hair is cut below the skin line and then gets caught underneath when it tries to grow. Multi-bladed razor commercials actually brag about how one blade grips the hair and pulls it while the next blade cuts it below the skin line, claiming that’s how they give you the “closest” shave. What a crock! Straight razors can’t cut your hair below the skin line, just to skin level, so all you feel is skin; a close shave and no bumps!