Description
The Dovo Bismarck Black Duke is a beloved classic 6/8″ carbon steel straight razor. It stands the test of time, with production in Dovo’s Solingen facility’s running more than sixty years as a result. A Bismarck’s always a ‘blue chip stock’ in straight razors. To sum up, finding a ‘hater’ of the Bismarck is nearly impossible.
Shoulderless Style 6/8 with A Modern Oxidized Take
This “Black Duke” version of the Bismarck (debuting in 2018) has the oxidation process upon the steel. The distinctive finish is shared with the ‘Diamant‘ and ‘Black Star’ straight razors. It weighs ~55g, with an ebony wood handle with “BISMARCK” SOLINGEN pattern. The Bismarck’s also currently produced with another ebony wood handle, sans oxidation. Furthermore, if you fancy hunting vaporware, the Bismarck’s your boy; for many decades of production, it featured handles made from a {retired, along with his gear, 2012} distinguished gent in bone (2687) or acrylic with genuine mother-of-pearl inlay (2681 and 2683). They also had their designations on the tang stamped in as opposed to laser-engraved, (which was actually switched because hot stamping did occasionally cause the odd warp). I don’t own one of those, and I’d love to.
6/8″ Size Great for Big Hands
First, a 6/8″ razor in this classic shape is ideal for those with large hands. Secondly, the shoulderless S-curve thumbnotch falls naturally to one’s thumb. No ridge exists to avoid on strop or stone as with a normal-bodied razor. Consequently, no file jimps (small ridges on tang) are needed here! The Bismarck is above all an easy razor to handle on face, stone, and strop alike.
Rare Oxidized Treatment
The steel’s oxidized in a controlled environment, and thereafter abruptly stopped, in a process occasionally referred to as ‘blue steel’. Oxidation makes the steel especially grippy, and takes on a signature blackish-blue finish.
“Shave Ready”?
If you elect for the factory edge (= do nothing, no note needed @ checkout), you’ll receive your razor exactly as its manufacturers intended…pretty simple!
If you elect for The Superior Shave to further hone your razor [plz add “note to vendor” @ checkout], your razor will be delivered to you Guaranteed Shave Ready! Observe a Bismarck being honed by TSS here! The Superior Shave hones via a method best coined (by the old Thiers-Issard director) as “the opposite of tape“, where the hones’ shapes cater to performance and little else; you begin with your coarsest stone that’s shaped as the smallest imaginary wheel, and you progress to finer abrasives shaped like larger wheels, thus honing from the spine toward the actual edge, leaving a *thin*, concave edge first and foremost.
At one time, years ago, natural stones were used for the establishing and refining of a bevel. But the lapidaries necessary for such extremely refined stones no longer exist, to say nothing of sourcing the strata itself from Earth. So today, Dovo uses a pair of manmade, convex spinning discs to establish their bevels, and thereafter refines with bench stones hand shape to be mildly convex, before finishing on a pasted strop. The spinning discs are coarser, and have a shorter effective diameter, while the bench stones are finer, and have much longer effective diameters. Thus, the bevels are indeed concave, same as ever.
But the steel itself can withstand much more concaving than practical today at any factory, with no negative effects for the longevity of your razor, so long as you keep exclusively to shaving with it, keeping a low spine angle, and keeping skin well stretched and lathered; for its intended job, concaving a razor bevel toward its metallurgical limits only benefits the shaver. If you intend to use your razor at an angle outside of normal shaving work or upon a surface unlike a well lathered and stretched beard, however, a flat or even a convex bevel will better endure such odd usage of these tools.
There is no wrong or right choice for factory edge/further honed, but please do not believe all factory edges are never ‘Shave Ready’ – that is an absurd, yet common, belief. It is certainly the intention of Dovo when producing the razor that you to only need strop (after wiping off the factory oil!) just prior to shaving to receive a terrific shave. Thanks for reading this, and happy shaving!
