Dovo-Solingen is the world's best-known straight razor maker, for good reason.  Lotsa styles, respected quality, and productivity passing for prolific for such difficult-to-source skilled labor.

Dovo offers carbon or stainless steel razors.  To me, carbon steel's always been worth the bother- it always shaved better.  In fact, today's carbon steel razors from Dovo are harder steel than their stainless steel razors.  And while I can admit I'm still a carbon steel purist, at least when it comes to Dovo's modern efforts I'll also admit that shaving with them feels identical.  The differences now relate to price and rust inhibition; their stainless razors cost more (all other factors equal) and are extremely rust-resistant (but NOT 'rustproof').  Regular carbon steel razors must always be given proper care to prevent rust.  I heartily recommend our silicone/oil-treated cotton sleeve seen below if you get a carbon steel razor.

At any experience level, you're doing yourself a disservice if you never endeavor to learn honing.   It certainly is hard with old razors garnered from flea markets, but maintaining new razors for brilliantly-comfy shaves is easily possible for anyone with a burgeoning interest.  Bear in mind that many who would say otherwise aren't honing used razors sent their way for free (unless perhaps you'd bought it from them in the first place), so perpetual belief in its difficulty behooves their interests.  At day's end, there's more complicated things than rubbing blades on rocks until sharper than before, and paying someone to repeatedly hone for you (losing the time value of the razor cycling needlessly through the mail) is silly.  I try, in vain, to get those whom pay me to hone for them to stop employing me this way.  If you learn the straight, you can bet the farm you'll buy a hone, and learning the straight razor's use is significantly more difficult than maintaining a shave-ready razor.

The professionally-honed "shave ready" blade you receive from this shop is sharp enough to give wonderful results with experienced hands as surely it will give poor results with inexperienced hands.  Most beginners will find this shaving endeavor a hard thing to master initially, and I'd really consider anything above initial disappointment out of the box the exception rather than the norm.  Keep at it.

To satisfy your curiousity and help you understand the finer points of sharpness, I suggest you perform the 'hanging hair test' before using your razor (see the video link below); successfully accomplishing this gives you a baseline of comparing for after shaving, stropping before the next shave, and honing later in life.  PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST STRAIGHT RAZOR, AND PLEASE TRY TO SUCCESSFULLY EXECUTE THE TEST BEFORE SHAVING!  If you're failing, pinch that hair harder, try some other hair, whatever...nothing extraordinary 'bout the wife's hair so how hard can it be to find some that'll work?

Here's the general order of operations for the majority of beginners, which has little to nothing to do w/ the blade condition;

1. Get poor, frustrating shaves w/ supplied razor, and finish w/ more familiar methods
2. Gets increasingly better shaves w/ same razor, already a bit less sharp than before from use
3. Really start knowing how to shave, and for once have meaningful certainty that razor itself has become limiting factor to comfort, as opposed to beard prep/technique.

Do yourself a big favor; wait until shaving starts creeping towards second nature before springing for a hone.  This isn't an easy art; you've got to really want to have this labor of love in your life before you'll be any good at it, but it is worth all the bother!

Click here to see some pictures from Dovo's factory (opens in new window).

Click on any razor image for more detailed pictures/info

I highly recommend this unassuming-looking sleeve to protect any razor from rust.  It has about as much panache as a '89 Camry, but just like that fine tool the damn thing just works.  Sure beats the hell out of fussing with oil and blades to me.

Like malaria pills, all you've got to do is actually use 'em & you'll have nothing to worry about anymore; they get less oily over time, but that does not affect their capacity for wicking away moisture.  This is an effective anti-rust solution for a lifetime; it is not merely a barrier that prohibits moisture from entering within, but instead a tool which continually draws moisture from the inside to the outside.  Always leave it where it can expunge the moisture to a larger environment, and if those larger environs are as crazy humid (~85% at all times) as a sailboat or rainforest's innards, I'd recommend the extreme step of putting the razors/sleeves in an airtight container with some fresh silica gel packets enclosed within (Ewa Marine's 'CD5' are a very thirsty and reusable desiccant option).

Made by hand in the USA for the firearms industry, the sleeve's based on USA cotton treated with oil and silicone.  There's no need to oil carbon steel kept within; I've used it for a high carbon oldie that I never oil, and I live in a near-constant 70-75% relative humidity environment.  Not a drop of rust anywhere in >3 years.  That's very impressive.  In fact, the makers say to not oil 'em, as this can seal moisture under a film of oil.

This is an excellent, practical travel solution, too.

WARNING:  When you get it, the inner surfaces of this little sock sleeve are much more slippery than, say, a dry terry cloth towel.  It is not intended as a protection tomb from impact, and offers no protection from the laws of physics; this is only a tool to eliminate the risk of rust.  If you forget which end of the sleeve is the open end and expose that open end marginally more towards the center of our earth as opposed to away from it, it is very likely that the razor will fall out of it, possibly damaging you, the razor, or both.  Be careful carrying it around.  I myself have already made this stupid mistake once, but still wouldn't trade these things for the world.  One less thing to worry about.

Note:  $6 USA/Canada & $8 Int'l price is only required if making an order for 1 sleeve, all by its lonesome.  Combine purchase of a sleeve with anything else and use the $4.50 button.  Thanks!