Aurelia got my Christmas present early in the form of a Dovo Straight Razor with the replaceable blade. Her main reason for the purchase was she couldn't find a local dealer who sold the Japanese made Feather brand razors and she didn't want to wait for shipping. The razor is pretty simple to reload the blades… It just uses Merkur safety blades that are snapped in half and then loaded into the blade holder. After the blade is loaded, the user slides it into the razor and it's set to go.
The blades are plenty sharp as they are from old fashioned safety razors… so they don't forgive quite as much as a true straight razor from what folks like the people at "Straight Razor Place" forums mentioned on some of their guides that have been archived. This is one shavette razor that patience is to be emphasized… I ended up getting some cuts and nicks here and there from it. For a beginner and this blade, one cannot fear the blade and prudence must be exercised as they will minimize the cuts. I recommend having a styptic pencil or a block of alum on hand in the case of cuts to minimize bleeding from their hemostatic effect.
Although I like the blade, I feel due to the size of the blades in use… it holds back the learning potential of the user. True, there's no need to learn about sharpening blades… but when your cutting edge is half of the size of a standard blade, you have to do more to clean up the facial hairs. I will definitely be looking into getting a Feather branded razor, as their blades are full sized and disposable, the sharpening will not have to be done. The main debate really will be if I will buy the Pro Guard blades (with a guide wire) or the the professional blades.
Here are the images below of my shaving gear for those who are wondering what in blazes I am talking about.
The Razor
The gear: Razor, shaving bowl, soap, badger hair brush by Proraso, and styptic pencil