Thread: Greetings from Virginia!

Hello everyone,

I wanted to say hello and introduce myself. I am a first time straight razor shaver. I have had quite the experience thus far. I am hoping that some members may have some insight as to where I may be going wrong in certain areas. My gear as of now is as follows:

Norton Flattening Stone - Norton Flattening Stone for Waterstones, 3/4" x 3" x 9" in plastic case: Sharpening Stones: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

Norton 4000/8000 stone - Norton 24336 Japanese-Style Combination Waterstone 4000/8000 Grit, 8-Inch by 3-Inch by 1-Inch: Sharpening Stones: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

Strop - Amazon.com: Fromm Razor Strop 2 1/2" X 23": Health & Personal Care

Razor - Amazon.com: ~Shave Ready~ Shaving Straight Razor 6/8" GD 208 w/ Box: Health & Personal Care

Cream and Brush come from a vendor at a small time market, I get a great lather from it.

From day one I questioned the blades sharpness in that it was pulling my hair. After watching many many many videos and reading many articles I have yet to achieve a pass on the HHT.

I have honed it several times, I then work the synthetic side of the strop followed by the leather side.

It will cut hair after the 8000 grit hone but works a little too hard.

I'm not frustrated, knowing that there is an art to doing all of this correctly. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas on what I could be missing (I know this is extremely vague)

Thanks everyone!

Cheers

Welcome aboard! Where in Virginia are you located?

I'm quite new to shaving with straights myself, and I haven't attempted honing yet. So take my comments with a healthy lunch of salt!

I'll cut to the chase: I think that your razor is highly suspect. A brand new, purportedly honed razor...for only $42!??! That sounds far too good to be true.

But there's an easy way to get to the bottom of this: send your razor to one of the pro honers here in the classifieds, under Member Services. They'll tell you what they think, and you'll have a trustworthy edge to try.

In the meantime, someone with far more experience than me will probably chime in.

Originally Posted by Dzanda

Welcome aboard! Where in Virginia are you located?

I'm quite new to shaving with straights myself, and I haven't attempted honing yet. So take my comments with a healthy lunch of salt!

I'll cut to the chase: I think that your razor is highly suspect. A brand new, purportedly honed razor...for only $42!??! That sounds far too good to be true.

But there's an easy way to get to the bottom of this: send your razor to one of the pro honers here in the classifieds, under Member Services. They'll tell you what they think, and you'll have a trustworthy edge to try.

Inn the meantime, someone with far more experience than me will probably chime.

I agree about the purchase but it was a far shot at a first time purchase imo . I live in the hampton roads area. I've tried to find a barber Shop that uses straight blade razors wihout the replacement blades but have had no luck . I tried to use a mobile sharpener but man he mangled the blade to say the least . I should post some pictures of the blade before I send it to someone. I see you're in the southeast. Do you know of any local sharpeners?

Originally Posted by jc119

I agree about the purchase but it was a far shot at a first time purchase imo . I live in the hampton roads area. I've tried to find a barber Shop that uses straight blade razors wihout the replacement blades but have had no luck . I tried to use a mobile sharpener but man he mangled the blade to say the least . I should post some pictures of the blade before I send it to someone. I see you're in the southeast. Do you know of any local sharpeners?

Yeah, I'm I'm your neck of the woods: I'm in Suffolk.

I do know one local guy who hones straights, but he's not around at the moment. I'll check to see if he can help you out, though.

I'm 99% certain that is a Gold Dollar razor, which is something that you do not want. I won't go into it because it is all covered here:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...ar-razors.html

On the bright side, the add does say that if you are not satisfied with it they will take it back.

If you are looking for a starter razor, I'd go with whippeddog.com. His razors aren't pretty, but they are cheap and truly shave ready on delivery.

Originally Posted by criswilson10

I'm 99% certain that is a Gold Dollar razor, which is something that you do not want. I won't go into it because it is all covered here:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...ar-razors.html

On the bright side, the add does say that if you are not satisfied with it they will take it back.

If you are looking for a starter razor, I'd go with whippeddog.com. His razors aren't pretty, but they are cheap and truly shave ready on delivery.

It is a gold dollar (GD), #208 to be exact (as the title says).
I tend to be a little ambiguous about Gold dollar. I started with one, with which I still shave. They're not GOOD shavers, but they shave. When I got mine, I got it as a practice razor. Mine is #66, which is the chip model. I practice my stropping on it (without fear of rounding a 100$ edge), and now I started practicing honing on it. I know I will not know what a true shave is until I get a quality razor, but I also didn't know what it was like to feel a true driving experience when I was driving my old, little first car. I still loved it and took care of it as if it was a Mustang :]

I now know I like big vehicles that can take me through rough paths, not the little-fast ones they show on movies, as I thought I would.
I also thought I would like a wide razor, but as it turns out, I enjoy the little ones more. Getting a 6\8 100$ razor as my first would have deprive me of that understanding, which came from trying a few low cost razors.

Originally Posted by Dzanda

Yeah, I'm I'm your neck of the woods: I'm in Suffolk.

I do know one local guy who hones straights, but he's not around at the moment. I'll check to see if he can help you out, though.

That would be fantastic! I'm in Smithfield. I'm still glad I went with this razor because I will certainly be looking to change a few things in my next blade. First would be a razor with square ends instead of rounded ends. I think it would take away some of the "struggles" when honing.

Originally Posted by Haim

It is a gold dollar (GD), #208 to be exact (as the title says).
I tend to be a little ambiguous about Gold dollar. I started with one, with which I still shave. They're not GOOD shavers, but they shave. When I got mine, I got it as a practice razor. Mine is #66, which is the chip model. I practice my stropping on it (without fear of rounding a 100$ edge), and now I started practicing honing on it. I know I will not know what a true shave is until I get a quality razor, but I also didn't know what it was like to feel a true driving experience when I was driving my old, little first car. I still loved it and took care of it as if it was a Mustang :]

I now know I like big vehicles that can take me through rough paths, not the little-fast ones they show on movies, as I thought I would.
I also thought I would like a wide razor, but as it turns out, I enjoy the little ones more. Getting a 6\8 100$ razor as my first would have deprive me of that understanding, which came from trying a few low cost razors.

I agree with both of you. I didn't know any better when the purchase was made. Let me ask everyone this. What is reasoning behind not being able to get a very sharp edge? Metal type? I really do not care for my strop and I have read about people putting compounds on their strops. Could there be some issue or error in that?

Hi and welcome. Won't go into the gd debate but probably not the best razor to start with. You can get cheap quality blades from the classifieds here and they will be truly shave ready. Honing is an art of its own and trying on your first razor you are bound to be disappointed for a while. The fact that the gd razors have geometry issues and not the greatest metal quality is not going to make it any easier. Stropping is also something that will take time to get right. Don't add paste to your daily strop you need a clean one for daily use and the fromm strop although not high end do have a decent rep. Your best bet is to send the razor to a pro or buy a better quality one and go from there. Good luck

Hello and welcome

I too will leave the GD alone. Good idea to get a bona fide shave ready razor to compare to when starting out honing. If you do not know how sharp a razor can get you will not know when you have a true razor edge. I would have been scratching my face for months had I not purchased a Dovo from SRD to compare my own honing abilities against.