Hi Folks,
I started a thread in the Introductions section, but since the subject has extended beyond that, I figured I would start a new thread.
To recap:
Got a straight-razor shaving set from my wife for Christmas that included a Gold Dollar 208 that was supposed to be shave ready. Not so much it seems, but perhaps I rolled the edge in my heavy handed attempts at stropping. I worked on the edge and technique a bit and got some improvement, but still wasn't convinced the razor was sharp. Got myself a Dovo shavette and gave that a shot - was able to shave pretty darn well with it with only very minor bodily injury.
From this exercise I concluded that need for further skill notwithstanding, shaving with the GD in its present condition was like pushing a rope. So, somewhere along the way, I decided to order a couple of truly shave ready razors from WhippedDog.com and I am currently eagerly awaiting a delivery from the mailman.

That pretty much summarizes my voyage to this point - oh, except for some kind regards and good contacts with local straight shavers. Great group of people that I am looking forward to meeting up with.

Since then, I used the shavette a couple of times with substantial success and a very good shave which boosts my confidence that I can do this. Under the "what have I got to loose" premise, I decided to do some work on the GD. After a bit of research and experimentation, I concluded that the GD needed the heel ground down a bit so it was out of the way. I pulled out the Dremel tool and had at it. I buffed it a bit when done, but only had red rouge handy and didn't worry too much about appearance for now. I can't say my modification is beautiful, but the heel is now significantly more out of the way. At that point, I flattened out my stones started out at 4000 and worked up to 12000 with relatively light strokes (circles and longer strokes). I then did some careful stropping - about 100 round trips on my wood backed strop and called it a day. End result was a razor that could cut a bit of arm hair above the skin, but couldn't pass any hanging hair test that I could figure out (shavette passes easily every which a way).

This AM, I did another 25 round trips on the strop as lightly a I could manage. I notice that I now hear a bit of a swishing sound on the strop. (Is that good?) After some hot wet towels, pre-shave oil and my best lather so far, I gave the GD another chance. Can't claim success yet, but I actually got significant improvement! No cuts, no burn but a significant amount of beard shaved. Two mostly full passes, mostly WTG and a bit of XTG (my face hair grows in many directions) and not much attempt at the cheek line. Left me with a relatively semi-passable shave. Good enough that I didn't bother to clean up with another razor. So it looks like I am getting there. Still looking forward to the mail this evening!

I have some CrOx paste and a piece of flat balsa. Should I try to get the blade a bit sharper with that? Other advice?

Jerry