Thread: Hone of the Day

Originally Posted by CrescentCityRazors

Did these a couple days ago. Mostly 66's. About half of those are dehorned like the one on the film, the rest are stock. A W62, a 92, and a couple other oddballs in there, but all GD's. Getting ready for a flea market session.

Great way to bring new guys into the hobby!

Originally Posted by Bill31521

Great way to bring new guys into the hobby!

Thanks, Bill. That is my primary objective with this project. There doesn't seem to be anyone reliable selling them shave ready. Certainly can't make any money selling these things, but you can certainly bring in new guys with them, especially when you deal with them face to face and let them watch you hone a razor or two and demonstrate strop usage. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but there have been some modest improvement in these things and they are definitely not RSO's anymore by any standards.

Thinking about honing up 30 or 40 of my vintage pile to add to the fun. I sure as hell don't need this many razors. Honestly I would be happy keeping just my Bismarcks and my full modded GDs so that leaves me several pounds of razors I could get rid of. I am thinking about doing the vendor subscription here, actually. I got to look into it a bit first. And make sure I am welcome here. Gold Dollars are a pretty hot potato, as you probably know.

What's the deal with gold dollars, does the edges not last?
I see they are popular to an extent..

Originally Posted by JOB15

What's the deal with gold dollars, does the edges not last?
I see they are popular to an extent..

The edges last okay for me. Not sure if a detailed review is allowed on this forum and it would be going off topic anyway, so maybe this discussion might move to another thread, or to PM? But I am sure that this has been discussed here and I know for a fact that it has been discussed on one other forum. The info is out there. There are a lot of issues with these ugly clunky razors but edgeholding IMHO is not one of them.

Originally Posted by CrescentCityRazors

The edges last okay for me. Not sure if a detailed review is allowed on this forum and it would be going off topic anyway, so maybe this discussion might move to another thread, or to PM? But I am sure that this has been discussed here and I know for a fact that it has been discussed on one other forum. The info is out there. There are a lot of issues with these ugly clunky razors but edgeholding IMHO is not one of them.

Thanks. You know this forum better than me

It would be interesting to see where GD's are in 2020. The above thread is 10 years old. Maybe the manufacturer evolved and improved.
Like others have said they take an edge, honed few on a Jnat and they shaved pretty well. Unfortunately can't speak to longevity of the edge since I rarely shave more than few times with an edge before trying a different stone.

Originally Posted by alex1921

It would be interesting to see where GD's are in 2020. The above thread is 10 years old. Maybe the manufacturer evolved and improved.
Like others have said they take an edge, honed few on a Jnat and they shaved pretty well. Unfortunately can't speak to longevity of the edge since I rarely shave more than few times with an edge before trying a different stone.

I could start a pass-around, if it isn't against the rules. I have plenty and they only cost me $3.71 each.

It’s important to keep in mind that the manufacturer never considered the west to be a market. They didn’t even have an English language website until a couple of years ago, and the last time that I checked, it just kind of seemed to be a ‘placeholder’, not much there really.

However, they have noticed the western interest in Gold Dollar razors, and I think that’s why we’re seeing models like the W59, 1996, W91, Shave Club razor and so on. They’re testing the waters with some differently styled razors.

What’s missing though is a better quality razor that would align more with western ideas of product manufacturing control. I’ve tried a lot of the models, and although the higher model numbers will get you a thinner, (slightly) better finished razor, the chances of getting a dud are still about the same for all of them regardless of style or marketing. Whether or not you get a decent razor depends on which manufacturing lot it’s from. Used to be 66s were not good and Gold Monkeys were good. Now that’s pretty much reversed and may well change again in the future. What’s not changed is that if you get a good example, it’s a decent razor, if you don’t get a good example, it’s not, regardless of model.

For what it’s worth, the steel is hard, based on trimming heels on diamond plates and honing many of them on Shapton Glass. Probably harder than vintage Sheffield steel. They seem sensitive to the finisher, some stones (jnats) make a better edge than others, and that’s true of hard steels in general.

I think that they’re good for the community in general. The more people who try SR shaving, the more will become enthusiasts. A lot of people won’t be curious enough to try straight razor shaving at an entry point of $100 and up for a new razor and $35 for a strop, but if someone pifs them or sells them a shave ready Gold Dollar, they will. I think dealers used to consider a Gold Dollar as a lost Dovo sale, but that’s not any more true than a stick of Arko being a lost T&H sale - they’re different markets. Getting a reliable source of shave ready GDs is the trick, almost everyone who used to fix up Gold Dollars for re-sale has stopped, it’s just too much work. What I’d like to see from them is not new styles, but a razor that did not have to be re-manufactured before use. I think you could sell those all day long at $20-40 IF you knew that you weren’t going to have to spend an hour on DMTs and 320s just to straighten the spine and cut the bevels. A belt sander is not a normal honing tool!

Originally Posted by alex1921

It would be interesting to see where GD's are in 2020. The above thread is 10 years old. Maybe the manufacturer evolved and improved.
Like others have said they take an edge, honed few on a Jnat and they shaved pretty well. Unfortunately can't speak to longevity of the edge since I rarely shave more than few times with an edge before trying a different stone.

Yes, you would hope things have improved over the intervening years. Unfortunately once you have earned a bad reputation it is hard to overcome it. There are plenty of threads on Gold Dollars if you use the forum search box. I suspect if you were to go through them you'd find a dearth of praise for Gold Dollars even more recently.

Bob

Originally Posted by JOB15

What's the deal with gold dollars, does the edges not last?
I see they are popular to an extent..

You might find this interesting wrt Gold Dollar razors.

https://sharprazorpalace.com/razors/...ar-razors.html

Bob