I have honed a gold dollar clone called gold monkey. It was 6/8 and now it is 4/8.
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I have honed a gold dollar clone called gold monkey. It was 6/8 and now it is 4/8.
Good riddance.
Wow! How long did that take you?!
Mann that must have been a rough day!
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If you buy a cheap Chinese or Asiatic razor and it doesn't shave right. Work it out for yourself.
It was the razor I learnt to hone on. It was a good sharp beautiful razor. I must admit I literally destroyed it honing it the wrong way. Had to recreate the edge with great difficulty.
Good to learn on ! I have a gold dollar ordered to learn on myself
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The problem is that the GD is not a good razor on which to learn to hone. That is because you first need to have the ability to grind away the shoulder/stabilizer that prevents the heel end of the razor from being able to hit the hone. Even if you do hone in a manner to keep the stabilizer off of the hone, which is possible, the heel end of the blade is not ground as much so that end is thicker. For that reason the heel end will need a lot more work than the rest of the blade. The bevels will end up much wider there as a result but that is just a cosmetic issue.
There is a guy on Facebook who sells GDs and he recently mentioned that he takes 2 hours to hone each of them. I have no idea why someone who should have some clue about how to hone them would need that much time, but as a beginner you can expect it to take that long if not longer.
If you decide to take a Dremel to that heel, be VERY careful and aware about which direction it is turning so that you do not catch the edge with the Dremel.
Don't hold back now, tell us how you really feel.
I can't imagine spending 2 hours sharpening a blade unless I'm making 50 bucks or so off the sale. And I can't imagine spending that much for a Gold Dollar. To my way of thinking that fellow must have found a way to get the edges right faster than 2 hours, unless it's a hobby and he doesn't care to make a profit off it.
Well, you see he was selling these only out of the goodness of his heart. It's just everybody else that is about commercialism. I highly doubt that he actually is taking two hours on each GD, that's just what he said.
So many learning to hone yet not learning to shave before getting that GD right, How about a good used vintage n the classifieds ready to shave with and it will be ready to learn to hone on too! Oh well this world has all kinds in it that's why it's fun at times. Tc
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the fact these days is:-
**newsflash**
most gold dollars/gold monkey/zy's these days do not require extensive honing to get a great shave. They are already sharpened to 4k or 6k already. They are sharp enough as is & they just need a finishing touchup. So my current thinking is most of them merely require gentle honing on a 10k stone and then finishing up by stropping on a newspaper 200 laps each side.
My fault when I started honing was using a carborundum sharpening stone (an oil stone with 2 sides, one smooth and one rough) but doesn't have the grit mentioned. I suspect the rough side is 220 and the smooth side is 1000. But that is just my suspiscion, can't say for sure. This is the one here:
Attachment 238463
It created a lot of slurry when used with oil, maybe I scraped away the razor edge creating a totally new bevel. It was painful, but I created a new bevel without any reason. Yes, it's a stupid thing to do.
Entry level shave ready is 8K. Which is why they need touching up, and needing a touch up is NOT 'shave ready.' And if you cut a completely new bevel on that hardware store hone, that's a good indicator that it wasn't honed at the proper angle, and needed a complete hone from bevel set on up - not just a 10k touch up.
If all you did was take a Naniwa 10k to that razor, you would be there for hours - if not days - trying to get the razor to contact the hone from the shoulder to the edge of the bevel. Some of these people have been honing for a long time, and many have honed more Gold Dollars than you have messed up. You would do well to listen when they speak - I guarantee you they are not wrong in their assessment of these razors.
Can I get another amen! Tc
If I were you I'd really be careful with such blanket statements because you could be asked " How many of each have you tried to be statistically significant to make the claim?"
For example I have two ZY, that I purchased from two different sellers to make sure they are not coming from the same batch.
After some honing on 1k here is what I find under magnification:
http://i1020.photobucket.com/albums/...psokx7fzhx.jpg
http://i1020.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3wkftksb.jpg
The second ZY is in factory condition, and here is what I find under magnification:
http://i1020.photobucket.com/albums/...psxx0snvvx.jpg
http://i1020.photobucket.com/albums/...psrlwxxlav.jpg
Those are hardlyThey hardlyQuote:
sharpened to 4k or 6k already.
And they most definitely do need a lot more thanQuote:
just need a finishing touchup.
Quote:
merely require gentle honing on a 10k stone
I do not know what razors have you tried so far but, my advise is to learn honing on some vintage Solingen blades. You will get an idea of how honing works and how well heat treated steel feels. Then revisit the Chinese blades to see what the difference its. Right now, if you have not tired anything else you have no clue what shave ready is and how a good razor behaves on the stones and cheek. You think that the GDs/ZYs/ Gold Monkeys are sharp, but anything with 1k finish on it is sharp, that does not mean it will shave great eventually.
And that is why they are not recommended for new shavers. Yours’s is not an uncommon story.
They can be made to shave, and that is the problem, they have to be made to shave first, then honed. It I not honing, it is Gold Dollar repair…
It is a razor “kit”.
If you want to learn to drive, you don’t go buy a Kit car in a box. You can, but… it will be a while before you are driving.
Yeah, if you look in the workshop section, a lot of guys that are into that kinda thing have used Gold Dollars as blanks for some neat projects. Perhaps that's the best way to view them, an 85% complete blank. Scales are pinned, and it has the basic shape of a razor. With a little tweaking you'll have something nice.
Hey, Gold Dollar's are filling the spot that some maker had to fill, I thank them for providing Learning to new honers for little $$, even totally messed up an GD will make part of a wind chime... Or Lime cutter, or....
how many people here tried to hone an SR on a wicked edge, lansky or KME or any of their clones from China ? How was the experience ?
:HJ:HJ:HJ:HJ
That's not really relevant to this thread. You might want to start a new thread with that question.
I actually really like the Gold Dollars I bought. They fold up nice and fit right into a smaller pocket I have on my leather pouch at work. I find they work really well for cutting ridge cap when I'm shingling, cut 6mm poly real nice, and trim urethane foam around new window installs real well too. I don't find them hard to hone at all either. I take Some 220 grit sandpaper on a 2x4, do about 20 circles each side on that and it's ready for some more shingles!
Attachment 238789Attachment 238790Attachment 238793
the state of my gold dollars.
the gold monkey was 6/8 & now seems smaller than the 5/8 gold dollar
How did you trash the edge?
Man, I gotta have a Gold Monkey,,, that's all there is to it! :shrug:
the edge is ok now, I am shaving with it for past 3 days. It has not given me any cuts. So I guess there are no micro chips or serrations on the edge. I really miss a USB microscope, but am also wary of adding too much equipment around the razors. All the stones, strops, paddles etc are now becoming unwieldy.
“I feel the microscope is important to have. But our forefathers didn't have that so Its not required
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They also did not have modern cars, firearms, medicine, cell phones and computers. So what are you saying?
That you can only hone with the tools available, at the time the razor was made?
That’s just silly… Then why are you here?
“the edge is ok now, I am shaving with it for past 3 days. It has not given me any cuts. So I guess there are no micro chips or serrations on the edge. I really miss a USB microscope, but am also wary of adding too much equipment around the razors. All the stones, strops, paddles etc are now becoming unwieldy.”
That is not, a shave ready edge, but if you like it…it is, your face.
I am constantly amazed at the edges that some people shave with and are happy with.
Technically his GD was made recently so all the tools we use today were available and there is no excuse to not take advantage if that will improve the results.
Very well saidQuote:
“the edge is ok now, I am shaving with it for past 3 days. It has not given me any cuts. So I guess there are no micro chips or serrations on the edge. I really miss a USB microscope, but am also wary of adding too much equipment around the razors. All the stones, strops, paddles etc are now becoming unwieldy.”
I am constantly amazed at the edges that some people shave with and are happy with.
>> That is not, a shave ready edge, but if you like it…it is, your face.
It shaves, it does not give me any rashes, and is sharp enough to pass HHT.
that satisfies me as a shaver.
I used that very same razor when it was less sharp (after I had blunted the edge and tried to recreate it) and it gave me rashes. So I know how the blade can be if it is not sharp enough.
I just did the HHT on the gold monkey, it splits and drags hair in some places and makes a clean pop in others. After honing it with a strop, it did better. But i know everything is not right with that blade, because I have to hone it so much every time I shave. I have made a mess somewhere, and I am making my own analysis on how to resolve it.
“After honing it with a strop, it did better. But i know everything is not right with that blade, because I have to hone it so much every time I shave. I have made a mess somewhere, and I am making my own analysis on how to resolve it.”
Dude, you are re-inventing the wheel…
Good luck with that.
That is a totally legitimate (as opposed to silly) remark to make. He just said it is not required. I never remember seeing a microscope in a barber shop, be it USB or regular, in my whole life. Did you ever see a microscope in barber shop? I don't even think Floyd had one...
Well, barbers most likely didn't need one - their razors are decent quality and likely shave ready or very close to. They probably didn't do a whole lot of trashed razor restoration or messing with cheap Chinese razors that have poor grinds and miss shapen bevels. That said, you'd probably also be surprised how many had a jewelers loupe tucked away in a drawer somewhere out of sight. I know I would.