Thread: Hello all

Hello Gents,

I hope that every one of you are having a great Friday. My name is Jason Bradshaw and I am extremely thrilled to find such a popular forum of people who share with me a passion for a perfect shave. I have been shaving with a older model Gillette for about 3 months now, and I love it! I have recently decided to take the plunge into straights. As a matter of fact, my first "shave ready" straight razor arrived via snail mail today, and I spent the better part of an hour in the bathroom making every newbie mistake known to man. My face feels like shredded cheese right now. I apologize if I am bringing back distant nightmares for all of the elders reading this.

The "marvellous" invention that arrived in the mail today was a Gold Dollar 208 kit from TheShaveNetwork.com. I purchased it as an inexpensive shave ready razor. First impressions, from a newbie, are not so great. The scales are horribly misaligned, and the blade needed about 120 passes on the crappy strop (came with the kit) before I even thought about putting it to my face. The razor shaves now.

Long story short, I am new, and will be doing alot of reading.

Wow. I answered your other post , that razor is probably not shave ready , mint even close , and stropping doesn't sharpen. It just aligns the edge and smooths it out,, Try again with another razor , I haven't heard of any reputable razor stores selling GD razors Tc

It's a good thing you found this forum, it's just a real shame (for your face) that you didn't come here before your first purchase.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...ar-razors.html

That is a place to start.
Next, try the library here. Two links to bookmark:

Good Straight Razor Brands - Straight Razor Place Library

Brands of Straight Razors to Avoid - Straight Razor Place Library

To save money on a truly shave ready razor, look through the classifieds here. 99% of the time, they are shave ready; and if they aren't, it usually is specified in the ad.

Good luck! And I hope this helps!

I'm very new myself and I bought my first razor from Whipped dog straights they are used razors that look like shit lol but they are shave ready and a good cheap start imo also they are sight unseen so you don't know what you will get but I receivd a very nice Jr torrey shave ready razor and would recommend him to anyone

Thanks for the heads up.

Also the classifieds here have some great cheap cleaned up razors !!

So I have a Union Spike razor, that apparently is a good find. Some were in my screwed up thought process I came up with a brilliant idea of buying a GD instead of getting it fixed. I don't have the funds to purchase a set of hones yet. I am thinking about selling it, or finding someone who can get it shaving again. is this worth getting it repaired?

It is worth hanging on to for later. Getting one honed is not a terrible price tag. It is best to learn to shave and then after you are good at that, learn to hone. There are often shave ready razors in the classifieds that are great beginner razors. Not too pricey and shave ready. You may want to look for a good strop too. If you can find one with a replaceable leather, it will come in handy when you carve it up learning to strop. Most guys put two or three nicks in their first strop. Most of the better brands offer replacement leather. There is Straight Razor Designs and Whipped Dog and Star Shaving that have a good lines of inexpensive strop.

There is a 5/8 Genco for sale in the classifieds right now. That would be a great starter razor. Despite the spots near the edge, it appears to be in very good condition and likely to be much better than a WD mystery razor.

Hi and welcome to the forum,
I would suggest the classifieds here, or even whippeddog.com sight unseen over a gold dollar, sorry to tell you gold dollar does not have the best reputation