Thread: Newbie, member and SR shaver, from California

No insult, my opinion, take it or leave it, you,ll know when I insult you. Peace be unto you bad dad. From a good dad.

Welcome to SRP. I think Bernardo has a vid on head shaving. He was sitting around drinking with some friends and showed them "how to". No mirror and sitting on the couch I was waiting for the blood letting. Must be easier than shaving face :<0)
The Gold Dollar doesn't have a great reputation around here because many of them have geometry problems. A lot of new guys start out with them and quit before they get a chance at a good shave. Not to mention when you go to learn honing with 1. Not rocket science, not like anything else you have ever sharpened. You'll see and I am sure you'll get it.

Being in Ca. we might meet up someday. I get off the chain once in awhile and if your ever going to be down by Disneyland let me know. Small group of us meet up for compare and bull sessions.

Originally Posted by EastSideBadDad

Well, I'm sure you have, but is it really necessary to insult me and my gear on your very first post to me? I don't really think it is...

Clearly you know more than I do on this subject. Clearly I have a lot to learn, lest I wouldn't be here. But getting insulted in the first topic I post is not really conducive to learning. Just sayin'...

Firstly, from what i have read gold dollars are a mixed bag, i have never really spent much time with them, i bought 2 for honing practice but never got that far as i didnt put the time in.
Some guys seen to have success with them though.
So if you are happy with it then that is great.
Secondly i would say that you have posted in your first tooic that honing is easy, you can already do it and say you will be ok, comments such as this dont tend to endear people to other corum users.

Originally Posted by edhewitt

Firstly, from what i have read gold dollars are a mixed bag, i have never really spent much time with them, i bought 2 for honing practice but never got that far as i didnt put the time in.
Some guys seen to have success with them though.
So if you are happy with it then that is great.
Secondly i would say that you have posted in your first tooic that honing is easy, you can already do it and say you will be ok, comments such as this dont tend to endear people to other corum users.

Firstly, I woukd never be so bold as to tell someone else to throw away something they own because I dont like it. Thats very presumptuous, arrogant, and insulting.

Saying, "if you have trouble with the GD, it might not be you. They seem to have issues" is vastly less insulting than saying "throw it away its garbage".

Secondly, there is a difference between saying "honing can be tricky and a professional edge will help you understand where you need to go" is vastly less insulting than saying "pay a professional for an edge because you cant possibly have a clue".

All I wanted to do was introduce myself while I read around the forums. I dont need to be told Im too dumb to learn how to hone and my gear is garbage.

If this is what I am supposed to endear myself to, Ill go elsewhere. Thanks fir the welcome.

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Originally Posted by EastSideBadDad

Firstly, I woukd never be so bold as to tell someone else to throw away something they own because I dont like it. Thats very presumptuous, arrogant, and insulting.

Saying, "if you have trouble with the GD, it might not be you. They seem to have issues" is vastly less insulting than saying "throw it away its garbage".

Secondly, there is a difference between saying "honing can be tricky and a professional edge will help you understand where you need to go" is vastly less insulting than saying "pay a professional for an edge because you cant possibly have a clue".

All I wanted to do was introduce myself while I read around the forums. I dont need to be told Im too dumb to learn how to hone and my gear is garbage.

If this is what I am supposed to endear myself to, Ill go elsewhere. Thanks fir the welcome.

Sent from my LGL34C using Tapatalk

Sorry, my post wasnt intended to fuel any fires, i understand your point regarding your razor, and would probably feel the same if i recieved such comments.

I dont think that anyone was insinuating that you are unable to hone your razor, generally it is recommended to get a professionally honed razor (which you have) to compare your efforts and edge to some sort of bar.
We have a number of members here who honed their own from the start and most of them seem to say that whilst they got good edges eventually it took that much longer to get good shaves as you are battling with another variable in the quality of your shave.
My point was that we get a lot of new members with sharpening experience that say honing their razors is not going to be a problem but often it turns out that it is. I think one of the honing guys on the forum has said that it is easy until it isn't ☺ as in provided that the razor has no issues it ahould be relatively straight forward but once wonky geometry or other issues come into play it suddenly becomes that much harder.
So once again i apologise if my post came across as insulting or demeaning that was not my intention.

Originally Posted by edhewitt

Sorry, my post wasnt intended to fuel any fires, i understand your point regarding your razor, and would probably feel the same if i recieved such comments.

I dont think that anyone was insinuating that you are unable to hone your razor, generally it is recommended to get a professionally honed razor (which you have) to compare your efforts and edge to some sort of bar.
We have a number of members here who honed their own from the start and most of them seem to say that whilst they got good edges eventually it took that much longer to get good shaves as you are battling with another variable in the quality of your shave.
My point was that we get a lot of new members with sharpening experience that say honing their razors is not going to be a problem but often it turns out that it is. I think one of the honing guys on the forum has said that it is easy until it isn't ☺ as in provided that the razor has no issues it ahould be relatively straight forward but once wonky geometry or other issues come into play it suddenly becomes that much harder.
So once again i apologise if my post came across as insulting or demeaning that was not my intention.

I understand, and I also apologize for assuming there was snark in your post when it wasn't intended. Call it a truce and start from scratch.

I have 2 razors with professional edges, 1 with an edge I put on it, and 1 that needs more work than my current stones can handle, which is waiting for the Naniwa set to come in. The 2 professionally honed blades and the 1 I did myself all shave well. Yes, the 2 pro-edges shave better. But I'm getting there. I also have a third razor en route that is supposed to be coming "exquisitely shave ready", so we'll see how that goes when it gets here.

I had my first legitimate DFS this morning without reverting to a DE for touchups, which is a pretty decent milestone for me. Up until today, I was doing at least touchups if not my entire 3rd pass with a DE just to get clean. Not today. I'm pretty stoked on that progress. Used a new-to-me Torrey 5/8 full hollow square point that I got in a trade...

Im definitely hooked on shaving with the straights. I've started eliminating DEs and SEs from my collection that I no longer even look at. I do have a few DEs Im gonna hang to for those occasions when I don't feel like using a straight, or whatever may come...no sense in getting rid of all of them.

I'm getting decent shaves, even if I need to revert to the DE for cleaning up, and so far I have been lucky with my edges. I'm definitely not afraid to seek professional help if I can't get an edge on a blade. I would rather pay someone to make a blade solid, than struggle with it and either cause some damage to my scalp, or cause some damage to the razor...

Thanks for clarifying your intentions. I do appreciate it. And please accept my apology for assuming you were trying to be insulting, too.

welcome aboard

Welcome to the forum and straight razor shaving. there are a lot of variables to honing a razor. One is the razor itself. Grind type, steel used and condition of the razor. The another is the hones capability. Cannot leave out our own capability. Learning to sort out what is what will come with experience. The more you do it the better you will become at achieving a good edge. Take it slow, evaluate what you are doing good and bad. Work on improving the weaknesses in the process. Sounds like you are off to a solid start. Just take it slow and have fun doing it.

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum. I, too, am a "newbie" and also purchased a Gold Dollar 800. But unlike you, haven't made the straight razor plunge.....I keep making excuses to continue using my DE. BUT....this weekend I'm gonna dive in. The comments I've read on the forums suggest starting out with something like a Gold Dollar. So, I think you are Ron track. Good luck!

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