$3.60 Gold Dollar from China

Picked up 3 of the extremely cheap $3.60 GD's online, took about 2 months to reach me in Boston area coming from China.

these things are not bad, honestly...they're not pretty of course, and the crappy black plastic scales are horrible but i honed up the blade last night and it was an extremely nice, comfortable shave.

i used a Norton 4K to set the bevel, creating a good amount off slurry with my DNT 325...the shoulder was definitely in the way during the return stroke on the hone, i always have allot of trouble using the circle method when the shoulder needs work. so i just did many, many, many X-strokes with quite a bit of pressure and achieved an excellent bevel.

i then did a pyramid with the Norton 4K/8K which worked extremely well, finished the 8K nice and light, almost negative pressure with almost zero water just like Glen shows in his YouTube videos which worked awesome!

followed by about 15 light strokes on the Naniwa 12K achieving that nice mirror Polish...

then finishing with about 10 passes on each side on the CrOx/FeOx Balsa strop from Larry@Whipped Dog, which always kicks ass!

and finally 100 passes on the SRD Premium 1 hanging strop, and another 100 passes on the SRD modular paddle with the Premium IV English Bridal...

man what a sweet shave it was! the only issue i have is the scales are nice and tight when the razor is closed, or when its open to the shaving position....however it is completely loose and flopping around when in the stropping position...i tried tapping with a half dome hammer but that stropping position remains loose no matter what i do...every other position is fine...any suggestions? i know they are lousy, cheap scales

Gold Dollars are what they are and that isn't all bad. I took a dremmel to mine and ground down the shoulder a bit. My scales were all crazy too. They had the same problem you are describing. Tight everywhere but in the straight open position. A few things worth trying.

#1. You could try to tap the pins when the razor is in the open position

#2. Throw the whole razor in a pot of (almost) boiling water for about 10-15 seconds. This loosened up my scales and then I re-tightened the scales evenly 20 taps per side until good and tight. Then they closed straight and smooth from open to close.

#3. Use them to try out your first custom built set of scales. Or just replace with a cheap pair. I am going to make some cheap horn scales. The horn is on its way.

Hope this helps.

$3.60. The prices of these are skyrocketing.

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Originally Posted by Boarder277

i tried tapping with a half dome hammer but that stropping position remains loose no matter what i do...every other position is fine...any suggestions? i know they are lousy, cheap scales

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My guess, bent pin.

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Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

$3.60. The prices of these are skyrocketing.

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,,,,,,,,,,,,,Attachment 158590,,,,,that made my stomach hurt,,,,,,,,,

lol how much are the cheap China made Gold Dollar' usually?

If your happy & having fun that's all that matters,,,,


,,,I just want to know what the SRD Premium 1 hanging strop and the SRD Premium IV English Bridal did to you to deserve that kind of treatment,,,, :D

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Originally Posted by Boarder277

lol how much are the cheap China made Gold Dollar' usually?

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I want to say one-fiddy

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Originally Posted by gugi

I want to say one-fiddy

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cheaper by the thousand. stock up.

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Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

$3.60. The prices of these are skyrocketing.

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Maybe its time to bust into the silver stash and buy gold dollars instead.