Thread: The Infamous ZY Razor Arrived

Mine rusts. Let a drop of water dry on the bevel And you'll know.

Cheers, Steve

I got one to try out.

First impressions were positive. Much better than the GD66 I purchased a few years ago.

The razor was sharp out of box. Was popping arm hair.

The lowest grit I had was 4K. In retrospect, I want to start from 1K and reset bevel.

I noticed, there was a lot of wear near the heel. A close look shows that bevel was not set properly here

It is not all bad though, the master grind is very good, and other parts of the edge look good

Update after 1st shave: this razor was a delight!

While I am no expert, I have shaved with both vintage hollow Solingens & modern wedge Harts - IMHO this razor was just as good in the shave department. For $8 shipped it's a steal (vs say a Dovo Best)

Stainless that is used for blades has some carbon content so it can be hardened so it is magnetic.


Slawman

Got one in the mail today. First appearances didn't impress me much, but I thought , what do you expect for $8 shipped halfway around the world. Looked like Master Shifu ground it using my bench grinder or some broken concrete. Bevel and spine were both uneven. Worked it over with a King 240/1000 both sides then a Norton 4/8. No tape as I wanted to improve the look of that spine if nothing else. Finished it off with what else would you expect a PHIG. I take it to my face in the morning. It appeared to hone up fairly well. Oh, the scales at the pivot cracked on one side during that first honing. $8 quailty. I will be getting a Portland Kracken in the near future (our wedding anniv. is in August and I'm lobbying for one of those.... my next review).

I just realized I never go back to this thread. I shaved with it for a few months straight. I actually held up quite nicely. It did seam to require more stropping but once stropped it was ready to shave quite well. All in all I am very impressed. But it's still a heavy chunk, and it still doesn't match up to a vintage straight. But if you want one that looks new and don't mind re-setting the bevel and getting it sharp, it will certainly work.

ZY has a new model available called the Poseiden. It has a wood handle and is said to be made of stainless. It has a trident shape cut out of the middle of the blade. They are running around $20 on ebay. They look pretty nice for the price.

I've honed a few for others and they were taking better edges than the old Gold Dollars and Gold Monkeys. The main advantage is that these are shoulderless and that took care of many of the GD & GM's problems.

I haven't heard back on how the edges held up.

However the scales are terrible and the blade shape and finish leaves quite a bit to be desired. So by the time you make new scales, clean up the blade you've been adding money so the initial cost wasn't all that cheap.

Personally I'd still go with a nice vintage razor as they have 'Character and Soul' but that's just me. I did purchase a brand new 6/8 Revisor and it's a damn nice shaver however that's the only new razor I've ever purchased.

I ordered one for $16.(poseiden) It supposedly has black wood scales. I also ordered the 8.99 one with white scales. Time will tell what i can do with them. But for the price they should be fun.

A spark test on a grinder would be very telling about the makeup of the steel. I am not sure what to look for but there are tables of what the sparks should look like for different. "Darn oldtimers disease"!!