I haven't read much about these. Anyone with any experience with them - good or bad?
http://i15.ebayimg.com/03/i/000/d3/b8/6da7_1.JPG
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I haven't read much about these. Anyone with any experience with them - good or bad?
http://i15.ebayimg.com/03/i/000/d3/b8/6da7_1.JPG
I have a Chinese Double Arrow that I ordered from our esteemed Polish friend (don't ask me to remember his name now), and it is in my shaving rotation. It's actually the largest razor I have, so I have to remember to keep the angles right on my face, but that's not a problem. It also has a nice smiling profile, which I *love*.
After reading about the Tim Zowada microbevel idea for razors, I slapped a couple of pieces of electrical tape on the spine and honed it up, stropped it up (pasted diamond and newspaper) and give it the old shave... it was even sharper and smoother than before.
Mine has no stamping on the tang like some of the older Double Arrow razors. The scales are embarrassing plastic, but they open and close without hitting anything and they serve their purpose. They do not have a storied history like TIs, Dovos, Wade and Butchers, Robesons, Filomarnicas, etc, but I read recently that someone bought one 20 years ago, didn't use it for awhile, then recently brought it out of mothballs to get some wicked awesome shaves. I didn't realize they've been around even that long.
I love my Double Arrow razor. Would I buy another one? (If I needed another new razor) an unqualified yes, especially given the price... but it helps if you like honing... if I got one that wasn't sharpened correctly, I might get frustrated at the whole endeavour, but I had great success with mine "out of the box".
I purchased 2 from the same source, and the 2 I recieved were from an inferior batch.
It is my understanding that there is a great deal of inconsistencies in the supply, so you could get a decent razor, or you could get an ugly Zeepk.
I bought several of these, Ray, from the same seller, and each has provided excellent shaves. Like Paulo mentioned, the scales are cheapo, but the unmarked blade is a big 6/8" hollow and honing was easy.
Dan
Thanks, guys. Seems like there is quite a bit of variability in quality.
Mike, did your razors have white scales. I remember reading one member (Kenrup?) saying the black scaled ones were no better than Zeepks but the white handled ones were actually quite good.
Luckily, Wojtek posted some more stamped wapi's - I think my odds are better rolling the dice on those. For now. :)
I honed one up for someone a few weeks ago and rescaled it, from a country not well known for quality blades it honed really easy, developed no nicks and shaved remarkably well in my opinion. If this was your starter razor i would say you could do alot worse, im not an advocate of them i was merely surprised by the shave I got.Quote:
Originally Posted by RayG
My tuppence worth, simon
Yeah mine were the white handled ones, and they were no better than Zeepks... :shrug:Quote:
Originally Posted by RayG
For the price you can't go wrong, but you might need to buy 5 to get 2 workable razors.
I have one in black scales with a makers mark stamped tang in a 7/8 round point that I just picked up for a few bucks. The blade is straight and level, I will have to see how it works before I drop it in new scales.
I have honed around 30 of these white handled ones from Mereck. I have not had a bad one yet. I guarantee these razors and I have not had one come back. The true double arrow, stamped with two arrows work as good as a three dollar vacuum cleaner. I recommend these for guys who are exploring the str8 shaving. I have a hard time keeping these in stock.
I bought three of the razors pictured in Ray's original post from Wojtec76 and they were great. They may not be the same razors Ken mentions just above, because they don't have the double arrow stamped on the blade, they have no marks on the blade but have two Chinese characters on the inside of the scales.
Two of them required minimal honing to give a perfect BBS shave. The third took a little more effort, but given how new I am to honing, that could have been me, not the blade.
I think they are actually a better value than the famous Wapis, if you don't mind the ultra cheap scales. They are big 6/8 blades (each of my three are actually a trifle bigger than 13/16), full hollows and take a great edge. I shaved with one this morning and it was a great shave. They are also considerably cheaper than the Wapis!
Dan
I picked up 2 from stamps and was more than impressed with the performance compared to the price. Great starter razors by price point and not so expensive that the newbie honer has to feel worried about screwing up.
Mine needed just a minimum of honing and they perform admirably. The scales are cheapo but I dont shave with them and later on if I feel like rescaling I can make them look like a million bucks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GollyMrScience
Last year somebody mentioned they were going to rescale seven of them to make a set. I recently honed a couple more of these and I am so impressed with them. I also agree that these are a very good razor with which to learn to hone. They will give good feedback to the novice honemeister.
I bought a couple from the Polish dude the other day and got them pretty quick. They arrived as a greasy mess, and the handles are utter crap. One of them actually fell off the blade.
This is not a big deal, I was actually buying them to rescale, but still :-P
Reasonably sharp from the get go, about as sharp as a new Dovo would be. After a couple minutes on a 1200 waterstone to set the bevel right, then regular pyramids, some work on a swaty, and a couple swipes on the strop, this thing is sharp!
Just sharpened it last night, so I haven't gotten a chance to shave with it yet, but from how it handled the gamut of tests I put my razors through, this thing sharpened up as well as a Dovo, but with WAY LESS EFFORT. I had this thing ready to shave in under 20 minutes, very minimal work on my part.
This is my first straight razor. I bought it on eBay from stamps222, and I just started using it after getting Kenrup to hone it for me. He was able to put a very good edge on it. I have nothing to compare it to, but I'm very pleased. Considering the price I paid on eBay, this razor is an insane bargain. The only negative thing I'd have to say is that the scales are bad. When I received the razor they were horribly misaligned. The edge didn't contact the scales, but it was still darn ugly. I will eventually get them rescaled, but it works for now.
All in all, if this is the only razor I ever own, I wouldn't regret it.
I have one Double Arrow razor and it's been very difficult to hone. At $13 shipped it's not an expensive gamble but I'll stick to the Wapis.
it's peculiar to me that some people report poor quality of the blade on the double arrow while kenrup has been using them for his starter sets, purchasing them at different times, and reports no problems with any of them. i understand that quality control could be an issue, but were that the problem, i would expect kenrup to have eventually stumbled on to a bad razor.
ken, care to weigh in on this? could your honing process/skill explain your successes with this razor?
I've not had a bad blade yet. However, the quality control is pretty poor for these razors. Lately, I have had to repin all of them to get the scales to align. The original pins have been cut to long and not finished. Every pin has been bent. The steel is very good. Under a microscope, they look better then some of the new German razors ($60-$70 range) that I'm getting from clients to hone. Before I resell them, I have repined, smoothed out the scale edges and honed them. I would venture to say I'm close to or at the 100 mark for dealing with these razors. I firmly believe that these are a better razor to learn to str8 shave then a taking a chance on an eBay junker or flea market special.Quote:
Originally Posted by ragamuffin74
I believe the confusion comes from the black handled Chinese razor that actually has crossed arrows stamped on the tang. These are junk, they also cost more.
Interesting. Which is the real Double Arrow?Quote:
Originally Posted by Kenrup
Just got mine in the mail today from Stamps222 (Marek). One scale is bent and actually looks a little longer than the other, but the razor closes fine and the scales are tight so I don't mind. (Wasn't celluloid was the "cheap plastic" of its day before "cheap plastic" was invented?) It's actually sharper than I expected, though definitely not shave-ready (had trouble getting hairs off my arm with it). The blade is actually a bit over 6/8 (like 25/32) from spine to edge.
The razor has no markings on the blade or tang, as others have mentioned. Funny we call these "Double Arrow" even though there isn't one! How do we know that's what they actually are? As someone else mentioned there are two Chinese characters inside each of the scales -- the only marks on it anywhere -- I will see if I can find someone who can translate them. I hope it doesn't say, "Crummy, cheap razor to export to Americans who don't know any better"!
I bought one from Stamps. Got it in the mail day before yesterday. It honed up very easily, and gave me a great shave! It has a nice feel to it.
Yes, I replaced the scales. They're pretty bad.
Good price, and an excellent razor for that price. $13.00 shipped
Steve
I really like mine, I had to put a bit of CS in the bottom of the scales to keep them together and it got uneven hone wear on the spine when i honed it up but other than that is a nice razor with cheap scales...It shaved pretty well too. 13 bucks shipped is worth it for some one new or looking for an inexpensive razor.
you could make a real cheap 7 day set if you wanted, just put new scales on them and your good...:shrug:
The "real" Double Arrow is the black handled Chinese piece of junk. The good razor is the white handled one from stamps222.Quote:
Originally Posted by ragamuffin74
I have a tentative translation for the characters inside the scales from someone who has been studying Chinese for a year or two (not a native speaker or reader). He says they mean something like "gold yuan" or "gold coin". So they don't say "double arrow" after all.
I'll try to paste the characters here, but I don't know if they will make it through the post editor:
金元
If anyone else here reads Chinese, can you confirm this translation?
Edit: After I posted this, I realized that my translator said the words in Mandarin are "jin yuan." Now I suspect this might be a transliteration of "Genuine". So these should probably be referred to as the "Genuine" Chinese razor.
I got one of these from stamps222 last week. I was impressed with the quality of the razor vs the cost for sure. It's reasonably sharp*, and carries a larger blade which I've been interested in trying out. As others have mentioned, the scales are probably the worst part of the razor. Someone could make a nice business out of buying these up and re-scaling them.
I've yet to shave with it, but I don't think I would call it junk by any means. For the price, I could easily buy 5 of them and throw away all but the best one of the bunch.
* I'm not new to honing in general, but I can honestly say I'm no expert at straight razors either. Personally, I don't think it would give a bad shave as-is even if there's some room for improvement on the hone. Then again, maybe I got a good one...
I bought two DAs from Wojtec a while back, last year, I think. Both had misaligned scales, which I replaced. The blades are very good. About two months ago I bought two more, this time from stamps222. To my surprise, these scales were good enough aligned to keep them. Yes, the pins were a bit long and rough, but that could be fixed in just a few minutes. I didn't need more than 15-20 minutes of honing for any of those four DAs, and I'm certainly no honemeister, not by a long shot! All of them are now part of my weekly rotation, along with my three Wackers. Everything else in my razor box, Wapis, W&B, Torrey, Puma, is just decoration. My RAD is cured, I guess. The Wackers and DAs I already own are all the razors I'll ever need for the rest of my life. The shave quality of both is pretty much on the same level, - excellent! :cool:
I just discovered this similar-looking razor on eBay, called "Gold Dollar," with the blade stamped "China". Could these be the same razor under a different name? Or could these be the blades that are supposed to go with the "Double Arrow" scales? I would be curious to know if these have any markings inside the scales.
It does look similar. Has anybody snagged one of these yet?Quote:
Originally Posted by BurnBeGone
I posted about this razor a while back HERE, and Id say after I made the modifications to my razor for a cheep one it shaves very well. I see from looking at the updated razors you are showing, that the shoulder at the toe is more narrow now look like they have done some refining.
It looks like it http://straightrazorpalace.com/aucti...ht=gold+dollarQuote:
Originally Posted by Kenrup
Quote:
Originally Posted by BurnBeGone
Double Arrow = Gold Coin = Gold Dollar?
Seems clear to me.
FYI...Stamps222 has more of these for sale on ebay.
Just bought 2 myself. Will let ya know when they arrive.
I own one of these from Stamps. I love it . It gives a better shave then the much more expensive brand names that I own and I own quite a few brand name razors. Did I get a fluke razor from him? "maybe". I would buy another if this one was lost. Honing is a breeze also.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arora Borealis
You did not get a fluke. I sell a bunch of these razors. Honing them is a breeze. It is rare that I have to give special attention to a particular blade. I have not rejected one because of steel. I will rescale some of them. It takes a very good razor to beat these razors and for the price, what more could you reasonably ask for?
After some tinkering with my honing, my Doubl eArrow has been shaving beautifully. I was BBS in one pass. I'll see how long before I have to hone it again but so far so good.Quote:
Originally Posted by TstebinsB
I was lucky, I got at an auction house a while back & forgot about it. Just found it this morning & I will have to say it is a nice razor. This one has the white scales that fit great have a black spacer & nice brass pins & washers. The blade took an edge real nice & passed the tap test. the blade is well ground with nice jimps top & bottom Gonna give it a good stropping on the Koken Shell strop tonight & shave with it in the morning. I will let you all know how it goes!
Slawman