Thread: Modified Gold Dollar

The pics are in the link from the very first post of this thread.

hi im a newbie, few days ago I bought a cheap chinese straight Gold Dollar, I need to practise honing bcos I got about 2-3 months to learn honing before my Dovo start to dull.

I start honing this gold dollar from learning honing from wiki,SRP, youtube. but I reckon this gold dollar is quite tough to be sharpened.
Is it just me and my technique? or the gold dollar? anyone has experience on gold dollar?

thanks for any advise

~SiGiT~

Gold Dollars are very hard to hone. When I started to learn to hone my own razors I bought a Gold Dollar as well. After 2 weeks of trying to get the bevel set right, I took it to my barber. He spent the night trying to hone it. The next day he called me up and told me it was a lost cause. His exact words were, "It would be easier to sharpen a polished turd and the turd would probably hold an edge better."

There is too much generalization here. The problem is that one Gold Dollar is not the same as another Gold Dollar. Many have issues with the stabilizer with it interfering with honing. This can easily be corrected with some grinding. The greater problem is that some of them are warped. Oh well, you buy a cheap razor and you take your chances. You buy 10 Gold Dollars and your chances are that 7 or 8 of them will hone up just fine.

I would say the same. You have better chances if you buy the "top" models, they have better grind and QC. I had a few 66 and 208 models, and the 208 was much better overall. While one of the 66 models was warped a bit, and needed serious bevel work. The steel isn't soft either, so they aren't the easiest to hone out there, but they take a fairly good edge, better than you would think from the price tag.

This is funny, I have just done the same thing. Ordered a Gold dollar off Ebay to practice my honing to avoid stuffing my Dovo. Gold Dollar is yet to arrive but by the sounds of it might have just wasted $16.

Originally Posted by Str8Raz0r

This is funny, I have just done the same thing. Ordered a Gold dollar off Ebay to practice my honing to avoid stuffing my Dovo. Gold Dollar is yet to arrive but by the sounds of it might have just wasted $16.

Nearly any GD can be honed, no problem. The difference is in time and difficulty. Your money isn't wasted, and if you paid 16$, than it is the 208 model, which is the best ground and finished. I had 3 of those, and they weren't that hard to hone. No warping, just the bevel had to be reset.

No, as long as the dollar isn't warped as mentioned above, it can be honed. Do you know if you got a carbon or ss blade? I have a ss dollar that I use when I am camping oceanside & it was a real bugger to hone, but once I got it there it's fine.

When you guys are learning to hone, I recommend one thing: one layer of 3m or scotch vinyl electrical tape on the spine.

When viewing the youtube video's, remember there is a bunch of crap on there as well. As long as you are "learning" from a known honemeister...fine. Stay away from the rest as it will just turn your brains into scrambled eggs...

I think there aren't any ss GD manufactured today, I saw only carbon steel GDs up for sale.

I don't have a GD, but as previously mentioned, I'd add tape, probably two layers. Reset the hell out of the bevel on that bad boy, and go from there....If it's steel, it can be sharpened....Now, how long it takes, and how long it holds an edge is another story.....