Thread: Modified Gold Dollar

say what again!!!

Originally Posted by paco664

i read that last night.... pretty much the whole way through.....

just don't understand why some people react like you are killing kittens by hitting them in the head with puppies....

As I posted last night, it doesn't have to be that way. BTW I don't understand it either....

I'm going to go out on a limb here, if anyone cares to follow me. Here at SRP we recommend that newbs only buy SHAVE READY blades from REPUTABLE vendors. No one will dispute that. Now, say a reputable vendor sells Gold Dollars. Said vendor will no doubt sell that razor shave ready. Let's also assume that he cares about his clientele, so he has weeded out the bad from the good, leaving good newb razors at a cheap price.

Now, also imagine that a newb arrives at SRP. He asks all the usual questions about what razor to buy, how to keep it on the cheap, etc. He knows from lurking here that shave ready is the way to go, and someone recommends him the aforementioned reputable vendor. With all negative factors eliminated, the newb goes on to buy the Gold Dollar.

So, my question is what is wrong with that?

So as long as a newb is doing his homework, buying from a repuatable source and NOT e-bay/amazon etc and not having to deal with all the corrective honing, why is this so controversial?

BTW - We have all done our best to hijack Blix's thread, and for that I must apologize. I think we should all let him have his thread back....

totally agree... but i have the ability and materials to fix the GD and hone it........

i wholly agree it is not a newbie/starter razor and they would be MUCH MUCH better off buying a shave ready from the classifieds here or a vintage off ebay then send it to one of the excellent hone masters here on this site..... OR a reputable new one such as a DOVO..........

If everyone keeps agreeing, this GD thread will die quietly, and no one wants that! P.s. Blix, do you find that using tape on the spine of your GD is better than not using tape? How about breadknifing...let's talk about breadknifing GDs.

Originally Posted by Caydel

I agree 100%. But that's why I allowed for a tripling of their per-unit cost, which I think is quite generous.

I'm saying I think it would cost WAY more than that.

Originally Posted by Ryan82

So as long as a newb is doing his homework, buying from a repuatable source and NOT e-bay/amazon etc and not having to deal with all the corrective honing, why is this so controversial?

BTW - We have all done our best to hijack Blix's thread, and for that I must apologize. I think we should all let him have his thread back....

Originally Posted by paco664

totally agree... but i have the ability and materials to fix the GD and hone it........

Here is my take on both of these. We agree that there are inconsistencies with GD's, right? Some of these, like sticking through the scales, odd shoulders, some grind issues, etc, can be easily spotted, and that particular razor can be discarded or fixed. Some other problems, such as Blix mentioning that his razor rusts between passes, indicate other problems - problems with the steel. Again, some of these can be spotted right away, like rusting during honing or not holding an edge at all. But many report that their GD's won't hold an edge well, or the edge crumbles while honing, or whatever else. Now, we can either assume these people are being less that truthful, or we can take them at face value. Personally, given the variations in the quality of everything else, I don't have trouble believing that some of these problems do exist.

Here is a potential problem. What if the steel does crumble or the razor won't hold an edge, or something else goes bad with the steel, but not until the razor has been used a bit/honed a bit/touched up a bit, etc. In other words, if these problems don't occur during the initial honing. I have heard (though I have not seen it happen) that some Wapis, for example, start to crumble after a few honings; I would suspect that is because the steel wasn't consistent through and through or maybe the HT only got the very edge hard and not the whole blade. But I trust the people I have heard this from (weigh that how you will), and I believe such problems can emerge even if they are not detectable right away.

So, it is my belief that even if you buy an inconsistent razor from THE world's best vendor, you are still taking more of a chance than if you just pick up a razor that is more consistent. For me, the $45 pricetag for a GD from a good vendor is just too high to take that particular risk.

I hold the same beliefs if you have the time, skills, and inclination to fix one up yourself. You may deal with all the immediate problems only to find things go bad later. Here, it would be a risk of time, rather than money, so, again, weigh that how you will.

So have any of the guys with the "wicked edge", outstanding shave, GD's shaved with many other razors ? Just curious what is the benchmark.

Originally Posted by Jimbo7

If everyone keeps agreeing, this GD thread will die quietly, and no one wants that! P.s. Blix, do you find that using tape on the spine of your GD is better than not using tape? How about breadknifing...let's talk about breadknifing GDs.

I always use tape, so I wouldn't know.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

So have any of the guys with the "wicked edge", outstanding shave, GD's shaved with many other razors ? Just curious what is the benchmark.

By blix72 at 2011-07-17

To mention a few: Friodur 8/8, Gotta 6/8, Geneva 6/8, a few Keen Kutters, a Heljestrand, a couple Sheffield wedges.
Not shown in the picture:6/8 AXA Solingen, 6/8 Imperial Razor Co., a 6/8 Japanese Iwate Hirade folding.

Now could you guys stop hijacking please, a GD may be the Voldemort of razors, but I may have been lucky and gotten a usable one. Now this thread is about me using it for a few days in a row to see if it actually holds up.

Originally Posted by Blix

Now could you guys stop hijacking please, a GD may be the Voldemort of razors, but I may have been lucky and gotten a usable one. Now this thread is about me using it for a few days in a row to see if it actually holds up.

This might be the best request yet.. Blix let one of the mods know when you are ready to post to the thread, until then we'll leave it closed..

Originally Posted by paco664

say what again!!!

I dare you!
I double dare you!

a few weeks back someone made a thread about shaving with their gold dollar for a month and it started a poop storm.... well i had said towards the end of that thread that i bought a GD model 208 in stainless and that when it arrived i would give my honest opinion of it....

it arrived today.... i watched as the maillady *(oxymoron??!!) carried this sinister looking package towards my mailbox.... she had a look of pain... or constipation on her face as she handled the package as if she could sense with her 7th sense *(that all postal workers have) that inside there was something inherently dangerous and evil..... as her fingers lost contact with the package her countenance brightened as if a heavy load had been lifted from her.... her expression was that of someone finally using the bathroom after a week long taco bell binge... but i digress.....

i retrieved my shotgun from under the bed and made sure it had one in the barrell and as my wife removed the slightly bulky package i kept the muzzle trained on it.... because better to have a one handed wife than the consequences......

i gingerly opened the package to find a plastic case holding a most evile looking razor shaped object.... reminded me of silence of the lambs when hannibal was wearing the mask..... i dared not open it yet... but did admire the deceptively attractive scales.....

i soaked my waterstones and pondered my approach to honing it.... should i wear kevlar gloves?? or just make sure i had my cup on.....

finally i opened it.... quite anti climatic if i say so myself..... it was a quite large blade ~3/4" or so.....it was if i was at the animal shelter and the killer pit bull was letting me pet it....

i gently applied 2 layers of electrical tape to the spine..... still it waited....

i carefully spoke to it calming it as i set the bevel on the 1k.......

then i gently honed away on the 6k....... it gleamed at me almost telling "i want your blood"....

then i went to another stone i have that is ~8k..... i look at it with the 100x scope.... smooth edge.... hmmm...

the c12k and it played for a while... speaking in their mandarin dialect that i didn't understand..... mean while i know they are plotting together to kill me and my family while we sleep.......

then.... the pasted strop....... it is at this time i was convinced it was tame enough to handle bare handed.....

finally the latigo.......

i make the lather.... it waits....

finally i press the cold hungry stainless to my face.... i hear it mumble something about "wonton soup and moo goo gai pan"....

my hands shaking like a dog sh!tting a peach seed i continue....... and it happened.... it bit me ... on the throat....

just a minor nick... but i feel the poison seeping into my blood stream as i type this.... and i have a odd craving for brains..... but oddly enough i received a DFS *(i have never achieved BBS because of weird hair growth patterns on my neck..... but that doesn't matter now as i know todays shave will probably be the last due to this relic of unspeakable evil)

here are some photos...





*(this has been a cheap attempt at humor... i found the razor to be well made and honed fairly easy.... after my shave without additional stropping it passed the HHT for the length of the blade with my wifes hair which is very fine...... i have nothing bad i can say about this razor....)