Thread: Modified Gold Dollar

Originally Posted by Gasman

I say pick up some American blades in the vintage era. Hone them up and you will be better off than any DG or Titan.
If you are wanting new I still recommend staying away from the Dovo's. The quality is just not what it used to be. Save a bunch of coins and opt for a nice custom blade in the 5 to 7 hundred dollar level. But that's if you really want something of top quality and looks and new. Finding those customs made by quality razor artisans don't happen much but you can find them once in a while.

So get rid of the china stuff. Buy real razors of vintage times and enjoy how it really works. IMO, A 12k is a great stone to have. All straight razor shavers should have one. they work great for touching up your razors when they need it. But if you're going to get into restoring razors, many razors, then buy a set of Shapton Glass stones and be done with it. And maybe a Gok 20k.

JMHO.

Much truth there. But OP in post #6 specifically says he is saving up to buy a Dovo Bismarck, a $150 or so razor if you shop around a bit. I don't think he is going to be able to spring for a $500 or $600 razor, no matter how much better it is, until he is a generation or so along in his career development and making a lot more money.

I agree many of Dovo's offerings are pretty sucky, but it is definitely on a sliding scale. Their entry level razors are overwhelmingly sucky and in fact their absolute lowest quality razor, ironically called by them "Best Quality", has been awesomely sucky for a very long time. I know. That was the first SR I ever bought, several decades ago in fact, way before Al Gore invented the internet. The mid range and upper shelf Dovos are generally pretty good with only rarely a lemon amongst them IME. As for the Dovo Bismarck specifically, subjectively I think they are metallurgically superior to the original Bismarcks. YMMV and I could be technically wrong about that.

OP says he has been straight shaving for 8 years, apparently with two GDs and a Titan. He still hasn't scraped together enough coin for a Bismarck but he has been shaving the whole time. Stop that, Mr. Bumblebee! You KNOW you can't fly, and I have scientific evidence to PROVE that you can't, so GET BACK DOWN HERE AND STAY ON THE GROUND! I would say that on the price/quality scale he is in his personal niche and it has worked fine for him, and the alternative would be to not shave with a straight razor at all, though he clearly aspires to slightly loftier standards. You are going to find a LOT of guys just don't have the cha-ching power to rub elbows with the elites at the bespoke or artisan razor bar; and recommendations to toss their "garbage" (I know you didn't say that, and not really sure that you even imply that, so please don't read any animosity in there) razors are only going to confuse or amuse many budget constrained newbies. I don't even have any razor that cost me over $170. At the end of the day, one of my several vintage or Dovo Bismarcks, another vintage, or even a humble GD, give me a very good single pass shave, and my shave videos speak for themselves.

I HIGHLY recommend that any straight shaver buy at least one razor of the highest perceived quality that he can afford. It is a pleasure to own or hold or use a fine razor, nobody can argue with that. For some guys, that finest razor he can afford is a GD, and the arithmetic speaks for itself. I am sure there are guys on this board who are working for minimum wage or even out of work altogether. There are also guys making $50k or $500k a year, no doubt. My best years were just under $100k, and most of that went into paying debts incurred during years when I made a third of that. Now I am retired and I don't even think about buying a $1k razor. SWSMBO knows where I sleep and she would be hopping mad. I don't think I can even get away with sneaking a new Bismarck in the budget, actually.

I have heard several people say that Al Gore invented the internet, maybe it was said tongue in cheek and I should have laughed.

Just in case anyone actually thinks it's true.

"Some years ago, rightwing commentators accused Al Gore of claiming to have invented the internet. That accusation was false, the former vice president having actually said that he “took the initiative in creating the internet.” In other words, he helped set up the necessary legislative and regulatory framework that made today’s information highway possible".

-----------

"It is impossible to credit the invention of the internet to a single person. The internet was the work of dozens of pioneering scientists, programmers and engineers who each developed new features and technologies that eventually merged to become the “information superhighway” we know today.

The first workable prototype of the Internet came in the late 1960s with the creation of ARPANET, or the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. Originally funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, ARPANET used packet switching to allow multiple computers to communicate on a single network".

https://www.history.com/news/who-invented-the-internet

Originally Posted by STF

I have heard several people say that Al Gore invented the internet, maybe it was said tongue in cheek and I should have laughed.

Just in case anyone actually thinks it's true.

"Some years ago, rightwing commentators accused Al Gore of claiming to have invented the internet. That accusation was false, the former vice president having actually said that he “took the initiative in creating the internet.” In other words, he helped set up the necessary legislative and regulatory framework that made today’s information highway possible".

-----------

"It is impossible to credit the invention of the internet to a single person. The internet was the work of dozens of pioneering scientists, programmers and engineers who each developed new features and technologies that eventually merged to become the “information superhighway” we know today.

The first workable prototype of the Internet came in the late 1960s with the creation of ARPANET, or the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. Originally funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, ARPANET used packet switching to allow multiple computers to communicate on a single network".

https://www.history.com/news/who-invented-the-internet

Apologies for omitting the smiley, Steve. I like to poke fun at Technical Al.

Picked this up from our own classifieds, for under $50.



Far superior, to any Blaasmark. Just saying.

Originally Posted by outback

Picked this up from our own classifieds, for under $50.



Far superior, to any Blaasmark. Just saying.

Under 50 bucks? Tell you what, Mike. I’ll give you 55 $. Done

Wow under 50 bucks thats a very good buy, i give you 60, lets start the auction hahaha.
I was working on a boxing gym for not much money and i didnt save a cent, now i quited the job and i am studying for police so when i get the job i would be able to spend the money on nice razors and stones.

Originally Posted by outback

Picked this up from our own classifieds, for under $50.



Far superior, to any Blaasmark. Just saying.

"Far superior" might be a bit of a stretch, I think, especially for someone who actually likes the Bismarck form factor, but yeah, that is a good score. No argument on that point.

Recently order 6 different ones from AliExpress, but they sent me 3 same ones for some reason, so in the end I got 4 different ones. Note that I have no connection to neither AliExpress nor any of those vendors.

Based on my finding, I would not recommend any of those other than for practicing purposes, especially the Kure Nai one, it's the most expensive of the 4 but it's also the worst of the four.

#1 Gold Dollar 666 ~3USD Delivered
Scale is a little bit too thick, cheap plastic of course, blade is centered correctly. Spine needs lots of correction. Carbon steel, get rusted easily. Bits of ground issue corrected successfully.






#2 Kure Nai 25USD Delivered
Even more chunkier than GD, bug hole on one of the scale. Spine is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off, serious ground issue but managed to correct eventually. Blade not centered correctly.






#3 Unknown Brand
Porous chunky wood scales. Minor spine/ground issue, fair bit of effort to correct. Stainless steel blade, deep grinding mark on faces but do not cause problems it seems. Blade is not perfectly centered but acceptable.






#4 Unknown Brand
Composite scales, Minor spine/ground issue, fair bit of effort to correct. Stainless steel blade, well polished. The ground is more like a pocket knife instead of a straight razor.

You will find that nearly all of the super cheapies are RSO's. (Razor Shaped Objects) I have seen a few reports that the Kure Nai are usable, and others saying it is junk. Gold Dollars are a known quantity. Not so great, not so bad. I have been messing with them long enough to know their ways and get excellent shaves from them. Most of them are bought by beginners, due to their low price, and unfortunately this is about the second worst razor for a beginner to begin with, unless honed by someone who has some experience with the brand. I had one assayed by X-Ray Flourescence Analysis (XRF) and the results were interesting. It looks as if the steel source deliberately created an alloy that was "just good enough" but not one bit more expensive than it needed to be, to make useful razors and other cutlery. Here is the gist of the report I got back.

0.208% Silicon
0.248% Chromium
0.359% Manganese
~0.007% Lead (this is near the threshold of detection for the device)
LEC estimate of 0.750% carbon, although the operator told me that this is a "guess" at best by the device.
98.4% iron (balance)

This is something similar to 5160 but with less of each of the alloying elements.

The razors will normally Rockwell C test at around 59 or 60 HRC. Not too bad, actually. Harder than a lot of highly coveted Sheffield blades, though the Sheffield steel is famously fine grained. The GD steel would be a very easy alloy to harden under not so scientifically controlled conditions, with the low-ish (for razors) carbon content. The scales are notoriously cheesy, but what do you expect for $1.50 each by the hundred lot? The real flaw is the grinding, though TBH an entry level Dovo can be worse, and the steel being a couple of points higher made the Dovo even more a PITA to hone. Better Dovos are usually fine and I particularly like Dovo Bismarcks, but their quixotically named "Best Quality" line is pretty bad until it is honed by a very knowledgeable honer. Anyway, the grind is what makes it super duper bad for a noob with no experience to try to learn to shave with while at the same time trying to learn to hone on. Once properly set up, hey, they shave. I can prove it.


I haven't tried a Kure Nai. I devoted enough time and effort already to one Chinese brand. I won't bother with another. Another razor you might find in the under $30 range on Ali Baba that is usable, is the Titan and believe it or not, their cheapest model is the best one. But that one isn't made in China. It is made in Taiwan by a Japanese owned company. Oh and there is the ZY430 Pro, a real stinker because the bevel angle is up around 21° or so. A real dog of a shaver, though if you really know how to hone you can make it shave okay, and it is about the last sharp razor that you would ever cut yourself with. I don't like it. Had two, gave them away.

So, from my experience, let me say that AFAIC, the Gold Dollar razors are the only cheapies from China that are particularly usable, and even then they must be honed, and before honing you generally need to profile the heel.

The beginner is much better off buying a decent shave ready vintage from a seller known to the community. Of course the problem is recognizing the good ones when you see them, and snagging them before somebody more knowledgeable gets them. I was selling my shave ready GD66 razors for $40 (shipped free to US address) when I stopped, maybe permanently, maybe temporarily. For the same $40 you can get a fairly nice vintage razor, also shave ready, if you have a clue about what to look for. Bear in mind that to get a new to you razor honed will probably cost you between $15 and $30 plus round trip shipping, and often the price depends on the condition of the razor.

If you can find one, a GD800 is of a much different steel. It is legitimately stainless, though it has no Vanadium whatsoever, just Cr and you really want the Vanadium carbides to form, for a finer grain. I had an 800 zapped, too, and it assayed:
Fe: 82.28%
Cr: 16.36%
Ni: 0.16%
Mn: 0.44%
Mo: 0.49%
Cu: 0.10%
(Carbon content was estimated via LEC as about 0.75%)

It isn't a bad razor at all, but it will set you back a cool $30 if you can even find one. They are as rare as an honest politician. The grind isn't bad at all though you still need to do the heel trick for best results. I actually sort of subjectively find that the 66, P-81, and 208, and also the 100, 200, 300, 400, hone up nicer and deliver a nicer shave, though, TBH. The P-81 is not marked P-81, but is actually stamped or etched "1996", the year the company was established.

I was buying straight from the factory, but early on I had a couple of sellers I could get the 66 from, for under $3 each shipped, if I bought 10 or more. Now AliExpress is the only real cheap source. Oh and believe it or not, you need to watch out for fake Gold Dollars. LOL! Hey, it's China.

What AliExpress is good for, IYAM, is shavettes. All of the Feather AC styled shavettes and the swingback ones with the teardrop shaped cutouts, performed nicely for me and they cost chimp change. I only use the ones that take half DE blades and I load them with Feather Hi-Stainless, and get pretty nice shaves from them. Beware other types on AE. Most don't hold the blade very well. Virginia Sheng badger brushes are another so-so buy. They used to be GREAT! First, there was Frank Shaving, and they sold a silvertip badger brush for chimp change that performed quite well, and then their price went up and quality went down. Virginia Sheng stepped in to Frank's old market niche and sold decent brushes for FS's old prices. I think I still have one somewhere but my daily drivers are all 30mm lathermonster silvertips from Whipped Dog. They used to be crazy cheap but now will set you back around $45, still a winner of a price. But on AE, pretty much Virginia Sheng, or VS, same company, are the only brush worth trying. Give all the strops a miss. Utter garbage. Also don't bother with any stone you see on AE. More garbage, IMHO.

Wow, that's really really long writing. For those I meant to practicing honing only, have never thought of the edge retention etc at all. They served that purpose really well, except that none of them had a heel or stabilizer to fix. If you look at the spines and bevels, you will find out how much steel I removed in order to get an acceptable bevel. But after bevels set, it took just minutes to get them shave ready. I'm not sure if it was my honing skills got better or something else, I got all of them popping the finest hairs on my hands just of Naniwa 800, which I could only get at 4K or above.

With those I noticed something I had not seen before that almost mirror finish bevels off my Naniwa 4K were scratched on Shapton Pro 8K and 12K. Not sure if it was that I pressed harder than usual. Also noticed that the Kure Nai rusted on the edge already, despite I dried it with a tissue. Sydney has been crazily humid in the last a couple of days.

I found we probably shouldn't buy razors online as so far it looks like a hit or miss game, despite I paid decent prices for them. So far, 4 new ones, one Dovo with badly warped edge, others are okay. One New-Old-Stock Le Jaguar with warped edge just slightly better than the Dovo. It's a pity that I could not really find a any physical dealing straight razor in Sydney. I guess I can now spot ground issues with my bear eyes but unfortunately, there was no way for me to inspecting them before placing the orders.