Thread: Modified Gold Dollar

Hello I'm Greg from Toronto Canada. I've been wanting to get into straight razor shaving for a long time now. I did some reviewing on YouTube and decided to buy a cheap Gold Dollar razor to see if this type of shaving was for me, plus I thought it would be a good razor to learn honing on. I also bought a 4k/8k norten water stone and flattening stone and nagura stone. I watched many videos on honing and tried for hours and hours but can't get it shave ready. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks Greg

Gold Dollars generally come needing more than just honing. A lot of them need the shoulder to be removed or some steel to be removed from the heel before they can be honed properly.

Well 1st of all welcome! Second of all; do you know if the GD came shave ready? (I'm assuming no)...What could be happening here is that the bevel may need to be set. Setting the bevel is definitely the most important step in any honing regimen, as it establishes the geometry of the edge. What ends up happening if you don't set the bevel is you end up just polishing a dull edge. This is what I ran into when I first started honing (just a few weeks ago!!), so I went and got myself a 1k Bevel-Setter. It really makes all the difference in the world!!

Now it IS possible to set a bevel off of just the Norton 4k, it just takes a little more effort (and slurry). I am, however, just a newb myself, and I'm sure some of the more "veteran" honers will chime in here!!

You picked a rough brand to start with.. But they can be made to shave. imwould imagine that you are having problems setting the bevel. When I get a unsharpened razor mmost of my time is spent on a 1 k stone before going to a 4k and 8 k. I am not a pro but my routine is something like this: 250 strokes on a 1k, 100 4k, 100 8k, 100 coticle, then I strop 4, strokes on the coticle, 100 strokes on the strop and the blade is usuallyvshave ready

Greg do our self a favor and contact Maxi, he has fixed up a few of the gold dollar shavers and claims they are some of his best shavers. You can find his add in the classifieds under member services.

P.S. I guess you got my email

Colin

Thanks to all who have replied to my post. If I can't get this sharp I'll give Maxi a call but I'd like to learn how to do this myself, so I'll get a 1k stone and give it a shot. I haven't heard of coticle what is this.

Originally Posted by lance

Thanks to all who have replied to my post. If I can't get this sharp I'll give Maxi a call but I'd like to learn how to do this myself, so I'll get a 1k stone and give it a shot. I haven't heard of coticle what is this.

A coticule is a piece of rock from Belguim that functions as a fantastic hone...

http://www.coticule.be/

First, Read through this huge thread on GD razors...

http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...ld-dollar.html

Then look up and realize that you have been told again..

About 70% of these razors have Geometry Issues that have to be dealt with before even a 1k hone is useful, this is why we don't recommend them for Newbs on SRP this is what caused the huge "Discussions"


Inconsistent products cause controversy if they were all bad there wouldn't be a problem or if they were all good, but with some good, some bad you will hear "I bought one and it is my greatest shaver" and then the next post will say " They suck"

We got tired of all the yelling... read through that thread and see learn what we even mean by "Issues" and then proceed...

Welcome to SRP

Just use a Sharpie and put a mark on the edge of the blade. Try to sharpen it. If the Sharpie mark goes away your Gold Dollar is fine.

A 1000k hone would be helpful at that point.

If you have a "problem" Gold Dollar the blade won't be able to be held flat against the hone and the Sharpie mark won't be cleanly removed.

My firs straight razor. modified Gold Dollar. by JS /Jenes Sándor/