Thread: Modified Gold Dollar

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.

Originally Posted by mrjin

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.

As I mentioned, don't expect an entry level Dovo to hone right up. They are usually pretty wonky, lots of twist. Someone experienced with them can turn them into good shavers, but the average neophyte honer will give up in digust. I have never ran across a midrange Dovo that presented any extraordinary difficulties in honing, though. I have several Bismarcks and they honed right up, without exception, with no medieval measures to beat it into submission.

My first razor was a Dovo Best. This was long before Al Gore invented the internet, as he so famously blurted. I had no mentor and there were no books. I "shaved" with that razor for years, constantly trying to get it sharper, and I always looked like I had been sorting wildcats all morning. I finally got it shaving almost tolerably and then I ran across a vintage Boker I believe it was, in a junk shop. I had also just bought a stone in a hardware store in Matamoros, and it was a HUGE slab of fine grained quartz type rock, faintly translucent, very flat and highly burnished. I was starting to learn to keep the shoulder off the stone, by then. That stone and that razor and my newly purchased "real" strop, were the winning combination. Next I think was the Colonel Conk. A rebranded Dovo Best, AFAIK. Another dog. I didn't have the skill set to grind those razors straight. One more Best a few years later and I decided that 3 for 3 lemons was enough. I think I tossed all three though I might have given them away, don't remember. Now, I can "fix" such razors but as a beginner, no way, Jose.

I later, after internet happened, bought a vintage Bismarck online. The real Bismarck, made before Dovo bought the brand. Sweet. Nicest razor ever. Feels good in the hand, hones up beautifully, a dream to shave with. Bought another Bismarck and it turned out to be a DOVO Bismarck! I was, to keep the language gentlemanly, upset. But hey, it turned out to be a fine razor and all I had to do was give it about 30 swats on my finisher and a stropping and it easily popped hairs 1/4" above the skin. The shave was arguably identical from what I got from the Bismarck Bismarck. Now I have several of each, including some Dovos of different model name made on the same blank. Then I realized that the junk Dovos were probably the rejects that the company decided to sell instead of trash, probably ground by apprentice grinders or that didn't make it through the quench without warping. The steel is the same, obviously.

Then a few years later after I had accumulated quite a few razors, about half a shrimp basket full, actually, I ran across Gold Dollars. Out of stubbornness and with my painfully acquired knowledge from years of tangling with ebay basket cases, and with a progression of Naniwa stones and lapping film which was the new kid on the block for honing, it didn't take too long to start getting them shaving. On another forum there were several guys using them as cannon fodder in their modification attempts, and there was an annual competition. I jumped in with both feet. We all dremelled our way through whole bouquets of Gold Dollars when Chinese resellers started selling them at barely above wholesale, with China government subsidized free shipping to the US. Lots of shattered blades and cutting wheels, yeah. Lots of burnt up blades with the Blue Stain of Death on them from overheating. Lots of works of art, too. Eventually I decided I could make a little coin buying straight from the factory and honing them up and selling them, but with no major modifications. I had sold a couple of modded ones for crazy money, but I was selling the many many hours of work much too cheaply, and I wanted to keep my per unit labor investment down to a reasonable level. It was an active market and a couple of key players had moved on and were no longer selling, so it was kind of an opportunity. The only problem is I really didn't want to bother with more than a couple per day and the orders were coming in pretty heavy even when I upped the price over and over. Life got in the way and it was REALLY hard dealing with the lying factory rep and so I quit, but not before I put nice sharp GDs into the hands of a lot of guys and not a few of them probably were hooked and got into straight shaving and bought nicer razors. At one point I had a handle on some Dovos at a very good price but to sell them at a good price I would have a pretty miserable markup for all my hassle, and just one return could really mess me up as the razor would then no longer be new. These were Bismarck pattern razors, most wihtout all the gold bling. I could just see myself fighting to make $20 clear profit on each razor and then a return putting me back $140 or so, minus what I could get for it as a used razor. The problem with online sales is you are selling to a lot of noobs who don't know how to shave, and blame the razor even when it is a smooth shaving treetopper in an experienced shaver's hand. I had only ever got ONE return with the GD's but I figured there would be more buyer remorse at the higher price tier.

You should practice your honing on a razor that you will actually want to shave with. Otherwise you won't really learn much. A few ebay beaters with respected brand names and no cracks or deep pitting near the edge would be your best bet. Expendable, but with potential. Not saying a GD has no potential as a decent shaver because obviously it does, but try some vintage blades. I have picked up razors for under $10 that honed and shaved just fine. Lots of winners for under $20. Just be patient, use a sniper, and keep your bid limit reasonable. If you win more than 10% of your ebay auctions you are probably bidding too high. There will always be another one and you don't "lose" if somebody outbids you. Set your sniper and pay it no mind until a "pay now" ebay nag arrives in your email. And don't bid on a dozen at a time because sometimes you get what you ask for.

Originally Posted by CrescentCityRazors

As I mentioned, don't expect an entry level Dovo to hone right up.

Thanks for the advice. I learnt that myself, lol. I had been using cartridge razors for over a decade. It was alright until it wasn't. All of a sudden I found I could only get one or two comfortable shaves out a cartridge. So I inspected the used cartridges carefully, and realized the blades were rustic and most importantly rolled. That was the last straw. I turned my eyes to straight razors which I knew nothing about then. Literally I just searched online and picked up a Dovo Astrale. The Dovo Astrale arrived shave ready, I could not understand how but it was. I was initially very happy with it so I picked another two of Dovo Specials. Just after around 2 months, I had to hone it, then I realized the spine was off quite a bit, the edge was warped pretty badly but the return windows was closed. So I inspected the two Dovo Specials, both had some minor spine issue and also some micro chips near the toes. I guess I was lucky on those two. I did not realized started with hell mode then, just kept trying to solve various issues encountered along the line. Finally I got the Astrale keener than arrived again, after putting dozens of hours into it, purchasing 3 sets of Shaptons, Naniwas, Kings etc and some other natural stones.

I cannot agree more with your assertions regarding Dovo, they simply ships those should be binned. There was a video on how Dovo honing razors, it perfectly explained why there were so many warped edges. I probably would not touch Dovos from now on.

Originally Posted by CrescentCityRazors

You should practice your honing on a razor that you will actually want to shave with.

This is absolutely true and that's exactly how I improved my honing skills. The problem with this approach is that I can only shave once a couple of days and thus it will take a long time to improve, especially when you are already good enough to get super comfortable shaves straight off the stones. And if you indeed got a decent razor, it doesn't take much to get it shave ready as you mentioned. I snatched up a Boker Schildpatt 2.0 recently, all it took were 30 strokes on Shapton 12K and 5 strokes on Shapton 30K, there is little you can learn from it.

Originally Posted by CrescentCityRazors

but try some vintage blades

Yep, I'm doing that too. So far I picked up ~20 of them, most of them were actually way better ground than new Dovos, so far I only encountered one warped edge. What annoys me is that some sellers would do stupid things with them such as nickel plating without thoroughly removing the rusts. Such BS significantly increased the effort needed. I find this is way too time consuming for me, so I'm moving away from this to NOS(New-Old-Stock) razors. But it seems to be as bad as buying brand new ones. So the Le Jaguar came with no spine issues but the edge was warped too, just a little bit better than the Dovo Astrale. I managed to get the Le Jaguar shave ready and it shaves really nice but just like the Dove Astrale, I'll put it away as too much effort required to hone it. There are 2 NOSes and one vintage still on their way, I'm wondering how would they look like.

Regarding those eBay auctions, I found myself hardly won. As you pointed out, it's probably a good thing. I would not want to pay too much for something will be honed up and then sitting in my boxes. I did quite a few rustic ones, and I don't want to do it any more as it's making more sense to only acquire those in decent shapes.