First Endeavor into GD Modification

[kmike20]

After lurking around looking at the Gold Dollar modifications I was hit with inspiration as I have a Gold Dollar 66 laying in my drawer. So to make this as cheap an experience as possible I hit up the local Harbor Freight today and scored a 80 piece rotary tool kit with a 276 piece accesory kit for under $40 (liquidation sale) I will try to keep this updated as much as possible while I move along with this project...first step is to remove the poorly stamped emblem on the blade

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[David]

I'm looking forward to your progress. The 2017 GD Mod competition is coming up soon so this is good timing!

 

[mycarver]

Very cool!

 

[Slash McCoy]

The sanding drums and the felt wheels are what you will use the most. Buy them in bulk. I like the flap wheels but they get expensive. Go online and find some split arbors. You chuck one in the dremel and stick a folded piece of sandpaper in the split. Get more than one. The felt wheels are great for polishing. Be careful not to get coarse abrasive on a wheel you will use for fine polishing.

That small rotary tool doesn't have much torque. Sometimes that is a good thing. Sometimes not. HF has a more heavy duty Dremel knockoff under the Chicago brand name... the body of the tool is sort of a brick red. It is cheap and built like a tank. I recommend it, if you are not interested in a genuine Dremel at genuine Dremel prices.

Too bad you only have one Gold Dollar. You have probably heard guys talking about playing poker with "scared money". That's when you barely have enough for the buy-in and can't bet out big on a big hand, or have to be very cautious. When you have only one or two Gold Dollars, you are playing with "scared steel". With a dozen or so, you can get a little crazy. And you can destroy a couple and still have plenty. You will shatter one or two. You will overheat one or two... when you see the dreaded Blue Stain Of Death, that razor is toast. And I recommend overheating one just so you see how easy it is to overheat one, and how quickly you can ruin it. Anyway if calamity strikes, take it on the chin and come back up fighting, with a whole fistful, a veritable bouquet of Gold Dollars. Shop around and you should find them around $4 each. That is definitely cheap enough to go for 10 or 12 of them. I like to do a bunch of them in a batch. I grind a few seconds, then a few seconds on the next one and the next one etc and when I get back to the first one, it is cooled enough for some more grinding. Very efficient that way, no wasted time, no dunking in water.

Please remember to always use eye protection. Things can go wicked in less than a millisecond, with a Dremel and a razor.

Good luck. Looking forward to your completed project!

 

[6Cuda6]

^^^^^ great advice!!

 

[BSAGuy]

Great idea. Ultra cheap Chinese razor modified with ultra cheap Chinese tools. Looking forward to your results.

Good luck.

 

[kmike20]

Progress Update #1 got rid of the emblem and ground down some of the nose, spine, and jimps. I Also ordered 2 more Gold Dollars this morning...in brainstorming mode right now deciding what to do with the tang and scales...pretty sure I'm going to use some deer antler I found last year for my scales...before I go hacking up completely good antler sheds I will do some practicing with some white oak I have laying around

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[mycarver]

Hot Dang!

 

[Legion]

Nice. You might find it easier if you take off the old scales first.

 

[kmike20]

Update #3 project is moving along faster than i expected...Scales will be coming off later today so I can get some work done on the tang and remove the rest of the jimps...here is what i got accomplished yesterday though... The current plan is to Blue the all of the blade except the veins Im gringing out

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[Slash McCoy]

Not afraid to be creative, I see. I will watch your progress with great interest.

 

[kmike20]

Not afraid to be creative, I see. I will watch your progress with great interest.

Nope just kinda going with the flow. I figure if I screw it up or dont like the way it turns out I'm only out $5 and a couple dremel disks, and have a better idea of what im doing/working with on the next ones.

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[paintflinger]

Can't tell if you put any work into them, but you will probably want to grind down the shoulders if you plan to easily hone the blade.

 

[kmike20]

Can't tell if you put any work into them, but you will probably want to grind down the shoulders if you plan to easily hone the blade.

I have not touched them yet but I plan too

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[purerockfury]

This is looking great. Nice job, I just started modding GD's myself. I hope I can come close to what you have shown. Can't wait to see the progress.

 

[soccerguy83]

Sweet progress!

 

[dmatcuk]

It's looking good. Can't wait to see more progress.

 

[Smattayu]

Great job so far!

 

[kmike20]

Got some more work done on the razor finally been really busy with work and a new puppy so time to work on the GD has been very limited I'll get some better pictures tomorrow after work without the glare...But as you can see I removed the scales and reshaped the heel some, I also added some more veining and cleaned up some I had previously done.

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[dmatcuk]

Do you use the wood to hold the blade while working on the spine? I was trying to think of ways to do that when mine get here. I didn't want to just stick them in the vise.