The entire thing took a LONG time but I finally honed one of my straight razors. A couple months ago I got a cheap Gold Dollar to practice honing. Bought some paint stripper to get rid of the ugly Gold Dollar design on the blade. Borrowed my friend's Dremel and ground off the stabilizers. Bought the needed stones; a Shapton 1k, Shapton 8k, and an ILR (~12k). I don't have much money so saving up to get those took the longest amount of time. Put the razor to the 1k until it could easily cut into a grape (I don't have hardly any arm hair). Then used the 8k for a while. And finally, the 12k, a few passes on my strop, and back to the 12k under slow running water for maybe 10 laps and 4 or 5 more with fast water. It's sticky sharp on the stone. Can't wait to shave with it tomorrow!
FINALLY
- Thread starter ZeroMinusOne
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Oh, I fixed the geometry on it too, so there's some hone wear but hell, it's a Gold Dollar.
Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
"Hone Wear" is what happens when you hone a razor. You wear the edge. You wear the spine. You aren't as aware of the edge wear because the worn steel is gone. The wear to the spine is obvious because the spine is not going away. Don't worry about it. Think "tool", not "jewelry".
There is one issue to be aware of, when you hone a large bevel surface into the spine. When the contact area of the spine is very large compared to the contact area at the edge, obviously further wear to the spine will be slower than before. When I deliberately grind down the spine of a Gold Dollar to give it a better bevel angle, I also push the hollowgrind further up into the spine, and round the spine especially the lower edge of the spine bevel. This does several things. As an incidental thing, it improves the appearance, but that is not the goal. As you say, it is a Gold Dollar. But it reduces the contact area to something much more "normal". And it raises the contact area which further improves the bevel angle.
You don't NEED to do all that, of course. You can, at less than $4 each, regard a GD as a "disposable" straight razor, and just use it for 20 years and toss it. Nothing special. No collector value. And in that usage model, simply grinding the spine down on belt sander or coarse hone will give you better geometry, and of course doing away with that pesky stabilizer can't be a bad thing, either.
Just curious... did you measure the bevel angle before and after? How was the shave? Pics? Yeah, it is just a Gold Dollar, but pics are pics.
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Only pictures I have are two videos. The first is trying to cut a grape with it after geometry fix and stabilizer removal and the second is the razor easily entering the grape after honing. They're mp4 files. I tried to attach em but this site says the extension isn't allowed.
Attachments
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Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
One common workaround is to post the vid to youtube, then link to the youtube vid. But we get the idea. Looks like you got your foot in the door. Now we need the shave report!
On your next one, (You KNOW you are gonna have to do this again, right?) you might try removing the entire heel. Notice how much excess steel is still there. That interferes with honing, somewhat. It is difficult to thin the heel consistent with the rest of the blade, but pretty easy to simply grind out a thumb notch there with a dremel sanding drum or the toe of a dragster-style belt sander. Be careful not to overheat! You can destroy the temper at the edge in just seconds. Be aware of the direction of rotation, and wear eye protection. Many a GD has met its end at the belt sander or beneath the cruel Dremel. When they shatter, they really shatter, and bits of stuff traveling at nearly the speed of sound are hard on the eyeballs when they hit.
If you really want to crank it up, there is a Gold Dollar modification competition every year. All the stops are pulled out and some great razors are created by both old masters and utter newbies. Check it out!
I will be honest. The hours and hours and hours of meticulous hand labor in a full blown GD mod are worth a lot more than the final product. But it is really cool to see what can be made from a $4 razor and compare it to $150 razors. A well modded GD shaves great and looks great, and you can definitely say that you made it, when every single surface of the steel has been reground and the meh scales have been replaced with durable and visually striking custom ones.
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It shaved VERY well. Not as smoothly as if a professional had done it but not bad at all. And ZERO blood! Had to do a touchup with my Merker DE after a WTG and a ATG. Nobody is gonna accuse me of glueing baby *** skin to my face but it's pretty smooth. Any tips on getting a smoother edge? I figured after it got pretty difficult to move with no pressure on the 12k, it was gonna be great. I knew about the GD competition. A guy on here, Shawn Feile, fixed up a GD really good for me a LONG time ago. I'll do the Youtube videos now.
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Here's the first one:
And here's the second:
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- #9
The second didn't work. Try again
looks like your on the right Track but Slash McCoy is spot on and gives fantastic advise, he gave me loads of great advise when I started in the Gold Dollar Mod Competition back 2017. When I did first razor we had a fantastic time I enjoyed all the banter with Shawn and everyone, these was my first attempt with them
And then these 2 for the 2018 contest
And yes they are all Gold Dollars from these
And then these 2 for the 2018 contest
And yes they are all Gold Dollars from these
Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
You are looking for a Method Edge. What some of us call "The Method" is laid out in lengthy detail within the Newbie Honing Compendium sticky. For that razor, since you are already at the 12k level, you could skip the lapping film part and go straight into the balsa. Be sure and read the balsa thread from beginning to end, and don't take shortcuts or make substitutions. If you can follow directions, you will seriously up your game with the balsa and diamond. Freestyle it on your own, and you will not be impressed.
The final result of the full Method progression is a very very sharp razor, probably as sharp an edge as an ordinary straight razor will take, but unlike most edges with great cutting power, this one is fairly comfortable to the face. The final step, .1u diamond on lapped balsa, if done correctly according to The Method, performed after every shave, will keep your razor deadly sharp indefinitely. Doesn't cost all that much to put the kit together.
You could also take your 12k edge and give it a half dozen light laps on 1u lapping film laid over damp paper on your plate. This will make your edge feel a bit more kind to the face, and possibly develop a bit more sharpness.
Also, you can try the lather trick on the 12k stone. It won't really make the edge any more comfortable, but it will increase sharpness quite a bit once you nail it.
At any rate, you should probably do a few more edges on the 12k before jumping on a different horse. Develop one skill set before moving into another.
kelbro
Alfred Spatchcock
I think that you can get arrested for using a JNat to hone a Gold Dollar. Stones repossessed at a minimum
