Bevel Angle on a Gold Dollar

[Timeclo]

What I've seen on the webs is that typical bevel angle on a Gold Dollar is higher than the optimal (18-19). I'm trying to get mine to around 16.

Couple of the Gold Dollars that I've been worked with has unusually low bevel angles. I measured one with 1 tape and it came out to be 12. Another one, I honed with 4 layers of tapes to increase to bevel angle.

Here is one calculation I did: 2 Arctan((2.5/16)x0.5/(6/8)) = 12 degrees.

The width of the spine is 2.5/16 in and the length of the blade from spine to edge is 6/8 in.

Am I doing something wrong or is this GD66 that I'm working with just have a low bevel angle?

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Are you measuring from the spinewear to the apex?

 

[Timeclo]

Are you measuring from the spinewear to the apex?

Yes, the farthest point of the spinewear to the apex of the edge.

 

[rbscebu]

Very unusual for a GD SR to have such a thin spine thickness. Most are colser to 6mm or more, not like your 4mm measurement. My GD SR with the thinnest spine thickness is a W59 measuring 4.915mm (by micrometer). Most are in the 5.5mm to 6.5mm range.

Maybe your GD SR slipped through Gold Dollar's stringent and highly regarded quality control.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

That's a slightly different formula than I use but yes, if your measurements are accurate, it should be about 12 degrees.

Side note, I am a stubborn non-adopter of the metric system but I use it when I'm using my caliper to take readings for bevel angles so I don't have to deal with fractions.

 

[DrStrange]

Your razor has a spine width of less than 4 mm,
which I think is strange for a gd 66.

My first guess is that you measured it wrong.

 

[Herrenberg]

I notice that no one is willing to go out on a limb and saying that Gold Dollar would never make such an out of spec spine. It's as though there's no faith in their quality control. Sad.

 

[Timeclo]

Nevermind, you guys were right. On my caliper, there is a slight space before the 0 that I was counting as part of the width. The actual measurement of the width is 6mm. My bad.

 

[Timeclo]

Well, this sucks. That means that I've been measuring the angle wrong for every razor. At least I realize it now.

The GD now measures at 18.5 degree without any tape. So I'll have to hone without tape now instead of mistakenly adding more tape.

 

[rbscebu]

Don't feel bad. You are amongst friends and we don't let just 2mm get between us .

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

More importantly, how does it shave?

 

[Timeclo]

More importantly, how does it shave?

Well, it was struggling to cut arm hair during the bevel set so I got curious what the bevel angle was. I still gotta set the bevel on this one.

 

[TheBeast]

Well, it was struggling to cut arm hair during the bevel set so I got curious what the bevel angle was. I still gotta set the bevel on this one.

How's it going? I'm struggling to set a bevel on my GD with a Naniwa 1k. To be fair I'm completely new to honing, that's my second edge. The first bevel I ever set was on a Titan after modifying the heel and removing the smile, I used wet 360 sandpaper, way too aggressive and left deep scrathes, but the blade shaves. I'm trying to figure out honing but have trouble with bevel setting. It might be because I'm honing cheap chinese razors but I don't want to spend too much money and don't have access to cheap vintages from ebay (shipping to my home is around 20$ from US)

 

[Frank Shaves]

How's it going? I'm struggling to set a bevel on my GD with a Naniwa 1k. To be fair I'm completely new to honing, that's my second edge. The first bevel I ever set was on a Titan after modifying the heel and removing the smile, I used wet 360 sandpaper, way too aggressive and left deep scrathes, but the blade shaves. I'm trying to figure out honing but have trouble with bevel setting. It might be because I'm honing cheap chinese razors but I don't want to spend too much money and don't have access to cheap vintages from ebay (shipping to my home is around 20$ from US)

GDs are good for learning to hone. Everyone is different and it is difficult to understand what challenging someone else.

When I started my journey, I put too much pressure on the spine and not enough pressure on the edge resulting in giant clouds of swarf - I was just grinding the crap out of the spine. You might try putting a layer of 3M Scotch Super 88 tape on the spine to direct the pressure to the edge. Another thing that helped me form a bevel was to start with very light pressure and see if I could gradually apply more pressure to the edge by gradually applying torque to the edge. Basically, you need to play with this stuff like a child plays with their toys. A few more ideas:

1. Constantly check your work with a loupe - I use a Belomo Triplet 10x. You can get one on Amazon. Uses natural light - no LED.
2. Pay attention to how the edge interacts with liquid. You want the edge to undercut/displace the liquid.
3. Use the tomato test. Get a box of cherry tomatoes. If every mm of the edge easily slices the tomato you should be good to move on to the next stone in your progression.

You should also consider getting a couple of cheap vintage razors on eBay.

 

[TheBeast]

GDs are good for learning to hone. Everyone is different and it is difficult to understand what challenging someone else.

When I started my journey, I put too much pressure on the spine and not enough pressure on the edge resulting in giant clouds of swarf - I was just grinding the crap out of the spine. You might try putting a layer of 3M Scotch Super 88 tape on the spine to direct the pressure to the edge. Another thing that helped me form a bevel was to start with very light pressure and see if I could gradually apply more pressure to the edge by gradually applying torque to the edge. Basically, you need to play with this stuff like a child plays with their toys. A few more ideas:

1. Constantly check your work with a loupe - I use a Belomo Triplet 10x. You can get one on Amazon. Uses natural light - no LED.
2. Pay attention to how the edge interacts with liquid. You want the edge to undercut/displace the liquid.
3. Use the tomato test. Get a box of cherry tomatoes. If every mm of the edge easily slices the tomato you should be good to move on to the next stone in your progression.

You should also consider getting a couple of cheap vintage razors on eBay.

Thanks! You Can check my thread and share your thougths there as well, you Can read about my situation.

GD66 Bevel Set - How to

Hello everyone, I decided to once again try and learn how to hone. I am in need of asistance from you - experienced honers - on how to read the razor and determine what it needs. I won't be doing countles laps on the stone like before without knowing what needs to be done. If it doesn't go well...

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[SliceOfLife]

I had a thread awhile back where I was testing razors and measuring their angles etc... I bought a couple of the "fancier" gold dollars and tested them then took them down to lower angles... I seem to recall most struggled to hold an edge once I took them under 16-17 degrees. They started failing. Maybe my memory is wrong, but I wanna say One out of a half dozen successfully took and held a ~ or slightly <15 degree angle.

 

[Slash McCoy]

This is common. Most razors will have fragile edges at under 15°. Between 16.5°and 17° seems to be the sweet spot for GD, and in fact most hollowground razors. That's my observation, anyway. No way I would expect a GD reground to less than 16° to have a very robust edge. It is simply beyond the capabilities of the alloy and the HT. When you have one like that, just tape the spine at the finish for a microbevel, and you should have a very nice shaver, though. Also you have to take care that you don't have a fin edge.