Mystery Razor Purchase

[Biltong & Boerewors]

I was looking to buy a few Gold Dollars on Aliexpress when this razor came up:

Hoping that they are made from hard steel (vendor says 5cr stainless steel 58-60 harness) I decided to invest on an off-chance they can be honed and bought five for £7.21 shipping included.

If I got it wrong, they will make interesting paper weights, or letter-openers.

If it is true what the vendor says, it may just be the thing for guys starting out. What caught my eye is the shoulder-less design of the blade, that should make honing easy.

I will see what I get and keep you posted.

 

[Herrenberg]

I find honing stainless steel razors on stones so unrewarding that I avoid stainless like the plague, and would not wish that experience on a newbie. I'm not sure, though, whether that is just something I've picked up after enjoyably honing so much carbon steel. Maybe a newbie wouldn't notice?

Your purchase does not sound promising, but the price is right.

 

[Biltong & Boerewors]

When something looks too good to be true, it usually is.

Let's see if this is the exeption. Won't be holding my breath though.

 

[rbscebu]

If it is a Gold Dollar, the steel should be pretty good. From my experience with GD and their stainless steel, it contains only a small percentage of chromium. Nothing like most would consider stainless steel.

If its hardness is 58 to 60 RHC, it should hone very similar to a normal high carbon steel blade.

Here it is a Gold Dolar that looks similar but not the same listed on Alibaba by the manufacturer for about 6 quid plus shipping:

Cut Throat Shaving Straight Razor Carbon Steel Barber Sharpen Straight Razor Shave German Safty Shaver Throat Wooden Razors - Buy Shaving Razor,Wooden Razor,Straight Razor Product on Alibaba.com

Cut Throat Shaving Straight Razor Carbon Steel Barber Sharpen Straight Razor Shave German Safty Shaver Throat Wooden Razors - Buy Shaving Razor,Wooden Razor,Straight Razor Product on Alibaba.com

m.alibaba.com

Best of luck and report back what you find out.

 

[Biltong & Boerewors]

If it is a Gold Dollar, the steel should be pretty good. From my experience with GD and their stainless steel, it contains only a small percentage of chromium. Nothing like most would consider stainless steel.

If its hardness is 58 to 60 RHC, it should hone very similar to a normal high carbon steel blade.

Here it is a Gold Dolar that looks similar but not the same listed on Alibaba by the manufacturer for about 6 quid plus shipping:

Cut Throat Shaving Straight Razor Carbon Steel Barber Sharpen Straight Razor Shave German Safty Shaver Throat Wooden Razors - Buy Shaving Razor,Wooden Razor,Straight Razor Product on Alibaba.com

Cut Throat Shaving Straight Razor Carbon Steel Barber Sharpen Straight Razor Shave German Safty Shaver Throat Wooden Razors - Buy Shaving Razor,Wooden Razor,Straight Razor Product on Alibaba.com

m.alibaba.com

Best of luck and report back what you find out.

Yes there seems to be similarities in the scale design, but the blade design is different.

I am hoping they are Gold Dollars, their steel is good. I just can’t understand how you can make something by hand that even resembles a razor for less than the price of a Pint in a pub. And then ship it to a different country for free.

Maybe I have been scammed and nothing will show up, not going to loose sleep over it.

 

[rbscebu]

AliExpress are pretty good at refunding if the order does get delivered. When in the Philippines I had about half of my AliExpress orders go "missing" once they hit Philippines Customs or PhilPost. Always got a full refunds.

I now believe that AliExpress won't ship to the Philippines.

 

[Biltong & Boerewors]

Yeah, I never had issues with Aliexpress, but quite a few with orders on EBay from China. These days I never order anything from China on EBay.

 

[SilverSteel]

I also ordered a few of those shoulderless design razors. They even ship from within EU.

5Cr steel has a reputation for honing up nicely but not being able to hold an edge for very long. Probably they compensated this point by using a bigger bevel angle... We will see..

 

[Biltong & Boerewors]

not being able to hold an edge for very long.

As a fully fledged member of the pasted balsa brigade, edge retention is something that never featured in my choices. As long as they can take a good edge, I will be happy.

They even ship from within EU

I did notice that they say it ships from France, but again suspect that it may just be a marketing ploy. Great if it is true, it will be quick to arrive.
See what the age of misinformation did to me? I never take anything at face value anymore!

 

[mike_66]

Just a comment relating to stropping your new purchase - check the cut outs on the spine for rough edges. I couldn't resist an Ali special once, it honed ok but bit my strop leaving some lovely tramlines in the leather.

 

[Biltong & Boerewors]

Just a comment relating to stropping your new purchase - check the cut outs on the spine for rough edges. I couldn't resist an Ali special once, it honed ok but bit my strop leaving some lovely tramlines in the leather.

Yeah I had similar experiences with some GD's that I modified. I will be careful and if necessary I will round the sharp corners off.

 

[Biltong & Boerewors]

Bad news, the transaction was cancelled automatically because the vendor do not ship the razors in time.

The vendor also didn't answer my message asking why he is not shipping, more correctly, he didn't even read it. Don't understand why this listing is on the site as it appears to be dead.

Got my money back, so no problem, just disappointed.

Back to my original assumption of when something looks to good to be true, it probably is.