Shorter straight?

[jred]

I've got a couple of months of straight shaving under my belt, doing pretty good.

One thing I find myself wishing is for a shorter razor. ~2" blade seems like it would work a bit better. Is there such a beast out there?

 

[Nova316]

Yep theres a few out there with shorter blades, you can buy them like that
Or find a straight with a chipped end then shorten it yourself like Doc did

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/178496-Show-us-your-shorties

 

[Doc226]

Yep theres a few out there with shorter blades, you can buy them like that
Or find a straight with a chipped end then shorten it yourself like Doc did

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/178496-Show-us-your-shorties

Yep, I like shorter blade, and bigger blades, who am I kidding I like them all.

This is one amazing shaver.

 

[jred]

Nice links, guys. Maybe I'll get one of those cheapie dollar razors & try it out. Thanks!

 

[cameraflier]

My curent favorite is a 6/8 round point that's a bit shorter than others. You're not alone.

Keep an eye out for a Dubl Duck Dwarf. I've not used one yet, but it's one of a few that were marketed as shorties. One perk: folks seem to like Duck steel, and the Dwarf's don't always demand the higher prices of their other models. I'm not sure why, but I won't complain.

good luck.

 

[Slash McCoy]

I love my duck! 3/8 wonderedge.

There are a lot of shorties out there. It is a good way to repair a razor with a bad chip near the nose, or even at the heel. If you are comfortable with honing, you could look for an ebay rescue to shorten. Should be able to find something for $10 or so.

The cheapest price I have seen so far for a brand new Gold Dollar #66 is $3.98 with free shipping from China. Hittime_hk is the ebay vendor with this price. That is almost giving it away. Shipping is probably $3 or so and so call it a 50 cent razor lol! But it is a common razor to mess around with. A cheap Dremel knockoff will get you in the game, grinder-wise. The important thing is to keep the blade cool. The edge especially can heat up past temper temperature in a fraction of a second. Make your main cut with a cutoff wheel in the dremel. Best way to keep it cool is to rest the blade on a large block of ice until it melts itself a bed in the ice. Start at the edge and get it out of the way when you begin your cut. Cut a little, rest a little. The ice will only help. It won't prevent overheating. When you see the dreaded brown or purple stain on the steel, you know the razor is toast. Too late. Try again. But these razors are cheap enough to just go ahead and order 10 at a time, so toss the one you ruined. Hasta La Vista Baby. Try it again and remember the lesson learned. Anyway, after making the cut, smooth and fair the end, give it whatever shape you like, using the sanding drum attachment in the dremel. The stones don't work very well. The sanding drum will gitter done.

One characteristic of the Gold Dollars is the blade edge is often thickened near the shoulder and you can't hone the razor properly. So while you are at it, remove a small chunk of steel from the heel of the razor, eliminating the shoulder problem completely from the edge geometry. Fair the shoulder smoothly into the shank. Remember the edge heats up QUICK! Use the sanding drum attachment for that, too. Grind for a couple seconds and let it cool. The spine is also a bit thick so it is a good idea to wear it down some, on sandpaper glued to a marble floor tile or heavy piece of glass. The thick spine causes the razor to have a very large bevel angle, and it will shave better with an angle about 2 degrees smaller. Finally, if your razor survived this far, attend to the cosmetic details. Using sandpaper, round off the flat strip that you ground into the spine. Sand out all the factory grind scratches on the blade. The factory gives the blade a halfassed polish but the deep scratches are still there. Start with 80 grit and progress up through 1000 or 2000 grit. Then break out the dremel again. Use the felt wheel attachment loaded with 3u diamond paste from www.tedpella.com. Wipe the blade clean, change to a clean felt wheel loaded with 1u diamond and go some more. You can repeat if you like, with .25u diamond for an incredible mirror finish. Remember that EACH stage of sanding and polishing must COMPLETELY remove ALL traces of the scratches left from the previous stage, replacing them with its own finer scratches. If you wuss out at any stage, you will not repeat NOT be able to get the kind of finish I am talking about. Now if you like, you can remove the old scales and grind out the Gold Dollar logo stamp, polish the shank and tang, and re-scale. The finished product can be a thing of great beauty and remarkable shaving ability. Don't be surprised if you trash 3 or 4 razors in pursuit of your first successful modification. But they are cheap enough to start over on a new one.