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GD vs Whipped Dog

All,

I'm looking to start SR shaving after having DE shaved for about 2 years. I want to get the best bang for my buck (obviously) to start out with, and was wondering what opinions were out there about gold dollars vs a whipped dog sight unseen razor from Larry, for a beginner. Thanks Gents!
 
A Gold Dollar will most likely not come shave ready, getting one from Larry is pretty much guaranteed that it will be good to go from what I have heard, don't forget to get a strop.
 
I'll give the B&B answer, Why not both! =) You'll want two razors anyway so you can use one while the other is out for honing. There's no question Larry's customer service/support is first rate and ought to be experienced! You also can find appropriately modified and shave ready Gold Dollars. Some will even offer free honing for a period of time which is a good thing as many honing services won't touch a GD with a 10ft. Shapton no matter how modified. But for the very first one however, I'd go with the Whipped Dog... Larry won't let you go wrong. =)
 
jlindy beat me to it, but you should do both :)

The usual recommendation for a first GD here is to buy one honed on the bay from a forum member like life2short1971.
 
Excellent advice above, I started with a Whipped Dog Straight myself and I could not have been happier. I would add to this that you can also get the sight unseen kit that comes with the things you will need and since most do recommend to have at least 2 straights in case one needs honing, (provided you are not honing them yourself), or heaven forbid you drop your only straight and ding the blade, (horrible experience but it does happen), You could always add another sight unseen to the order and have two of the WD's and this way you know both will come shave ready.

Another Option is definitely the Marketplace for the GD's because the ones there are some really cool modded razors and some that are just plain honed properly. The choice of course is definitely up to you, I would just be cautious with buying any Gold Dollar off the bay or anywhere else as many may say they are shave ready but that is a very Your Mileage May Vary thing as shave ready is different for nearly everyone.

Wishing you the very best of luck no matter which route you decide to take and Welcome to the Rabbit Hole of no Return that is Straight Razor Shaving:thumbup:
 
jlindy beat me to it, but you should do both :)

The usual recommendation for a first GD here is to buy one honed on the bay from a forum member like life2short1971.

+1 This is exactly what I did (one site unseen from WD and one GD from life2short1971). I've had about 3 or 4 successful shaves with each. The "site unseen" was a Hadson 63 from Matukura Co., Tokyo.
 

David

B&B’s Champion Corn Shucker
jlindy beat me to it, but you should do both :)

The usual recommendation for a first GD here is to buy one honed on the bay from a forum member like life2short1971.
+1
The best place to buy his Gold Dollars is here in the marketplace. He usually places at least one ad a week
 
So I ended up getting a WD Sight unseen razor and a poor man's strop kit from Larry, and then grabbed this SR off the BST

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/492680-SOLD-WTS-Lafayette-Dtraight-Razor
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Turns out it was a WD sight unseen at one point. Now I'll have two! sbogill said he had it shave ready, so that will be nice. Can't wait for them to get here, should be early this week.
 
Good luck! You might consider a keeping a journal; there are lots of real helpful members over there.

+1 The journal crowd really helped me with both shaving and honing and I'm not really the "blogging" / "journaling" type.. Highly recommended!
 

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets
Well played!

I love vintage razors, especially vintage American razors which are very underrated and underpriced compared to Sheffields, Swedes, Solingens, etc. I also love heavily modified Gold Dollars, and I enjoy fixing both up myself. Either one will give you a great shave, properly honed. An unmodified GD can shave well if honed by someone familiar with its quirks, though myself I find an unmodified GD to be sort of stodgy and sluggish compared to one that has been thinned to a more acute bevel angle, but YMMV, and the more obtuse bevel of the unmodded GD is much more forgiving of newbie mistakes, and not so eager to filet the face of the unwary as a screaming lightsaber type bevel.

I think you would enjoy comparing a nice sharp GD, modded or stock either one, to your two Whipped Dogs. Have a look at this year's, and previous years' Gold Dollar Mod Competition threads for an idea of how far removed a GD can be taken from its humble beginnings.
 
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so I was a customer of Larry's. Just received the parcel today. The razor was believe it or not the best shave I have ever had. I've been using Mach 3 and others that don't measure up.

Larry's service was impeccable and he ships to Australia.

So another happy camper, I mean shaver.....


"Another day, a whole 'nother set of possibilities."


MacGyver
 
To my opinion if you get your GD from The Stalion(Anthony Esposito), you Will get real good 1. Has for Whipped dod there's no doubt is straight's are good, so go for both to my opinion
 
I would get 2 WD and get a GD to practice honing so that way you have always got one to shave with and you can learn to hone without having to worry about messing up your only razor.
 
As for me, I got GD to practice SR shave. I practiced shaving move, X stroke honing and stropping with a blunt GD. Then, I got a whipped dog sight unseen razor. I think if you ask Larry for a beginner-friendly razor, he will pick one.
 
Wow! When is the sign up for that starting? I did get a wd razor, but id love to try out a selection of them
 
Hold on a few days. B&B will start a loaner box of SR next week with 5 brands of razors to try.
Trial/Keep Straight Razors
Wade & Butcher 11/16
Frederick Reynolds 11/16
Genco Henrys XXX 9/16
Fredr Herder 45 6/8
Ribbon Japanese 6/8
This is for those new to SR shaving. Members can try each of these razors and be better informed as to what they want look for in their first razor. If there is a razor in the box you fall in love with. You can keep it and make a 25-50 dollar contribution to B&B. Simple and straight forward. Oh, you can't sell the razor, part of the agreement is that you PIF the razor when you move on from it (if you do).
That's great! Couldn't think of a better option. I'll wait for the list, as I was contemplating on how to start with SR as well.
 
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