Straight edge razor men without stabilizer barber straight razor with acrylic handle shaving safety razor

Good looking razor. Came facial hair cutting ready right out of the package. It's definitely a heavier/beefier razor than I'm used to. I had been using disposable blade straight razors for some time now. And those alone aren't created equal. But this is a Carbon steel blade and I can vouch that those are easier to maintain shape, and sharpness than stainless steel.

If you think you can purchase this and start shaving think again. This is not shave-ready. I've been shaving with straight razors for several years and am very comfortable and would not recommend this as a starter blade because it isn't ready to rock out of the box, or at least the two I got were not. The scales are absolutely the worst cheap flimsy unergonomic you can find. BUT they are wonderful blades to test honing techniques on. After I hone and strop this with a Shapton 5k and then Nakayama JNAT it because a very nice sharp blade.

Very nice blade. I wanted to out down my safety razor and try something different. I was surprised for the price it's really good. Not fake. This is a real razor. The scales are made of low quality materials but you can't really argue with the price being so low. It's very sharp. The finish on the blade is not quite mirror but it looks very shiny with no obvious machinng marks. I honed my blade on a 3000/8000 grit stone and used some cerium oxide (glass polish powder) to lap the blade over a scrap piece of leather. I managed to shave my entire face without nics. I did have some razor burn that could be solved with more lapping. I'm gonna try a green polish bar. Overall a great purchase. Much nicer feeling skin vs my safety razor. A good beginner tool to try before deciding to invest in better razors.

Have to agree with the other poster. Best version of gold dollar by far. No stabilizers and dead nuts straight. A pleasure to hone and took a wonderful edge. Scales are orders better than previous models. First gold dollar that needs no modifications to use. Best bang for the buck out there. Honed up to a 20k and took an edge as good as my 200 dollar Japanese Swedish steel blades. Still not artisan quality but a must have for travel if one doesn't want to bring their Ralf Aust ;). One can practice hone on this until it's a 3/8 and your out 20 bucks. It did take 3 weeks to get here though. Can't recommend enough.

I bought four of these after I the first one arrived shave ready and I had shaved with it for over a week I honed it just little on my shapton 30k stone and it shaved even better so I bought three more for gifts. I have owned over one hundred straight razors and been shaving with a straight for over thirty five years so I have shaved with many types of steel and versions of blades and I can tell from experience that this ten dollar GD1996 is the best Gold Dollar brand razor I have ever shaved with and the best quality shave ready edge you will find under eighty dollars or so. You will be happy with this purchase. I must tell you that after reading some of the other reviews if your razor arrives with a slight smile in the blade strop it just a little and shave with it before you do anything else and then decide if you want to hone it. Razors can shave quite well with a smile in some cases so don't do anything until you first shave with a razor sever times. All four of these razors I bought arrived flat, straight and sharp. I hope this info helps you make a good decision for yourself.

I was excited when I got this razor, even though it had a large smile it was almost shave ready, needing only a little touch-up and strop. The main reason I got this razor was to practice honing, so I honed the smile out and as I was about to take it to a finishing stone it just cracked out of the blue. I was just wiping it off, no pressure at all. After spending 2-3 hours honing only to have it break, I decided to send it back and look at higher quality razors.Don't get me wrong, this is a very good product for the money, I have just decided to go the vintage razor route as they were made with better materials and can be purchased for about the same price.

I own several vintage straight razors, and wanted to try this model mentioned on several shaving blogs. I ground/flattened spine to insure it was even to assure an even grind and hone on final edge. Follow recommendations and you will end up with a great razor. A good learning experience.

The razor arrived on time and was packaged nicely. Only qualm I had was that it wasn't that sharp when I used it. It took more attempts than usual as opposed to my other GD to cut the whiskers off my face. Pretty unpleasant shave to say the least.