One of the drawbacks to the Gold Dollar and Gold Monkey straight razors is the logo. The ZY straight razors are much better in that regard because their logo is laser etched. It's also annoying when you go to hone the Gold Dollar and Gold monkey razors, the logo starts to flake off. So when I noticed that my 209 razor's gold wash started to flake off during the last honing session, I got extremely annoyed and I went to Walmart and got a bottle of Acetone for around $5 dollars and removed the logo as soon as I got home:
Before I removed the logo:
After I removed the logo. It looks like they just went half way with it because the gold part of the logo wiped clean off and 1 swipe:
So if I get anymore Gold Dollar, Gold Monkey and/or ZY Razors, I will be doing this to remove the logo. But other than having to trim the heel and the toe of the razors and removing the logo, they're not bad at all in terms of honing if you start with a 600 grit stone to set the bevel. That's one of many things that I like about the premium razors. The bevel is already set from the factory and 9 times out of 10 the logo on the face of the blade if any, is laser etched. I do NOT have to put in anywhere near the effort in the premium razors such as Ralf Aust, Boker, Thiers Issard and Dovo like I do with these razors even though it takes no time to do with the right gear.
