Thread: Honing an Iwasaki????

I have an Iwasaki that is in need of a touch up. Still shaves, but not as well as I would like. Have read through many different posts and there is a lot of contradicting info. regarding the proper ratio, hones, sides of razor, etc. I have the basic honing equipment Norton 220/1000, 4000/8000, and a Chinese 12k. This is what I work with when honing traditional straights. The iwasaki was new and arrived pretty close to shave ready and have been using in a rotation for about a year now, shaving on the Omote "non stamped" side. If any individual has an Iwasaki that they use regularly, and has the experience of successfully shaving and more importantly, honing and refreshing the edge, I would appreciate you if you would share your knowledge, experience, technique, results and wisdom with me. Thanks

Have you seen this thread? Post 3 has a bunch of links to other kamisori honing info.

They're surprisingly easy to hone. In spite of it being hard steel the edge is very fine. If it's still shaving it won't take a lot to tweak.. Use 2 or 3 fingers of your left hand just up from the bevel, or not, but keep it flat with a light contact. Hold the tang with the right hand. You can do proportional honing, say 10 back and forth on omote then a trailing stroke on ura. Or just do most of your honing on the omote. If you develop a burr flip it over to the ura & do 1 or 2 or a few light edge trailing strokes. Don't aim to create an obvious burr, just saying it can happen if you go to far. It's not hugely different to sharpening a chisel but don't bear down on the edge, just a light "pressure".

I can't speak from experience with your stones but I would always start on my finest J-nat so maybe try your C12k first