Thread: Kamisori edge on a western

The folks that pointed out the geometry issue are right. Of course, you could hone just one side of the razor and eventually you would come to the asymetrical edge of those Japanase razors, but the big question would be "why"? There is no inherent advantage whatsoever in a "kamasori" or more accurately, "single bevel" edge except that you only have to hone one side and since you'd have to hone it twice as much as you would if you were doing both sides, that's a pretty minor advantage. Then there's the issue of the bevel being angled on what is often a very thin blade so that the angle of the cut is not in the direct line with the strength of the blade. In my mind, there is no advantage whatsoever to a single bevel unless you are planing wood, slicing or carving. The edge of a single bevel has no superior cutting properties of any sort and often won't be as good as a double bevel. There's always the coolness factor of using the single bevel design from the mysterious far east but for any other reason, there's nothing to be gained and arguably something to be lost by sharpening a blade in a way that it wasn't designed to be sharpened. You can't improve a blade designed for use as a single bevel by making it a western style double bevel through sharpening and you can't improve a blade designed to be symetrically sharpened by only sharpening one side. It's something like trying to turn a motorcycle into a sports car. Motorcycles and sports cars are both fast and they're both cool. But you have to use them as designed if you want to get the best out of them, in my opinion.

If you look in the workshop forum (the forge) there is a thread by someone who made what is essentially a wedge, with kamisori style grind.
It looks nice enough. It is certainly skillfully made. That said, I don't think there is an advantage or disadvantage to it.
Japanese are sticklers for traditional. They do it this way because that is how it was done, whereas we always to to build a better mousetrap, so to speak.

Originally Posted by Bruno

If you look in the workshop forum (the forge) there is a thread by someone who made what is essentially a wedge, with kamisori style grind.
It looks nice enough. It is certainly skillfully made. That said, I don't think there is an advantage or disadvantage to it.
Japanese are sticklers for traditional. They do it this way because that is how it was done, whereas we always to to build a better mousetrap, so to speak.

If someone was to try turning a western blade into a single bevel, a very heavy wedge type grind would be the sort of blade to do it with. If someone feels compelled to try this for whatever reasons they may have, I would encourage them to avoid doing it with any razor that has a full hollow grind. In fact, I'd recommend trying to get one of the surgical section razors that they used to make with a single concave side. I had a whole set of 6 of those with only a hollow grind on one side. I thought they were regular shaving razors and was unpleasantly surprised that they weren't. They were actually OK as shavers, but certainly not something to rave about. I ended up employing them in leather splitting and craft tasks.

No I meant that blade was a custom, designed to have a western style tang with a kamisori grind blade.
It was not a regrind.

Originally Posted by Bruno

No I meant that blade was a custom, designed to have a western style tang with a kamisori grind blade.
It was not a regrind.

A folding razor with kamisori grind?

Originally Posted by Bruno

No I meant that blade was a custom, designed to have a western style tang with a kamisori grind blade.
It was not a regrind.

Oh, I see what you were getting at. I'd be inclined to try to persuade a customer to rethink a combination like that, but if that's what they really had their heart set on for whatever reason they might have, I suppose I'd make them one like that. I don't understand the fascination with the single bevel blades, though. Maybe I'll figure it out one of these days.