Thread: Kamisori Kwery

I love alliteration so excuse the topic.

Back story: I bought an Azuma kamisori from eBay, did a 'bad job' of honing it with my 4k, watched gssixgun's videos and made it shave capable on 8k and as it stands I have just had my best kamisori shave after re-honing from scratch at 4k, through 8k and up to my Chinese stone.

My issue is that of my kamisori blade not moving across my skin smoothly. When placed flat across my cleaned, pre-shave'd and foamed skin the metal tends to stick and drag the skin which worries me very much considering I nicked myself twice in a very minor ways that I didn't notice until there was a touch of blood on the edge of my blade and I couldn't find anything on my face.

This marks my third kamisori shave and although I've noticed this before but thought it might have diminished with a bit of practice.

What is the issue? Technique needs work or adjusting? Something I can adjust with my pre-shave to eliminate/reduce this? Or combination of both?

Thanks

The razor should not be flat against the skin. You will have to play with it a bit to get the correct angle, but is should be similar to a western straight angle of use.

What mainaman said! +1 Stop the bleeding! Don't know where you found that says to lay it flat on your face but, it's definitely incorrect!



Mike

Probably somewhere along the line somewhere "use the flat side against the skin is the traditional way" turned into " use the flat side flat against the skin".

And the blood? I guess I wasn't clear when I said I nicked myself twice as the blade had some blood on but I could never find the areas I nicked, even with my while towel. Nothing like I've done before.

What kind of shaving cream do you use? if you have good lube from it you should be getting good glide from the blade.

I've always found with a kamisori I use a tad steeper angle than with a western straight.

The problem, I bet, is with your lather being to dry & sticky.


"Since long ago, Kamisori have been used lying flat.
If you try using a razor at a standing angle, the edge will very quickly start to show signs of damage, and an edge that should shave 200 faces or more will only shave around ten. So if you think you'd like to preserve your edges as long as possible, keep the blade as flat as you can when you shave.
Of course, if you haven't put a good edge on the razor, when you lay it flat it won't shave at all, and you will have to raise the angle. But shaving with an edge like that is a mistake." ~ Shigeyoshi Iwasaki

I use Proraso White shaving soap and on occasion, TBS Maca shaving cream.

With the Proraso I tend to dip my brush in some water, shake off the excess, lather up on the soap in the tub and apply. The TBS cream I do similar but I dip the tip of my brush in the cream and lather it up in the lid.

If the razor is sticking & dragging the water ratio is wrong.