Thread: I am in Love, or I have lost my marbles

Onimaru55 and sqzbxr, thank you, it is such a relief to see your comments.
Addison, I truly appreciate your comment and encouragement, it made me come back and post again when I was about to give up.

I was hoping that I can pick your brains and expertise​.​ I wanted to ask you a technical question regarding honing. . I have a few stones at home. In particular I have two different 1000 grit stones​ (Gesshin and Watanabe AI 1000) ​, a 6000 grit stone​ (Arashiyama)​, and an 8000 grit stone​ (Watanabe)​. Can the same stones be used for honing the razor or does the honing process use different type of stones? Do i need to go higher grit or can I live with the 8000? Do I have to start as low as 1000 or can I start at 6000? Yes the razor came honed as it came directly from Iwasaki. In any case, I believe it will take a bit before i have to hone, however, I might as well start learning. I ordered a couple of gold dollars and they should be arriving from China in a couple of weeks so I can practice with them.

My Iwasaki was NOS and had not been honed; most razors are not honed by the maker. You may be able to live with the 8000 grit as a minimum, provided that your hones are suitable for razors. Most hones are not, due to them producing an edge that is too harsh for the face. The starting grit will depend on wether the bevel has been set or not. Finally, honing a Kamisori is considerably different than honing a symmetrically ground Western razor. The Gold Dollars, which have their own honing issues, will not help you much there. A better option would be to pick up a cheap used Kamisori on eBay and practice honing and stropping with that. Kamisori were designed to shave others, shaving yourself with them takes some getting used to. I strongly suggest leaving the honing until after you've learned to shave, and having someone knowledgeable in honing Kamisori handle that for you until then. There is a video on YouTube by gssixgun of this forum that you will find educational - search for Kamisori Honing. Good luck!


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Thank you so much sqzbxr this is shelpful

I wouldn't go below 12k for finishing an Iwasaki. I second the advice to get it honed by someone experienced with them.

I have no idea what the stones are that you have but if they are for knives they may not be good for razors.

Get a clear idea on how to assess a razor before taking it to a stone then get a clear idea on how to achieve what's needed with the honing.

An Iwasaki razor is not ideal for practicing on.

thank you onimaru55 I will have to find someone who is used to hone Iwasakis

Lets not get too comfortable, another 20 please...
Casaluz, your doing great! You have a great attitude, keep it up!!

It seems that the consensus points out to get a higher grit home if possible and to work with cheaper versions of both the straight and kamisori before getting to the new ones. Thanks everyone for the generosity with your time

Originally Posted by Casaluz

thank you onimaru55 I will have to find someone who is used to hone Iwasakis

No probs. Yes someone who uses & knows how to hone one is ideal. The risk otherwise, is putting premature wear on the soft iron in inexperienced hands.

Originally Posted by Casaluz

I was hoping that I can pick your brains and expertise​.​ I wanted to ask you a technical question regarding honing. . I have a few stones at home. In particular I have two different 1000 grit stones​ (Gesshin and Watanabe AI 1000) ​, a 6000 grit stone​ (Arashiyama)​, and an 8000 grit stone​ (Watanabe)​. Can the same stones be used for honing the razor or does the honing process use different type of stones? Do i need to go higher grit or can I live with the 8000? Do I have to start as low as 1000 or can I start at 6000? Yes the razor came honed as it came directly from Iwasaki. In any case, I believe it will take a bit before i have to hone, however, I might as well start learning. I ordered a couple of gold dollars and they should be arriving from China in a couple of weeks so I can practice with them.

I did a forum search in Hones forum and only found one post, a guy asking about the Gesshin. No replies. Then I did a google search and found it for sale on a Japanses knife site. Not a cheap stone. I didn't find much on the Watanabe stones. Their website and a thread on Kitchen Knife Forums that didn't review them.

The suggestion to soak the Gesshin stone brings to mind the Norton waterstones. These were the work horse on SRP when I first came around. The Shapton Pro stones were around (also knife stones primarily) and the glass stones hadn't showed up yet, nor the Naniwa Superstones.

All of these synthetic stones were made for sharpening tools, planes, chisels, or knives. They work well with razors if proper technique is used. So those stones may well work for your gold dollars when they get to you. Check out the stickies in the honing forum, videos and what have you.

I hear that you need to correct the sholder on the Gold Dollar razors to be able to hone them correctly. Im new to honing so i cant say much about it but you should look into this correction before you start honing the GD razors. I have just got two ZY Razors to practice my honing on. 8 bucks each and they came on a slow boat from China but i got them now. Havent had time to practice yet but the good thing is they dont have a sholder to worry about.

Good luck on your long trip in learning to shave as this should be done first. Then after you know how to shave decently, without having any discomfort for a few weeks, then start down the road to learn honing a razor. This was told to me many times and im just getting to the point i feel good about my shaves. Its been 3 months now or more using a straight. Enjoy the trip.