Thread: Some Lessons From Sanjou Seisakujou

So as you probably know, I went to visit Iwasaki-san and Mizuochi-san in Sanjou city last month. I've posted some stuff on my blog about the visit, but it's taken me a while to get my thoughts together on the stuff people really wanted to hear.

I've put up the first post, about hones and honing Kamisori, on my blog and if you've got some time (it's a loooong post) take a look. But if you're just looking for some juicy details, here's a few bulletpoints:

* No Atoma diamond plates were in evidence. Slurry for honing was made with Nagura. Flattening was down with a mix of artificial hones and the Shapton DGLP.

* Mizuochi-san uses a Honyama razor-sized hone for his razors, he likes artificial hones for repair work or knives.

* There will never be any more Iwasaki Folding Straights, and not because of a broken tool. It's a long story, but basically Sanjou Seisakujou isn't equipped to polish and scale the razors, and Mizuochi-san has more than enough to do without adding any more.

* Mizuochi-san's kamisori honing follows a different pattern than others.

If you're interested in details, you can read more at my blog.