Thread: How to hone a japanese razor

hallo to all,

for a couple of Days I bought a japanes razor at a market. It looks good but it needs to be honed. Has anyone here experience with honing japanes razors?

With kind regards, Paysbas

Old School may be the one to ask on that. He is based in Japan and knows a fair amount about Japanese razors and hones.

Originally Posted by Paysbas

hallo to all,

for a couple of Days I bought a japanes razor at a market. It looks good but it needs to be honed. Has anyone here experience with honing japanes razors?

With kind regards, Paysbas

Take a look at this thread, post no 3, it should answer a lot of questions for you.

Have fun

Originally Posted by Paysbas

hallo to all,

for a couple of Days I bought a japanes razor at a market. It looks good but it needs to be honed. Has anyone here experience with honing japanes razors?

With kind regards, Paysbas

Kannst mir auch gerne jederzeit eine private Nachricht schicken, ich hab' schon mehrere geschärft

You can contact me via pm with questions as I've honed a few of these already.

In brief the recommended method is to use a 12K hone and hone using a back and forth motion using about 4 strokes on the concave side to about 3 strokes on the convex side. The secret is that you have to use downward pressure while honing and that is something you have to experiment with yourself. Start with little and increase until you get the result you want. You can also use a diamond pasted strop depending on how close to shave ready the razor is.

@ thebigspendur and moviemaniac,

its a long time ago, but yet I've done it. My japanese razor "Kiku Hiro" is ready to shave. I tried a lot of hones and it was difficult to find the right hone.

The softarkansas has started quick and powerfull. The Edge was there. Then it was to think which hone follows. The Bleu Belgian, the Thuringian, the BM Schiefer and de old Thuringian had no result. The edge wasn't sharp at all or overhoned quickly.
The Coticule had a good Result but the Edge wasn't really sharp, it only could shave the hairs of my forearm.
Then I had the Idee of my old piece of Balsawood with ferrumoxid Paste. I stropped the Razor about 20 Times and it passed the hht at about. After another 50 strokes ist passed the hht very well.
Then the leather Strop with Chromiumoxid. Super!
The shaving with this razor will be learned. I think I need more time.

Thank you very much for you help

Somebody should post this into the wiki. This question comes up very regularly.