Thread: My Iwasaki Doesn't Like My Shapton

When I first got my Iwasaki it gave me the perfect shave right out of the box, no stropping required; however, as some time passed it began to produce more and more unsatisfactory results. In the end it would pull the hair, and it was very uncomfortable (especially above my upper lip). Being analytical (some would say overly so) I reasoned that the problem must be my honing methods. over many months I tried different ration, the traditional washboard motion, forward strokes (western method), and even back strokes (the desperation method - lol), and all with the exact same ends. I thought, maybe it doesn't like the 30k, so I backed down to 16k—same thing. I was considering selling the razor all together as I had taken it out of my rotation. I thought though that the maker of such a fine blade may use a higher quality, natural hone, maybe Nakayama. I don't have one of those. Last week I put it to my 8000 grit DMT diamond plate. I stropped, and I had a wonderful shave—the Iwasaki is back in use again.

Now what next. My Shaptons work perfectly fine on all my other razors. My Iwasaki just doesn't like Shapton, it seems to like natural stones. Here is my question: What stone or sharpening system should I invest in now? As I am currently in the market for my next auto, Nakayama, unfortunately, is out. I would like to take the Iwasake to a slightly finer level, a little closer to 16,000. I have never tried cuticle how fine are they, are they natural stone, how do they compare to diamond? Maybe diamond paste? What are my options?

Have you tried reproducing the conditions that seem to fit,
like finishing the Iwasaki on the DMT 8.000
and follow that condition you know to be good
with just 5-10 light and even strokes on either your shapton 30k or 16k?

Maybe you overdid with these hones. I sometimes got bad results from my 16k
because I did too many laps on it.
One could argue that iwasaki being hardened to a very high hardnes
can be considered brittle and shapton glasses are considered to cause
microchips now and then.
But usually these problems can be avoided by being gentle and following "less is more"

A Coticule is a very versatile and of course natural tool. Depending on the type of coticule it can range around 8.000 to 12.000 for finishing.
But these numbers can be misleading.
To answer the question you didn´t directly ask:
Yes, a coticule is capable of finishing a razor nicely.

Comparing a Coticule with a diamond hone is invalid.
You just can´t do it.
Diamond hones are high tech abrasives that will cut aggressively and fast.
A Coticule is a natural stone class with slightly varying properties and
more "old shool". Somewhat more slow.
There are people that prefer the one, and those that prefer the other.
Everyone of them is getting nice shaves, so technically there is, of course, no wrong system

Something else that could improve your shaving experience is a strop
with a nice fine paste.
This can be chromium oxide (0.5) on leather/linen or diamond (0.5) on felt.
Both works very well and will do the trick after the DMT 8k

Not so many edge will surprise me but Iwasaki edge did. That razor shaved great too.
i didn't use any synthetic stones.
i used only Japanese high grit stone above 20k. took me a little time but edge was great.Try use natural stone you will surprise how nice edge they get.

Originally Posted by Lesslemming

Maybe you overdid with these hones. I sometimes got bad results from my 16k

No I have not tried this. Though I have tried heavy handed strokes, feather light strokes, and everything in between. The truth is that I often go farther than necessary with a view to perfecting a given thing—in this case that means, if someone says 20 strokes, I'll try 30 or more. This almost always produces good results (going the extra mile) with other things, but maybe it's overboard with the Shaptons. I have reworked it down to heavy grit several times. I do know that when I first received the Iwasaki the Shapton seemed to do the trick for a while. I will try a follow up of only a few light strokes on the shapton. Thank you for the suggestion.

. . .maybe my Iwas. likes coarser grits. I know that some here will swear that you don't need to go beyond 8000.

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

Not so many edge will surprise me but Iwasaki edge did. That razor shaved great too.
i didn't use any synthetic stones.
i used only Japanese high grit stone above 20k. took me a little time but edge was great.Try use natural stone you will surprise how nice edge they get.

Would you please tell what stone you are referring to? Thank you.

I've never sharpened or shaved with a Japanese kamasori. (sp ?) I have never used Japanese stones either. I seem to recall reading that a DMT 8000 is equivalent in grit to a norton 4k but I don't know if that is correct. I've only used mine on a couple of stainless razors that seemed to be very tough. It did the job but then I went to higher grit stones like the Shapton pro 15k as I didn't have the naniwas at the time.

Possibly you went too long with the razor before you tried to touch it up ? By then the 16k wasn't coarse enough to bring it back ? Now that you have it shaving to your satisfaction why not try the 16k again and see if it improves the edge ? Many honers like the Shapton glass stone series.

Originally Posted by ISaid

Would you please tell what stone you are referring to? Thank you.

i don't know name of it but i have videos This is the link for that stone. in there i use one stone sharpening razor with different grit slurry.

YouTube - ONE stone sharpening1