Thread: Kamisori panic

12k or greater honing stone will be fine

This is your first post, I see. Have you shaved with a straight razor before? Have you honed a western straight razor? Assuming the answer is yes, I found this video very helpful to get my first kamisori shave ready: gssixgun Kamisori part 1.wmv - YouTube

Hilarious! Glen, can you tell we respect your instruction?


And JimR, too, of course.

Thanks, have watched all the vids but seem to be more for a edge that has totally gone, this one's new new new. My experience has always been buy ebay special hone, get it wrong, hone get it wrong , hone get it right shave!!! Dont really want to do that with this piece of art!!

Dfried, was your kamisori new??? If so, how long did it take and what grades did you use

Originally Posted by smalltank

12k or greater honing stone will be fine

that really depends how much work has to be done to set the bevel on the razor. Most new kamisori need bevel set and that is not done on a 12k stone.

Yes, mine was new. I did two 7:1 sets on my barber hone and about six 7:1 sets on my Chinese natural finishing hone. These were just the hones that I have. You could probably do the same on the two hones you mentioned and be fine.

These were with less pressure (which was only applied to the edge) for each set. I tried to follow Glen's procedure.

1st of all, congradulations on you fine score!! There is a lot of lore about honing and shaving with a Nihon Kamisori, Just keep reading everything you can download and watch all the vid's above. Your best bet is to find some one who is experienced in this kind of honing and let them do the 1st hone of you new razor.
Then you will know exactly what a decent edge should feel and shave like.

That's my tupence, have a great shave one me!!!!

tinkersd