Another Thought on Honing Japanese Razors

[ISaid]

Hi Jules. Takeshi makes many good points in his letter to you; but I do not see what makes it "another thought". What he describes is the same method that was demonstrated by Jim, which is the same as shown in the photo tutorials found on Japanese websites selling razors- those seen in the Sharpening Wakamisori thread.

Lets not get hung up that your Takeshi says after the ura is polished we do not need to "sharpen" that side anymore.
"All we have to do is to remove sliding the blade several times (on the back side blade on the stone) coming up metal (beard) from the front side after sharpned the front side."

which means everytime we sharpen the omote we polish the ura with a few strokes. When sharpening "similar, almost the same" tools: chisel, plane knife, on coarse, medium stone we work to produce a definite bur. Using fine finish hone it becomes virtually impossible to produce a bur detectable by even the most sensitive fingertip.

Once the ura is properly polished it need never be returned to the coarse or medium stone even though the omote may be sharpened on these, the ura is only rubbed on the finish hone to remove the bur. As well when the finish stone is reached a few strokes are given on the ura to give a smooth return to the edge even though a bur cannot be detected.

Gee, thanks for putting me straight. You see, I lay no claims to genious. Further, I am relitively new to Japanese straights; to add, although I have been frequenting SRP for several years I just recently stumbled on those old threads which I only found because another member listed them all to another new member who also wasn't aware of them. I was just trying to add something usefull to the pot. If I knew thet there had been authoritative quotes from respectable Japanese razor makers I wouldn't have fealt I had anything usefull to add. And lastly, WHERE IN THE WORLD IS THE SPELL CHECK ON THIS THING?

[kevint]

Spell check, I dont know.

I edited my reply so much I must have cut all the sweet and friendly parts

I meant to ask what threads you were referring to. As well the translated aspect of your letter was a little confusing to me at first. After I came back and read more carefully I found it to be a wise response.

Thank you you starting a good conversation. Best of luck with your razor.