Thread: Kamisori vs southpaw. Is there any chance?

Originally Posted by Geezer

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Do not try to hone one your self!!

What happens? Does it explode? I understand there is some trickery to honing one... an X:Y ratio per side, but are they that impossible? Honestly, I wouldn't try honing one until I did some real research on here, but I've grown pretty successful using my stones (1k, 4k, 8k, 12k, CrOx) on all my other razor exploits. Certainly I'd be interested to hear your input, as some have noted that these blades often come less than shave-ready.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Sword's been shortened at some point. It was commonly done with Tachi..
Looks in quite ok polish.
Gratz.

You're not the first person to say its been shortened. Someone else on another forum did too, though he couldn't claim much confidence in his statement. Is it the length of the tang? The "incomplete" look of the signature? I'd appreciate your insight on it!

Originally Posted by velocityboy

You're not the first person to say its been shortened. Someone else on another forum did too, though he couldn't claim much confidence in his statement. Is it the length of the tang? The "incomplete" look of the signature? I'd appreciate your insight on it!

The mekugi-ana (pinhole) is normally quite close to the tsuba & the mei (signature) seems to finish abrupty near the end of the tang. The squared butt also hints at shortening. Normally the tail end is slimmer & to reproduce that it may be necessarry to trim the edges near the mei so they simply squared it off.
Like I said it was quite common especially when the sabre style Tachi was replaced by the katana. People converted their older swords.

[Do not try to hone one your self!!
What happens? Does it explode? I understand there is some trickery to honing one... an X:Y ratio per side, but are they that impossible? Honestly, I wouldn't try honing one until I did some real research on here, but I've grown pretty successful using my stones (1k, 4k, 8k, 12k, CrOx) on all my other razor exploits. Certainly I'd be interested to hear your input, as some have noted that these blades often come less than shave-ready.]

No it's won't explode however if you are ham handed with one you can seriously screw one up past repair very rapidly. Much more so than with a western razor. We have much resource material on this topic on the site.

It's all in stroke ratios and especially knowing how much pressure to use as you hone.