Thread: Iwasaki!

I bid on an "unbranded" Straight Razor that the seller though may be an Iwasaki, but couldn't see any markings on the tang. It has some slight tarnish/pitting, but looked to be very little hone wear on it, so I figured for $50 it was worth the risk, plus it was a smiling blade, which I have been looking for.

Blade arrived today:



Spent a few minutes with some MAAS:



There is some tarnish on the tang, but when I tilted the tang at different angles, I saw the faint etching; same as the other Iwaski's from the same vendor! The tarnish hid the markings, but I was able to confirm that this is in fact an Iwasaki! I was even able to see some kanji on the back side of the tang; I will try to get some better pics and see if I can get the kanji to show up. The first one is like an upside down Y and the other is a t with a second cross bar below the first that I can see visibly and they match up with the first 2 Kanji that were printed on the other Iwasaki's I saw for sale. Gonna hone it up and give it a go!

Did some honing after the cleaning, went up to the Naniwa 12K and then Ozuka Asagi and SRD Premier 1 strop. Did a shave with it and was blown away. My best SR shave to date, little to no irritation at all, even on my neck! Loving smiling razors now! The Smile shape really gets my neck much better than straight razors do and it's easier for me to control the edge with the curve and get it exactly where I want.

I did match up the Kanji and found the back of the tang had the circle/lines thru it for Iwasaki's and a few other Kanji as well, so it is definitely an Iwasaki!

Congrats, they are super shavers.

That's unusual. An Iwasaki Western with a stabiliser.

Yeah, it is supposedly an Iwasaki Tokiwa? Not sure what the Tokiwa means, maybe they made some for another company or something? There is another one w/o a stabilizer where I got mine and it has the stamped kanji vs the very faint printed Kanji on mine.

I shaved only with the Iwasaki today before work, took me around 10 minutes longer than my DE usually does, but gave a MUCH nicer shave. Starting to get the hang of the neck/jawline area and the smiling blade has been working very well. No irritation from the aftershave this shave, either! Last time, I used my Tanaka Kamisori for the first pass to knock down the 3 days growth and did the next 2 passes and neck clean up with the Iwasaki; today's shave was an even 3 days and the Iwasaki sailed thru it easily for all of my passes.

Congrats. Nice find.

Heres my Iwasaki Tokiwa. Again with stabiliser. Great shaver, always makes me smile when I use it

Found some info here on these blades.

IWASAKI Tokiwa Straight Razor 76mm High Carbon Steel Blade made by Tan

Thanks oz, I have always enjoyed reading Takeshi's descriptions.

Originally Posted by lz6

Thanks oz, I have always enjoyed reading Takeshi's descriptions.

My favourite quote.

"It is natural mystics. "