Well as I sit here I'm looking and comparing the Tosuke and Iwasaki razors. Both razors weigh in at exactly 39 Grams. The Tosuke has the rubber handle covering the metal handle and the iwasaki has no covering. Just bare metal. The Tosuke blade is slightly smaller in height and length than the Iwasaki (a mm or 2) but while the Tosuke is boxier in shape the Iwasaki has more style and work to it. Nothing drastic but its there, very subtle.

On the Tosuke the entire razor is polished carbon Steel though the finish is on the rough side by European standards. The Iwasaki is even more so. The handle and top half of the blade are blackened the bottom half of the blade is polished to a finer degree than the Tosuke. The Iwasaki is swedish Steel however the polishing pattern sure looks like stainless steel to me so I don't know. I'm sure the wrappings say what it is but I don't speak the lingo.

The geometry of the blade is the same on both razors. So how does it shave compared to the Tosuke? Out of the box the Tosuke didn't shave at all. It took quite some work but once there shaves like a dream. The iwasaki out of the box gave a presentable shave but still needs some work to get it to where I can really compare the two but the overall shaving routine is the same with both.

The only other comment is the Tosuke is a spike point with a slight rounding of the spike which makes a big difference when shaving. The iwasaki has a more pronounced spike edge with a scallop in it so you need to be a little more careful.

I will reserve judgement until I get it up to snuff but remember the iwaski costs more than 2x the price of the Tosuke. The maker of the Iwaski is a very famous sword maker and teacher in Japan so no doubt that is part of the reason for the difference. Also I haven't decided if the bare metal handle on the iwasaki makes that much of a difference. I guess if I was handy with wood I could fashion a set of scales or I could wrap some silk cord or something like that around it.

Stay tuned for developments.