Adjusting to a Tosuke

I have recently come into possession of a couple of Tosuke razors. This is my first impressions regarding them. They do feel odd in the hand because of the asymmetrical grind; they feel slightly lopsided when you are used to a conventional straight razor.

Shave 1 honed razor with ratio of 3 to 2 as described in the post on this forum. Stropped normally. Reasonable shave, improvement on the neck area.

Shave 2, realised I got the ratio wrong and did the ratio 3 to 2 flat side to curved side. Stropped normally. this led to an improvement all over on the shave.

Shave 3, I saw a post by Edk442 which suggested stropping the razor to the same ratio as honing. I did this and got a massive improvement in the whole Tosuke experience.

Although these are unusual, I feel that the shaves you can get are worth adjusting to the razor for. I will post more experiences as my skill develops.

Paul

Paul,

That's really interesting. :) Are you using both sides of the blade, or just the concave side? I hear you're supposed to just use one side, but I can't for the life of me figure out how you would manage that...

Josh

Hey Paul, I did the same thing... I reversed the ratios during the honing and then was wondering why the bevel was starting to look weird. Of course I didn't figure it all out until I shaved... it was sharp but ooooohhh it was rough. I gotta go back to the hone and see if I can turn it around.

Definitely fun to shave with.

Do you mean to say that you maintained the 3-2 ratio for daily stropping? or with the use of a pasted strop? (my original recommendation, credit goes to bigspendur who originally posted the idea)

If you look down the length of the blade on the Tosuke you will notice the edge on the concave side is pointed towards the concave side in a pretty radical fashion. If you do more honing on the convex side you will gradually loose the symmetry of the blade and will cause the blade to perform more like a western blade meaning more comfortable shaving on the convex side as well as the concave side but it will not be as sharp. The reason it shaves so close is the asymetrical blade profile.

Shaving certainly can be done with both sides, it will shave very well using both sides however its not designed to do that. To me if your going to learn something new you do it the right way. Reminds me of a gal I used to know who bought a car with a 6 speed manual transmission. She rarely ever took it out of 4th gear. Sure it worked but thats not how its supposed to be. I guess she was too lazy to do the extra shifting. I think it took me about 20 shaves or so before I was able to shave one sided without nicking myself. You have to be able to shave using 2 hands to do it though. As I've said many times using one of these razors is like learning to shave all over again. Maybe some of us consider ourselves shaving pros and using this new method is too much of a humbling experience for us. Just Imagine some Japanese guy picks up a western razor for the first time in his life and only shaves with one side and thinks, what a crazy design why are both sides the same if you only use one side while shaving. Who knows. Just my opinion of course.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sharp&Shiny

Shave 3, I saw a post by Edk442 which suggested stropping the razor to the same ratio as honing. Paul

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I'm guessing you wouldn't do the back and forth motion they recommended for the hone on the strop (unless you wanted to buy a new strop everytime you used the razor).

would you just roll it and do 2 full repititions followed by 1 extra on the concave side? I'm trying to figure these things out so I'm looking for all the info I can.

If you are left-handed?
You must make special order, as I make for my shotgun stock?
It will be very disappointing to try to find vintage left-handed razors, if the western razors was with asymetrical blade profile......

Yannis

I am using both sides of the blade as I don't seem to be able to figure out away just to use the concave side ,.although I am paying particular attention to the angle of the blade .There does seem to be a difference though the smoothness of the shave is the best indicator so far.

So far iv'e only used the hone &the leather on the strop to tone up the edge,By altering the pressure on the hone after the initial re'establishment of the bevel after my honing mistake the razor was sharp enough to split a hanging hair. After stropping it cuts the hair cleanly. Quite right Son of Han I'm just pulling away on the strop 3strokes flip the blade then2 strokes.the shaves are getting closer but one word of caution dont try touching up the shave with your face dry after shaving because the bugger dug right in &bit me .My first nick for ages also watch out for the spike I also caught my ear on the last shave must remember to CONCENTRATE.I'll probably blunt the spike a bit before the next shave.So far Inly use my right hand for shaving 2 hands will come laterThough looking at the Tosuke changing hands wont make much of a difference.Paul

I'll have to give that a try next time I strop it
maybe I'll give it another honing just to make sure I've got the repetitions right. I also tried shaving with the 1 side but when I'm shaving the right side of my face, the handle is up against my ear and everything feels all kinds of wrong so I switched back to using both sides.

I guess I'll have to give it another go and try shaving with the single side sometime

When you use a plain leather strop your not sharpening the blade just dressing it so the ratio from one side to the other should not make a difference. That is what I have found with the Tosuke and the Iwasaki. I use 60 strokes both sides.

Yes when you try shaving with the one side everything will feel wrong. remember the first time you picked up a straight-western style? Didn't many of the holds feel wrong? Your just learning all over again and you should not give up on it. yes its a challenge but just think of the bragging rights you'll have. Few can use any straight, how many can use a japanese straight correctly. You'll be a member of a very select club.

For many of us straight shaving is really a hobby of sorts not just a means to shave. This will expand yout horizons considerably.