Thread: iwasaki

Originally Posted by Dragan

I agree that I sure wouldn't want to be the 1000th person! I have a Tosuke and shave regularly with it. It was a bear to get it shave sharp initially, however it is noticeably sharper than all of my other razors (all shave ready), and seems to hold an edge longer than anything else I own. I've heard others say to never strop a Japanese razor, only hone it. I find that the shave is smoother with regular stropping every time I use it, but that's just me.

The steel is "different" from anything else I have. I don't know how to describe it accurately; there is a different feel to it on your face. I really enjoy shaving with it, but I don't know if I'd like it much after being dulled down by that many faces, European, Japanese or otherwise

Well when we find out who says to never strop a Japanese razor we'll give them a punch in the nose! All straight razors need to be stropped I don't care where they are made.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Well when we find out who says to never strop a Japanese razor we'll give them a punch in the nose! All straight razors need to be stropped I don't care where they are made.

Just as long as they aren't wielding said razor when I start swinging...


Once I get a post grad job, I am going to invest in a Japanese razor though, they seem pretty cool.

tomahagne and wootz may be sexy but it seems like many of the modern steels are capable of both being hard enough and flexible enough to outperform them.

The tradeoffs between hardness and flexibleness seem to put average and best steels into a fairly narrow range of edge holding once tempered appropriately.

That said my ats-34 certainly outperforms my wapi but is quite close to several of my antique solingens and sheffields. So I'm guessing that to a great extent the determining factor is the metalsmith's process rather than the quallity of the steel.

Robert, no offense intended, but that would be very hard to prove. The hands of a skilled bladesmith will render nearly all steels equal for all reasonable intents and purposes.

I just realized:

"Iwasaki" spelled backwards using Japan idiograms spells "chronik".

That explains a lot.............

Originally Posted by loueedacat

I just realized:

"Iwasaki" spelled backwards using Japan idiograms spells "chronik".

That explains a lot.............

Somebody's been doing searches on "Iwasaki" I see.

necroposting...gotta love it!

As the the OP, I believe that he's referencing a story from Kousuke Iwasaki's book "Hamono no migata" (regarding blades), where he said a barber had told him he'd used one of the Iwasaki straights I believe, noｔ Kamisori, to shave 1,032 people without honing.

Apparently, he used to carry around the barber's name and number for people who questioned the story.

Iwasaki was a sword maker and I understand that he made some from Tamahagne. The writeup doesn't specify the razor material.

Now that I'm a proud member of the Iwasaki brotherhood, I volunteer to take an accurate "in situ" count of the number of shaves possible before it needs to be honed. I may start a thread so I can make notes along the way as well. Might be interesting to see how far I can get with simple stropping on leather - no linen or felt for this experiment.

So thus far the count stands at ONE unless JimR had a test shave after he wrapped the handle for me. Jim?

My first shave right out of the box and 30 laps on the leather (just from habit) was absolutely flawless, and there was zero edge deterioration that I could feel. If this edge remains this keen I could easily see 200 or more shaves in the cards. 1,000 maybe - but my beard has some horse hair type areas - so who knows. We shall see.

Originally Posted by AirColorado

Now that I'm a proud member of the Iwasaki brotherhood, I volunteer to take an accurate "in situ" count of the number of shaves possible before it needs to be honed. I may start a thread so I can make notes along the way as well. Might be interesting to see how far I can get with simple stropping on leather - no linen or felt for this experiment.

So thus far the count stands at ONE unless JimR had a test shave after he wrapped the handle for me. Jim?

My first shave right out of the box and 30 laps on the leather (just from habit) was absolutely flawless, and there was zero edge deterioration that I could feel. If this edge remains this keen I could easily see 200 or more shaves in the cards. 1,000 maybe - but my beard has some horse hair type areas - so who knows. We shall see.

No, no test shaves!

Good luck...I'm curious to see how it goes!

Originally Posted by AirColorado

Now that I'm a proud member of the Iwasaki brotherhood, I volunteer to take an accurate "in situ" count of the number of shaves possible before it needs to be honed. I may start a thread so I can make notes along the way as well. Might be interesting to see how far I can get with simple stropping on leather - no linen or felt for this experiment.

So thus far the count stands at ONE unless JimR had a test shave after he wrapped the handle for me. Jim?

My first shave right out of the box and 30 laps on the leather (just from habit) was absolutely flawless, and there was zero edge deterioration that I could feel. If this edge remains this keen I could easily see 200 or more shaves in the cards. 1,000 maybe - but my beard has some horse hair type areas - so who knows. We shall see.

Dude when I got mine both papers and plastic sheathe were sliced! I then get an e-mail from Jim telling me how sharp it was because Iwasaki's successor Mizuoichi Ryuichi honed it. Gotta love that man. :P

If anything all Jim did was strop it. IIRC 30 fabric/30 horse/30 cordovan.