Thread: iwasaki

Interesting! Regardless of where mine was honed and polished, it remains very keen and ready to shave.

One part of the paper that was next to the edge was sliced across about 1.5 inches, but it would make sense to me that in transit some pressure would be applied to that paper and it would slice if the edge was sharp and unprotected. However, the cut had to have happened long before it's journey from Japan to Colorado because the edge had a protective cover over it when it arrived that would not have allowed it to touch anything but air. So that slice had to have happened long before it was shipped to me.

I'm not sure exactly what this min-debate is about, but mine arrived unquestionably shave ready. So whatever transpired between the forging of the blade and it's arrival on my doorstep resulted in a well honed and polished edge, I see no dulling as a result of paper - and that's really all I care about! :-)

Originally Posted by SiRed8

I know some manufacturers don't have shave-ready razors. I apologize if I'm digressing here I was just curious. I know for instance, Thiers Issard hones their razors but Classic Shaving still have Lynn hone it according to their page or perhaps it was just the sharpening service.

I'm not aware of any currently mass produced razors that are truly and consistently shave ready as they come from the manufacturer. Unless they are actually sharpened by someone who knows what they are doing they really aren't shave ready. I am, of course excluding the razors from the custom makers like Livi, Chandler, Williams et al.

When I was selling Tosuke's several years ago none of them were shave ready or even close to it. When I got my iwasaki about 3 years ago it wasn't shave ready either.

Originally Posted by Bill S

I'm not aware of any currently mass produced razors that are truly and consistently shave ready as they come from the manufacturer. Unless they are actually sharpened by someone who knows what they are doing they really aren't shave ready. I am, of course excluding the razors from the custom makers like Livi, Chandler, Williams et al.

Bill, I would hesitate to call razors being made in batches of 2-3, by one man, mass produced. And as his teacher literally wrote the book on Japanese razor honing, and he himself teaches others razor honing, I honestly trust that Miozuochi-san knows what he is doing.

Just for complete clarity:

Before I got any of these razors in my hands, I assumed that they would not be shave ready, as many people would I think. Thus I arranged with my barber to hone them for people, because I do not like the idea of sending non-shave ready razors to people. Like O_S said, we discussed this in private chat, and my assumption seemed to be supported by the experience of someone who contacted us both about honing a newly purchased Iwasaki razor (purchased from a brick and mortar store in the US, not from me).

However, when the razors actually arrived, I found that they did, in fact, have very keen edges--with stropping, they passed my arm hair test with NO popping, the hairs just lay down. I only have a few razors that do that, all of them honed by very experienced honers (like Sham, Ken Rupkialvis, Lee, et al.) and I thought "That looks good, why mess with that edge?" so I sent them out.

The people who received these razors all seem to agree that they are shave ready. That's good enough for me.

Originally Posted by JimR

Bill, I would hesitate to call razors being made in batches of 2-3, by one man, mass produced. And as his teacher literally wrote the book on Japanese razor honing, and he himself teaches others razor honing, I honestly trust that Miozuochi-san knows what he is doing.

Just for complete clarity:

Before I got any of these razors in my hands, I assumed that they would not be shave ready, as many people would I think. Thus I arranged with my barber to hone them for people, because I do not like the idea of sending non-shave ready razors to people. Like O_S said, we discussed this in private chat, and my assumption seemed to be supported by the experience of someone who contacted us both about honing a newly purchased Iwasaki razor (purchased from a brick and mortar store in the US, not from me).

However, when the razors actually arrived, I found that they did, in fact, have very keen edges--with stropping, they passed my arm hair test with NO popping, the hairs just lay down. I only have a few razors that do that, all of them honed by very experienced honers (like Sham, Ken Rupkialvis, Lee, et al.) and I thought "That looks good, why mess with that edge?" so I sent them out.

The people who received these razors all seem to agree that they are shave ready. That's good enough for me.

Jim, as far as I can tell SiRed8 was referring to manufacturers like TI, so that's what I was referring to. Yes this is somewhat off topic, so maybe that's why you are confused about what I said. It's pretty clear in my mind that Iwasaki/Miozuochi are not mass producers.

As far as the rest of your post goes...ok with me. You and I never talked about your plans and I have no opinion about how you handled making sure that the razors were shave ready. I understand that you are sensitive because someone challenged you, but it wasn't me. I'm sure the razors are shave ready, the Iwasaki that I have used was.

I'm sorry Bill, I didn't mean to respond to your post so snippily.

No problem, Jim. Sorry about the misunderstanding. And now.....back to razors