Thread: Japanese Razor Profiles

I've seen a lot of Japanese razor stuff on the internet while surfing for Japanese knife information. Like the knives I'm left wondering if the razors are being honed/sharpened correctly by us westerners. I'm mentioning this because what I've seen doesn't quite match up with what I hear (or rather read) being talked about.

An example of what I hear is that the front side (bevel side) of the razor would laid down flat on the stone to hone it. I would initally think that myself just based on common sense and the way the razors appear to be designed but then I revert back to what I've learned about Japanese knives and they're not sharpened like they would appear to be.

Take the Japanese razor profiles shown in the pictures below and imagine laying the front bevel flat on a stone. I see that the stone will hit the razor above the edge unless the spine is raised to bring the edge down to the stone. If this isn't done then you'd have to grind all the other contact patch away just to get down to the edge leaving a very wide/tall edge bevel, excess hone wear to the razor, and also a much less convex edge shape that appears to be is worked into these razors to begin with.

Since I've never even held a Japanese razor this is all theory talk for me but it sure seems a lot like what I've seen with all other Japanese tools I've worked on.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Also, does anyone have these three Japanese profiled razors shown?