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?

On my Tosuke razor there is a very shallow hollow grind on the bevel of the "convex" side . When the bevel is laid flat on the stone , the edge is in contact with the stone . BTW the profile of my Tosuke does not match any of your diagrams .

Thanks but now I'm left with even more questions. I think I'll be Googlin' Japan again soon.

Here are some pics of my Tosuke . Hope they are helpful .

Guys, thanks, great information here!

BTW, how do those Japanese razors shave?

Oooo....I didn't need to hear that.

I think my Tosuke shaves a little better than my Western style straights .

Here's something else you don't need to hear , Dave . I found my Tosuke very easy to hone . When I got the razor it was very close to shave-ready , but it pulled , and skipped a little . I honed it on my Norton 8k , and used a 3/2 ratio ; 3 strokes on the concave side , and 2 on the flat side (similar to how you would hone a chisel) and I DID NOT hone back and forth with pressure . I used only enough pressure to keep the edge in contact with the hone , and honed in the normal edge-leading manner . IIRC I did 10 sets of 3/2 on the 8k , 1 set on the 4k , and then 3 more sets on the 8k . I gave it a real good stropping , and it seemed to be almost too sharp , for my inexperienced hands . Now , about 18 months later , my finish hone is a Maruichi Nakayama Asagi nataural Japanese hone (thanks OLD_SCHOOL) , and the shaves are AWESOME

Yeah I definately didn't need to hear that too!!

Interesting thread. I just bought 2 old Japanese razors, no known name, they are in then mail heading this way. I plan to clean and hone these razors and your honing instructions will be a great help, thanks. From the pictures I believe they have the traditional bevel Old School talks about.
Thanks,
Rick