Thread: Japanese razor advice

tamahangane vs iwasaki


I've did some reading on the fourm reading tamahangane as the best of Japanese razors.
But found one on ebay used.
Questions)
1) Between the 2 what would be prefered. Personal or as razor companies.
2) to horn these myself what type of stones would I need. The store guy stuggested 12000. Just put water and slide away.
3) horn is done just as Euro razors.
4) time limit or no. of strokes.
5) 50mm length vs 60mm length.

Iwasaki is cheaper and is new. While Tamahagane is used and well price is well over 500. I've extended the guy an offer on ebay but now have heard back.
Advice opinions all welcome.
~Raijin.

Iwasaki did/does make tamahagne razors, so you can have both. Iwasaki is a maker (well, I believe his former apprentice now makes the razors), and tamahagne is a type (actually types, I guess) of steel.

Iwasaki makes top notch razors and I'd go with that if I were shopping for a kamisori.
I think the current Iwasaki smith uses only swedish steel for the razors, the old Iwasaki used to use Tamahagane.

Some Iwasakis are Tamahagane,not all,the Tama Iwasakis are far more costly than vintage blades.
The ebay seller of the above blade knows his stuff but on very rare occaisions you see a true vintage tama go off on the bay for around the 300 mark,one did last sunday night.

Originally Posted by darkraijin

.
2) to horn these myself what type of stones would I need. The store guy stuggested 12000. Just put water and slide away.
3) horn is done just as Euro razors.
4) time limit or no. of strokes.

This is all over the place, the only thing that looks about right is the 12k stone and even that is questioable since it is a used razor... On a used razor you have no idea as to what the bevel is like...

I have a Kamisori Honing Video up that is pretty straight forward but really the trick is in the pressure and that comes from practice...
Honing these looks really easy in all the Vids, but in practice it is not, you really stand a good chance of wrecking the razor by doing it wrong....

+1
Gs Video is fantastic to say the least,using it even I can make a Kamisori shave ready.
But I would never Hone one of my Tamahaganis myself,are just to darn rare and Valuable.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

+1
Gs Video is fantastic to say the least,using it even I can make a Kamisori shave ready.
But I would never Hone one of my Tamahaganis myself,are just to darn rare and Valuable.

I have a Iwasaki kamisori probably out of Swedish steel. It's my sharpest razor and one of my favourites. Even though I have a Oozuku jnat I am afraid to hone my kamisori here because I don't want to ruin the razor.

I think most guys don't realize how different honing these things can be. The more extensive the honing required the more radical the approach can be. I just finished honing up the kamisori for the razor pass around "General Tojo" and it needed extensive bevel work and I started on the Norton 1K and went to the Norton 4K then the Nogura Botan then the Norton 8K and finally the Escher. I used a variety of typical back and forth honing strokes and standard strokes and used varying degrees of pressure.

Like Glen said, it's all in the pressure. That's the art here and you can only learn that through trial and error.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I think most guys don't realize how different honing these things can be. The more extensive the honing required the more radical the approach can be. I just finished honing up the kamisori for the razor pass around "General Tojo" and it needed extensive bevel work and I started on the Norton 1K and went to the Norton 4K then the Nogura Botan then the Norton 8K and finally the Escher. I used a variety of typical back and forth honing strokes and standard strokes and used varying degrees of pressure.

Like Glen said, it's all in the pressure. That's the art here and you can only learn that through trial and error.

+1.through trial and error make you perfect

Originally Posted by mainaman

Iwasaki makes top notch razors and I'd go with that if I were shopping for a kamisori.
I think the current Iwasaki smith uses only swedish steel for the razors, the old Iwasaki used to use Tamahagane.

+1... Both Iwasaki san & Mizu san (the current maker) consider the Swedish steel they use to be on a par with tamahagane when it comes to shaving performance.
Of course if you want a collectible item the tamahagane razors by Iwasaki are a sought after item & demand a high price.