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I just received my first kamisori. It is a Tokkyu grade Henkotsu. I am very excited and a little mad that I already shaved today.
The description said that the razor was honed to the extreme cutting edge. so i just took the balde out the packing and tried to pop some hairs off my arm, and it failed miserably. Should Kamisoris do this? Is there a test to see the sharpness of the razor, other than shaving with it?
looking sexy.
send it to glen, they do not come shave-ready
Beautiful kamisori! Congratulations!
Don't mess up the edge trying a ton of tests first, wait until tomorrow and try the "Shave test"
http://straightrazorpalace.com/video...-test-vid.html
You have a bit more of a challenge if you haven't shaved a Kamisori before as they are slightly different, but the shave test on the easy side of the face (Stamped side out) should work pretty much the same as the Vid shows..
If not then the razor needs honing..
Kamisori are a bit of a challenge to "Hone" correctly the first time, the good news IMHO is that they are the easiest to re-fresh once they are honed correctly...
I agree 100%. :tuQuote:
Originally Posted by gssixgun
yes, and if you are not sure what you are doing they are the easiest to really mess up. So the moral is don't use it to experiment with.
Of the 4 kamisori I own, only the tamahagane 50mm from Iwasaki came shave ready, the others had to be honed. Same story as with western straights I guess. They're all sold as shave ready but very few of them are. Ship it to an expert, they have to be honed in a particular way with respect to the bevel setting and blade geometry. But as was said above, once honed they keep that edge for a loooolong time with just basic stropping.
And if you do, tell him to use his Escher........Butter smooth incredible edge.Quote:
Originally Posted by bombay
Ok guys, after researching all day (instead of working), I figured before I send it out, I'd give it a go. I had picked up an Ozuku JNS a few months ago and yet to use it. Well after watching Glenn's videos about 15x each (Glenn I feel like I know you IRL now), I set to honing. I started on my Welsh Dragon Tongue, then the Welsh Mellynllyn and then finished on the Ozuku. In his video, Glenn uses the term, scary sharp. And he was absolutely correct. I went to go shave some hairs off my arm and didn't realize that the kamisori had cut, so i went over the area three or so times. Now I have a large bald spot on my arm. LOL.
Tomorrow morning will be the first shave. Wish me luck!
Don't worry about that, you are not alone here. We all ended up having bald arms while trying to figure out how to hone a razor. I guess, this is the price we all had to pay. You try again and again, cutting arm hair one after another and you realize what you have done when it is too late! :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Silents
Good luck and enjoy the show. It will be a great shave! Make sure to use your best brush and soap! ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Silents
Wow very nice Kamisori, congrads and hope you enjoy it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Silents
That sounds like you are on the right track :tu
Whatever pressure you are used to using regardless of how light you think it is, dial it way back for a Kamisori,,, I like to imagine a film of water between my skin and the lather, I try to skim right along that and it seems to work for me the best...
What was "nice" was that if I put to much pressure on the Welsh stones, they squealed a bit.Quote:
Originally Posted by gssixgun
Ok, with a 6am flight tomorrow morning, I decided I'd shower and shave tonight, with the Kamisori. Using T&F Luxury PS OIL and Soap with a few hot towels, I was able to get a passable shave with my Kamisori in 2 passes and a few touch ups. No blood, no irritation. Ima happy guy.
I will say, I felt like I was using a straight razor for the first time again. At one point, I sat there so long trying to strategize how I was going to shave the right side of my neck (2nd pass) that my soap dried on my neck.
A whole lot of new contortions to learn, to make this a more fluid process.
Thanks for all of the advice and compliments. Special thanks to Glenn for the honing videos!
Uhmmm..... My legs suffered the same disorder as I ran out of arm hair....:oQuote:
Originally Posted by razorguy
Silents,
It took me a few runs, my XTG runs from the ear to chin on my left side and a few spots XTG I still have not quite mastered.
Now thanks to a curious 11 year old I have a ding to take out,
due to his lack of attention while putting back something in a manor to make sure DAD did not know he was messing with things he knows better than to mess with....:mad:
Post facto I think he learned this lesson......
I hope your son is ok, no new battle wounds!Quote:
Originally Posted by pfries
No he just takes a real interest in straights (which I try to nurture future straight shaver starting out right).
He wanted to check it out again as I had made it a permanent home in a block of weathered barn wood and did not set it down straight dinging the edge.
I did not think it was as bad as it was until I touched it to the 12k and the ding turned into a chip :boohoo:
I know...I know... this too shall pass (the hone a few hundred times)
You are right. That makes me think about the first time I used a kamisori. Although I had been using a straight razor for many years, I realized shaving with a kamisori required a truly different technique. It changes the way you think about shaving and all the three passes have to be done with a different strategy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Silents
You need a different approach also because you cannot use your left hand - the omote is always the side to be in contact with the skin - and this changes the way you move your hand and head.
Kamisori is however very effective in shaving and this is probably the best reward for learning a new technique.