Thread: Kansas Kamisori!

Beautiful.... I think I would be interrested in one like that...

Are you planning on wrapping the handle??????

Terrific!
design and execution. Congrats to you both.

almost nearly as interested in cases and boxes- did you get one?

Very nicely made.
As you may know, I have one of russel as well (see review forum), but mine is more traditional.
Charred and hammered, smiling blade and the handle at a flowing angle instead of alinged with the spine.
I don't like modern design, but I can see the attractiveness of this blade for someone who likes modern looks.
Nice work from russel

Thanks for posting pics Craig, glad to hear it arived safely. That was definitely a fun razor to make, what with it being a totally unique design and all.

I can't thank you guys enough for your compliments! And I wish that I deserved to be compared with a craftsman like Tosuke but I'll accept the flattery anyway.

As for the point on this razor, it's a very tight radius but not a sharp corner. I found it to be fairly forgiving in use and actually quite advantageous in some respects.

I'll try to add some of the pics that I took before sending it off, photographing Hamon lines can be tricky.

Originally Posted by OLD_SCHOOL

So you sold the Tosuke coz your "a round point guy" and buy one with an even scarier point?

On the contrary.
the tosuke is a really spiky spike.
whereas this design has the toe rounded. the fact the the blade ends in a spanish point is irrelevant to the danger of the toe.

So if this one has the toe rounded, and the tosuke is really spiky, thn this one is much safer to shave with.

You two need to go into production together. Beautiful design and beautiful execution and creation, Russel. I really like the look of that blade.

Chris L

Very nice design. It is a great take on this great razor.

OK, so here's the first impression shave review:


Firstly, I must once again say what a fantastic job Russel did on this razor.

As you can see, he pretty much created a razor to my exact specifications. It looks almost exactly like the Solidworks 3D rendering.

Yet, as the mark of a true artisan, he didn't simply fabricate an object, but made it a thing of beauty, and put his own personal touch on it. The overall shape, form, etc, was my design, but the craftsmanship is excellent, and the beauty of the hamon and the way it fades from sateen finish, through the hamon into the polished section is really a work of art! Again, my hat's off to Russel for the outstanding work.

The other addition/improvement to my original design is that he added a slight smile to the blade, which I have always found adds to the comfort and shaveability of any razor.

So, I gave it it's first sojourn through the wilderness of my whiskers last night. I hadn't shaved in four days (I was away all weekend) so there was quite a good testbed for how this baby would handle the rough stuff.

Firstly: the edge Russel put on the razor was excellent. I have never shaved with a razor not honed by myself, so that was a new experience unto itself. HHT pre-shave seemed quite similar to the results I get with my edges, so I didn't touch a thing, just stropped it and had at it. Very sharp. Nice!

If I may be so bold: Russel, can you share what honing progression you used to finish off this razor?

The shave:The razor had no issues whatsoever dealing with the 4 day's worth of whiskers. Being a non-traditional design did take some adjusting to (I'll say more about that in a moment..), but the razor performed very, very well. The slightly rounded toe was indeed forgiving (as always, that is a relative term in the realm of straights, isn't it!) and the short cutting edge handled like a sports car on my face.

In my mind, the most outstanding part of the razor is that for whatever reason this razor feels an awful lot like Sheffield steel! If any of you know what I mean by that. Obvioulsy this razor has a very beefy grind, so in that respect it behaves quite "wedgey", but the certain quality that a heavy Sheffield blade has, the way that a very sharp edge still feels very, very smooth on your skin has been captured by Russel's metalurgical skills. My 1/4 grind LeGrelot is a wedgy blade, but for whatever reason it has never felt as smooth as my vintage W&B wedge, nor now this razor either. A very smooth shaver. Even when doing some water only blade buffing, the scary sharp edge felt smooth and glided easiliy across my skin

The design: So, whoever designed this thing was some kind of genius! He somehow knew exactly what I'd like in a razor!

I'd like to say that the razor was a result of "intelligent design", but then that may start whole different sort of thread between Russel and myself....

OK, so I really like the looks of this razor, and for the most part I am really looking forward to becoming more familiar with using it,as it it a very non-tradition design, yet the first try was already a comfortable shave.
The one MAJOR flaw in my design was that I put a rounded spine on the thing! Essentially what that did was to make obselete the cool thumbnotch. When I'd try and hold it in a "traditional" manner-thumb in the thumbnotch, fingers above, it was very difficult to maintain an angle. I pondered this a little bit, and then realized what had happened--ALL razors have the back of the tang flat for a reason, so that you can hold the razor securely and control the shave angle.

So, I opted for a modified grip using the flat portions of the handle, sort of some kind of flashlight grip if you will (hard to describe). This was not ideal for with the grain passes (but not that bad really), but really kicked some ass when going against the grain. The long handled grip when going vertical ATG was fanatastic. I just wrapped my hand all the way around the handle and it was extremely secure and adroit. And actually at that point I was able to use the thumbnotch quite effectively, even though the blade was inverted.

The humpback/blade offset was pretty cool, and seemed to give you the blade angle control of a wider blade, but with the dexterity and better visibility of a narrower one.

I want to modify the razor and flatten out the back of the spine, as I'd then gain use of the thumbnotch and "traditional" grip for certain areas of the shave that I was not able to make use of this time.

Results:
It's about 12 hours since I shaved, and I'm still nicely BBS!

1,000 thanks and more to Russel for the effort put into this excellent razor!

And one other point: this review of the razor is pretty much useless to all you guys out there, as there is NO WAY I'm ever going to let this one go! Perhaps my son will inherit it, but other than that, this thing is staying in my possesiion until you pry it from my cold dead fingers!

Unless, of course Russel goes into production on these things, in which case I heartily recommend you buy one!

It looks like the really bad pitting that you get left with when you polish a rusted blade with a buffer wheel or a dremel with a felt wheel.
The rust is gone and the blade is shiny, but the damage remains.

EDIT: It could also be water droplets on an oily surface. The pic is overexposed so it is hard to tell, but my guess is that it is pitting.
I could be wrong of course.

Originally Posted by Bruno

It looks like the really bad pitting that you get left with when you polish a rusted blade with a buffer wheel or a dremel with a felt wheel.
The rust is gone and the blade is shiny, but the damage remains.

EDIT: It could also be water droplets on an oily surface. The pic is overexposed so it is hard to tell, but my guess is that it is pitting.
I could be wrong of course.

That is indeed dust on the well oiled surface of the Tosuke. It had been oiled up ready to ship out to its' new owner when the Rusuke arrived. I didn't bother cleaning off the oily shmutz before taking the pic.

That Tosuke is all of two weeks old, there certainly is no pitting!