Thread: I just won an antique Kamisori on ebay, resto advice needed.

My "new" razor is going to need to be restored but I'm not sure to what extent I should take it. I've seen plenty of antique shows where someone restoring an old item ruins it's value and I'm afraid of doing the same.

Should I try and remove all the patina and pitting and take it to a mirror finish or just try and get a good edge on it?

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First of all, welcome to the forum
Second, send it out to one of our fine vendors for a professional honing
Third, save your money for a professional to do the restoration-
Fourth, buy a practice razor to practice honing/restoring.
Last but not least, always post pics of your score

Good luck!
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Welcome to SRP.
Hate to sound harsh but not many kamisori on eBay are in a condition that can be ruined. Most are already there.
Posting some pics will help with getting an idea on yours.

I'll post pics once I get it in the mail. TBH I more or less got it on a whim, and the pictures on the item page weren't very high res. I probably over paid for it.

There's as lot of really flattened kamisori on eBay. You need to find something with a reasonable geometry on it. Hard to do unless you know what to look for. Pic below is of Iwasaki cross section

Originally Posted by onimaru55

There's as lot of really flattened kamisori on eBay. You need to find something with a reasonable geometry on it. Hard to do unless you know what to look for. Pic below is of Iwasaki cross section

Do you think the majority of these kamisoris have seen years of abuse, or inexperienced honer's.....
As much as Id like to think they lived a good life, I get a sick feeling every time I see a "flat" one....

I've seen some ridiculously flat ones on the bay recently, some that the hollow on the ura side looked like a line.

Originally Posted by epd

Do you think the majority of these kamisoris have seen years of abuse, or inexperienced honer's.....
As much as Id like to think they lived a good life, I get a sick feeling every time I see a "flat" one....

One can only guess but unscrupulous sellers &/or inexperienced honer's does jump to mind.

Ditto on that! I have four kamisoris, the lastone was a bad buy.. Iit was as flat a a pancake.. I refused to give up though honed it to a mirror shine on an uchigorami... And guess what? It shaves! So i say hone that joker anway, it might shave.

There's little question about the quality of the steel & it's potential to take an edge, just the quality of sellers.