What a week...

Man. This has been a tough one on the shave front. I've been trying some serious hone stuff, and it's been failing miserably, which means BAD SHAVES!!!! GRRRR....

My trials and tribulations trying to get used to the hone my barber gave me a couple months back are well known to many readers of Straight Razor PLace, and I'm not going to review them here because, honestly, I'd rather just forget it. Not a pretty incident. Lots of ugly feelings, and some stark realizations...*sigh* Drama.

However, on Sunday I went back to visit Kawaguchi-sensei, and it was refreshing in oh so many ways. We talked razors, he helped me with some technique, honed a razor (and I got a video...awesome, eh?) and he gave me another hone!

I truly love that man.
Watch the video, I bet you will too.


Here's a VERY rough translation:
Around the 00:20-00:55 mark
K: About this much.
Me:Ok, ok...
K: Do about this much, and it'll be really different.
{pause}
K: The hone is Best? (Even my wife doesn't understand this one...). The hone is really flat/smooth, that's why it's stuck. (He picks up the hone using the stuck nagura).

(Then he talks to the guy watching, who says "Unbelievable...")

1:02
(He starts honing the razor...)
K: Like this, yeah? Slow is fine. When you do it, about three times is good. (I think he means circles...that ISN'T the stroke he showed me before...)
J: Three times...
K: Then change sides.
{pause}
K: About like this...
{pause}
1:25ish
K: To know if you7re doing it righ, look at the color (points to slurry). (At this point, I have no idea what his WORDS are, but I get the feeling he's saying that the color of the slurry is the best indicator of your honing--the faster it changes, the better you're doing. Maybe...)

1:40
K: When the color starts to change you're honing right.
Me: The amount of steel is increasing...

{He goes over to the window to check the edge by it's color}

2:35
K: The part of the edge that I honed is right here, you see? Up to here, it honed well. This part here, that I honed, is straight. This part (points to tip) is rounded. This part, you raised the tip when you were honing. Anyway, there's no color. This is the part I honed (points to straight edge of blade). The end...
ME: The end is rounded (meaning there bevel extends up onto the toe a bit from a previous smile...)
{back to the counter...}

3:01
K: If you really pushed it, you could hone the tip like this (exaggerates a tip-down position) but if you do that the edge won't be any good. To hone this out (looks carefully at the blade) it'll take about an hour. (Meaning to hone out the smiling tip on this hone...).
ME: Really?
K: If you honed it...
Me: Sooo...This part, the one you just honed...Will it shave well?
K: Not quite yet...
ME* How do you tell? Just by looking? (long pause while I search for words)Feeling with your fingers?
K: no no, no need. Just by looking, I can see in the color...a little more. But...This will cut, I think. (Tests on his arm) It'll cut.

3:54
ME: Ok, well, (Here I WANTED to ask about overhoning, but failed miserably) Can you hone too much? You said to go for an hour...
K: OK, here...One time, ten minutes. Ten minutes, ten minutes, ten minutes...to one hour. Don't just hone for one hour.
ME: Don't...
K: Even just five minutes...ten minutes. Try it.

ME: And always use this nagura? For example, at the end, hone with just water...
K: Don't.
ME: Don't.
K: Don't. It'll be rough. This (indicates slurry) will get finer over time. Just with this (stone), the color won't change (rinses stone).
{starts honing with water only}
5:05
K: (Totally don't understand...something "don't use..."
5:45
K: This color...there's no light (???) Just look at the light.
ME: (not seeing what he wants me to see) Sooo...it's not there? The color?
K: Yeah.

{back to the counter. at this point, I forgot about the camera...sorry}
6:04
K: (???)
ME: This Nagura, it's the same stone as this stone?
K: This is a good stone (???)

Here it breaks up. Sorry.

And he gave me this massive rock:



It's huge, and it's pretty, and I bet I won't be able to use it right for years. Oh well, I'll hang in there. I would love to do it justice--it's a good 50 year old hone, nice yellow with spots of nashiji...and it's so freaking big. Like, 8 inches by 3 inches by 2 inches. Weighs a good 4 pounds. A brick.

Lots of Japan in that rock...I'd like to get some of it out and into my razors!