It's A Nice Day

I'm on vacation...I like vacations.

I think I'm just going to ramble today, no need to be all focused. I just shaved with my Iwasaki Tamahagane and I'm feeling slightly euphoric.

It took a while to hone up after the recent polishing work (that Tamahagane must be hard stuff...) but the edge was, well...superb. I honed it out on my larger stone, the big yellow Nashiji Nakayama. It was smooth as butter, and sharp as a...a...really sharp thing. It's a satisfying feeling, that; I can't imagine being a straight shaver and not honing. It's such an intimate part of the process, and I really think you can't understand a razor fully until you've brought it to shave-readiness yourself. It makes the razor YOURS. The edge (the true test of the razor) from anyone else may shave you, but it's missing the point I think.

Maybe that's just me.

******

Speaking of shaving, I visited the ol' barbershop yesterday, just for a haircut. No honing, no lessons, just a plain old haircut and a jaw, the way it ought to be at the barbershop. It was nice, the barber was in fine spirits and his very pregnant daughter dropped by...a lovely young lady. It was a good day, a good haircut, and at the end, of course talk turned to razors. The last time I saw him, my wife and I gave him a Kanayama strop as a sign of our gratitude for all he's done for me. Yesterday, he showed me how he had treated the linen with soap (I honestly couldn't tell) and showed me his stropping technique.

He got out a razor and sent it racing along the linen, using a bit more pressure than I would (it was really ZINGing) but, of course, one does develop one's technique after 40 odd years. But as he finished, the razor caught my eye...something about the shape was familiar. I asked to hold it, and of course...or course.

An Iwasaki Tamahagane straight.

I should have known that he would only have the best. It made me smile, all my excitement over it, and I could have had a shave from one any time I wanted.

******

Tomorrow is my last day in Japan for a while--we leave for America on Tuesday (packing an IM stick and some La Toja senstive, my Wapi, L'Ultima Setola and loom Strop for the trip). Two weeks back home with my mom, eating and drinking and resting up...of course hitting antique shops and fleamarkets is on my list, so maybe I'll have some new toys when I get back (fingers crossed for hones!).

Also, if anyone has any tips on shopping for good stuff in the Southeast Kansas/Southwest Missouri/Northeast Oklahoma area, let me know!

Take care, and happy shaving.

Whittling down

I'm getting rid of stuff at a crazy pace...

So to pay for 1.) my recent Tamahagane purchase and 2.) my upcoming trip to the States and the connected shopping spree I'm planning, I need money. I've gotten rid of some things that I thought I never would, but that on retrospect I decided I didn't actually need--like my Especial Para Barbas Duras--in the hopes of breaking even and maybe coming out far ahead enough to cover some hones. Funny thing it, it's not as hard as I had thought. I've pretty much broken even and I have some good stuff coming in, for less money, and yeah...simplify? Maybe?

But at the same time, the whole local hone thing has set off some real stuff with me. Some new leads, some new connections and friendships, and some new ventures. So there might be NON-MATERIAL developments in my shaving life, which will be new; the acquisition brings its pleasures, but also its own problems...financial, spiritual, familial. It's also a good way to teach myself some discipline, and being a little more reflective about what I need and don't need.

So...that's where I'm at. What I'm doing. I'm not cutting out new stuff, not at all. But rethinking what I DO get, and why.

Meaning stones, of course.

Progress?

Well, I've polished up the ol' Tamahagane...

What do you think?
Just to remind you, here's a before:


And after:







I like it...now to hone it up again!

****************

In other news, I have found something so EXCITING!

I live in Yamaguchi prefecture, in western/southern Honshu, on the Seto Inland sea. I'm not far from Iwakuni City, which has an American air force base and, apparently, a NATURAL HONE MINE! I just found out today...I stumbled on a blog written by a carpenter in Iwakuni, who found the mine and met a miner who worked there, and now has some stones from that mine. There is a full range, and they even have some finishers that rival the famous ones from Kyoto!

I am so so excited about this. I've gotten in touch with the blogger, and hopefully I can arrange to meet the miner as well. And, of course, see if these stones are any good for razors!

AAAAAND, in enlisting my wife's help in the search for stones, she stumbled on a little shop here in Hikari called, get this: Kobayashi Hone-stone workshop (小林砥石工房）. What a day! What fun! Why don't I have any money!?

Oh yeah, I bought the coolest razor in history, that's why.

Hmmmm....

Anybody want to buy a Filarmonica?