Setting the Bar High

Turns out, I've been shooting for the moon when my sights should have been a little lower.

I took another razor to Kawaguchi-sensei for appraisal. It's been a while; my razors have all been shaving wonderfully, and I can't bring myself to dull a good shaver. But luckily (?) my smaller tamahagane straight was starting to pull a bit so I took it to the big nakayama kiita that he gave me back in the day.

So I decided to try out my new koma nagura, too. Worked up a nice slurry and went to work... The slurry was nice and fast, turning grey in a few seconds. I worked the bevel until it was nice and cloudy, then moved up to tomonagura slurry. Four refreshes, and the bevel looked fully even to me. So I was confident--not 100%, but up there.

And at the barbershop, surrounded by old men, nudie mags and fishing gear, I relaxed and waited my turn. There's something so nice about Kawaguchi's barbershop...just so old fashioned, calm and non-modern (his chair doesn't even rotate!). Off the grid, you know. When he finished trimming up the guy before me, i settled into the chair and he took the razor. I wasn't nervous, but did keep glancing over to him...I was half waiting for he first real approval of my honing career. I was, of course, a little disappointed when he said "Good. Not 100. 97, maybe."

Ah well, another near miss. Then he said "four more 97s, and you'll be perfect."

Wait, what?

"4 more 97s? Not 100?"

"Not 100! 100 is perfect. You're not perfect. I'm not perfect. No one's perfect. 97 is good enough."

Silly me. I was trying for perfect...for 100 out of 100. But he's right, of course. I'm not perfect, and good enough is good enough for me.