It Keeps Me Satisfied

I've come to a realization.

I don't buy hones for hones. I don't buy them as tools. Because that would imply that I need better tools than I have, that my equipment is lacking somehow. It isn't. I don't. I haven't for a long time...with experience and learning, I have found that the hones I have, especially the ones I got from Kawaguchi-sensei, are as good as it gets. With every step I take along the honing path, I find more and more that I have been gifted with the tools of a true master, and all I lack to use them as a master is time and skill.

So why do I still buy hones?

Take a look at these pictures. I bet you might understand...


This an Ozaki-yama hone. Kousuke Iwasaki rated these as second only to the Maruka Nakayama hones for razors; oddly, in his book he said that they are priced and valued lower than Nakayamas only because of their "boring grey color." I think that you can see, this is not a universal...

It almost looks airbrushed, with light blue, grey and yellowish streaks blending together. When wet, the blue pops out so vibrantly...

Don't ask me how it hones, because every time I pick it up to use it I just gaze at it like a picture for a while, put it down and pick up my barber's old hones.

Then there's this one:

This is a Nakayama kiita nashiji.







I'm not really sure I need to write anything about this stone.

People wonder why honers get excited about natural hones...this answers any questions they might have.

What a joy to have in front of me...what a privilege to use, someday.

The Rules of the House

I haven't said this before, because I didn't have to, but here it is:

This is my house. My blog, my words. I WANT you to read, I want you to comment, but there are some rules.

1. If you post a comment that contains even a HINT of disrespect to ANY group of people, be they a gender, race, family, or any of these random artificial traits that people use to mark people they don't like, I WILL DELETE IT.

2. If you post a comment that is not at all related to the post you're commenting on, I WILL DELETE IT.

3. If you piss me off with your comment for any reason, I WILL DELETE IT.

There is only one arbiter of these rules. Me. It may sound arrogant, but I just spent thirty minutes trying to decide how to reply to a comment that ruined my morning because I felt it was racist and offensive, and you know what? I shouldn't have to do that. So in the future, if your comment mysteriously disappears, then you know what happened.

Oh, and don't even THINK of mentioning freedom of speech--if you think it applies here, you are too ignorant to post anyway.

If you couldn't tell, I'm pretty pissed off right now.

That Little Extra Something...

This is the thing that makes straight shaving special...


When you look at the other ways people take care of the hairs that grow in places they don't want, they're all pretty...utilitarian. Mass produced, faceless, just there to get the job done. Sure, there are all kinds of doohickeys and gewgaws, lube strips and guard wires,vibrating motors and whirling blades, but the basic idea is: make it as brainless and simple as possible, and make the tool as cheaply as possible.

I can't say that it's a bad thing, for companies to take shortcuts in their manufacturing--it's the way of the world. But looking at things made in the past, when people's hands actually made the tools we used, and you can't help but feel like we've lost a lot of character, a lot of soul.





This a modern straight razor, relatively. It's probably mid- to late-20th century, made for barbers in one of the more barbering traditional markets I've encountered: Japan. Japanese barbers today might have switched to disposable blade razors, but they're still shaped in the old way, like an old Japanese kamisori, and up until the 80's or even 90's, barbers still bought and used straight razors. And they were still made up until very recently.



The blade says it all, really. It's a razor, like so many others, but someone cared enough to make it look a little snazzier. Put some extra class on there, so the professional using this tool was proud to do so--it's not just a tool, it's a GOOD tool.



It's well made, naturally, and shaves wonderfully. I find myself using it almost every day, and I watch it in the mirror. I think about the guys working at the factory where it was made. They didn't have to make this thing so perfect. The grind, the etching, the scales, the balance...there could have been corners cut, and it still would have shaved perfectly fine. But not a thing is off about this razor. (Yes, yes, I know the English punctuation is a bit sketchy...but these guys probably didn't speak English too well). It's a joy to use, because it was made with care.

I think that's what attracts me so much to Japanese tools. Strops, razors, stones--there is just so much CARE put into them. Japan's "monozukuri" culture is a dinosaur in the modern age, where it's actually hurting the economy here to focus so much on making good things. But it really does make the things produced here things to treasure.

Anyway. Enough philosophizing.

Time to shave.