Some updates...Call me The Kamisori Kid...and VIDEO TIME!!!

Blame Aleks for the title...

So I have been BUUUUU-SYYYY lately. Sorry for the brief hiatus, but it's been a good busy.

I will soon be opening a wee bit of a strop shop, making the fantastic Kanayama Cordovan Stops of Tokyo, Japan (of which I recently acquired an AMAZING example...truly a masterpiece. Details soon, I promise) available to all comers. It's not exactly a business for me, it's more of a labor of love for my wife and I, but it should be fun. Things should be up and running later this week. I'll be honest...if this goes smoothly, and if I learn how to do this kind of thing, there's a tiny little part of my brain that is thinking "Japanese Shave Shop"...maybe some razors, some aftershaves and stuff. Nothing big, just something to open up the market a bit. But this is pure speculation, of course...right now, one step at a time.
So keep your eyes open for the soon to be Eastern Smooth Productions "Kanayama Strop shop!"




In other news, you guys might remember me soliciting questions for Ken Hill, at Schick Japan. He had agreed to do an interview, and so I thought you guys might like to take part. Unfortunately, I never received a reply to the questions, and finally just last week I got an email from him apologizing and informing me that he would be leaving Schick Japan this summer...so it looks like that interview is a wash-up. However, I would like to wish Ken the best of luck with his new venture, and of course welcome him to the discussion whenever he wants to drop by!

And finally, in the more on-topic world of shaving--things are afoot. I've been finding something odd lately; despite the weird physical contortions and acrobatics involved in their use, I have been getting UNBELIEVABLE shaves from my kamisori. Seriously, faceturbating masterpieces. It's enough to make me want to swer off the folders for good! So what I'm thinking is, a good long stretch of "Kamisoris every day". Might throw in a couple of test shaves with my honing here and there--gotta practice for that new stone!--but my real weapons will be the Kamisori of the Kawaguchi collection.



With that in mind, tonight I'll be shaving with one of the Chikushinos I got not so long ago. I know NOTHING about these razors. The name isn't even for sure--my wife had to guess at the reading of the name. All I know is that one of them is marked "1968", and that they are "well used". Some might even say "battered". But we'll see how they shave.

Oh! I almost forgot--I have made my first shave-related videos, demonstrating the "Kawaguchi Honing Method", the way I learned to hone Kamisori from my barber. The razor in this video is the one I will be using this week. Enjoy!


(A screw-up, but amusing)


(The final cut...)

A Trip to the Barber

I went to visit Kawaguchi-sensei today (he really does deserve the title now...)

The other day I ran into my barber and his family out shopping, and asked him if he wouldn't mind giving me a honing lesson. He gladly agreed, so today I packed up my razors (I KNEW it would come in handy!!!) and my Japanese Natural stone and headed off for a haircut.

Luckily he wasn't busy (he rarely is...which is ok, barbering is more of a hobby for him, he actually runs a large rehabilitation center in Hiroshima...no joke!) and dived right into the razors. He examined my previous honing critically, tut tutting and muttering "Not quite..." under his breath. He wasn't impressed with the ugly Torrey I have, but he really seemed to like the Revisor. Good taste!

Then we start with honing. He gave me some pointers on straight razors, showed me the right way to use the nagura--PUSH when you raise a slurry, really get it nice and thick--and the best strokes to use. He uses a kind of circular X stroke, ending with just the tip of the razor on the hone. I practiced a bit with his guidance, and I do think it helped a lot.

Then we started on Japanese kamisori. He brought out a huge Maruka Kiita stone--it had to weight 5 pounds, and talked about how rare they were these days, and how this one had cost an arm and a leg. Apparently the stone I have isn't ideal for kamisori, because they need a longer stroke and pressure--a bigger stone is better suited, according to my barber.

He gave me guidance starting with body position. First off, he said you start with the right posture, with the hone on a table at about waist height or a little lower, your body centered above it with your eyes aligned with the center of the hone. This position helps regulate the length and proportion of your strokes.

He put the razor on the hone at about at 30 degree angle handle leading, Omote ("flat" side, NO kanji side, etc) down. He told me to place the first two fingers of the left hand in the hollow of the blade ("ura" or Kanji side up) and put pressure on the blade--not a lot, but some. The right hand on the handle is only for balance--no pressure at all from the right hand. In that position, do about TEN back and forth strokes--Up and down, edge then spine leading. Then, flip the razor (Kanji side DOWN now) and do ONE spine leading stroke.

If the razor needs more sharpening, continue that pattern until it's done.

It's not exactly what I've learned before, but I've experienced the results and they are really, really good.

So I practiced that, as well.

Then, we talked a little about razors and shaving--and he was explicit: when you use a Japanese kamisori, the "Omote" is against the face. The honing makes an assymetrical bevel that cuts best when used a that way. When you use it the other way, your angle has to change a LOT or you raise the risk of cuts. He siad it like it was obvious, which it kind of is...but I had to ask.

I asked him a little about the razors he gave me before, when he bought them and who had made them, and he had no idea. "40 years ago? 50? " he wondered, then went rummaging through the drawer that had produced the razors in the first place. This time, he brought out some razor boxes--including one stamped by Iwasaki-san himself!!! It's almost like having a signature! The boxes gave no clues to when they were made, but he gave them to me anyway...and they are awesome!




(Iwasaki's stamp is the red circular thing at the bottom right.)

And, of course, when he opened one of the boxes, out slipped an Iwasaki kamisori he had forgotten he had...he looked at it, then held it out. "Take this one too!". Of course I accepted...I wonder how many decades it sat in that drawer? Amazing...ANOTHER gift from this amazing man.



After my stumbling thanks, and after we had chatted a while, I decided I should actually get a haircut so I sat in the chair and we talked some more while he trimmed me up. We talked about this and that, the way barbers do, then he mentioned that I should keep practicing honing, and if I ever wanted more help or just to talk, I should come by any time--I think he really likes that I'm interested. Then, the real kicker: he gave me a challenge. If (when!!!) I hone three razors to his satisfaction, he said he'd give me that enormous kiita he used to hone the Kamisori... It was pretty cool. He said, "You like this stuff, and you'd actually use it, so I'd like for you to have it. Hurry up and take it from me!"

I'll do my best, Kawaguchi-sensei!

Masterpiece Shaving Theater

I have had a couple of great shaves from a great razor...and it makes me really, really happy.



I have two razors made by Shigeyoshi Iwasaki. One is the Japanese style "kamisori", the non-folding traditional form. This is the one that is really, really popular with lots of people around these "internets". It's awesome, yes, and I feel very lucky to have it, but the really special one?

This one:


It's a traditional western style folding straight...a rarity. I don't know how many he made, he might have made thousands for all I know, but I have only seen photographic evidence of three others. Unlike the Japanese style razors made by Iwasaki-san, these are not really that widely known.

I have gotten some really good shaves off this one, and there is something immensely satisfying about using it. I can feel the history--I KNOW it's history, for the most part.

It's a well used razor, a gift from my barber who used it and maintained it for decades. It's seen thousands of faces, and has kissed the finest Japanese stones in its life. It was bought new decades ago, and it made its way to me through years I can never know. There is a story that Iwasaki-san apparently liked to tell, that a razor made by his father was used by a barber 1,032 times before he had to rehone it--that is, just stropping in between...and this is a razor like that.

But perhaps the most fascinating thing for me is that this razor, this relatively simple, unassuming blade, was handmade by someone who can only be called a true master smith. Shigeyoshi Iwasaki was born in Kanagawa prefecture in 1933, the son of Kousuke Iwasaki, who was a blacksmith himself and more than that--a gifted metallurgist, who researched the system used to classify Japanese steel quality (paper steel, ball steel, etc.). So in the old way, Shigeyoshi learned at the feet of his father, living with steel from his earliest years.

Later, the younger Iwasaki became a swordsmith, working out of the "Sanjikajikoubo" forge in Niigata prefecture, Japan. He continued to study and train in traditional blacksmithing techniques, becoming a kind of unofficial "ambassador", traveling around the world demonstrating Japanese smithing techniques. I know that he continued to forge until recently; I have been told that he passed, but I've been unable to find any real confirmation. At any rate, his legacy has passed to a former apprentice, Ryouichi Mizuochi, who is currently supplying the world's hunger for Iwasaki kamisori...but who knows if he's making any more like this.

But I know who Iwasaki is, I know where he learned and what he made, and I can see his picture and pictures of the works that came from his hands, and of those works is this razor I have. A true master made the blade I hold, the blade I can use every morning (or night) to shave my humble face.

How unbelievably cool is that?