And here you go...my ugly mug for all to see.
So I finally caved to my millions of rabid fans, begging for a glimpse of my chiseled features (can you chisel marshmallows?), and here it is: my first shave video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBDRP6tSOWo
That's me shaving with a Japanese razor, or kamisori. I'm not sure who the maker is, it is one of those I got from my barber a while back. It was made in 1968 (says so right on it!) and was a size two--but years of use have worn it down a bit.
I do try to keep the flat side, the omote, against my face as I was taught to do my my barber. This leads to some unusual grips and angles, but it works, and like I said: it's about discipline. You know, people tell me that it's entirely possible to shave with both sides, and it's not that I don't believe them, I just have to ask...Why? Why would you bother to pay all that money, and get this razor with centuries of tradition, and then totally ignore that tradition? What's the point? I guess I just don't get it...
Well, anyway, it's your face and your razor...do what works for you!
The lather is Penhaligon's English Fern, worked up with a Semogue 1305 boar brush (thanks Bruno!).
The shave went well, it was BBS and comfortable...there has been some question of my stroke--that little, fast stroke. I'm not exactly sure why I do it, but it somehow feels more controlled, more precise. It works for me...
Well, I hope you recover from the shock soon...
Showing posts with label videos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label videos. Show all posts
Friday, October 23, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
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!
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!
Monday, September 7, 2009
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...)
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...)
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