Early last year a good friend gifted a nice Kamisori to me.
Not ancient but very vintage. He had lent it to someone else previously and it wan't exactly well-kept by that person.
My friend knows I like to futz with stuff - and he also knew I didn't have a Kami - so, that's how a rather interesting Kami wound up on my bench.
I took some advice from my friend and others - read a bit online and decided to investigate the razor's condition.
There was a bit of rust at the toe near the cladding, and the edge had either been used to scrape lables off of tuna cans or possibly to bone out a chicken.
Just kidding - wan't that bad but it was mucked up for sure. I have hones, so - no prob, right. Hehehe. Yeah.
Anyway - I tried to hone it, and I did get a good edge. Wasn't right though - I'm fussy and something was off.
The Omote was an issue - the concavity was getting very narrow.
I was having trouble with the flat of the Omote sticking to the hone, and not gliding right.
What to do - my friend says "put 400x on a Snapple bottle and re-hollow it.
Uhm-hum... sounds good but I didn't do it. My mind said - 'gotta be a better way'.
This is where I should have just said 'no' and went with the given directions.
But - I tried a few things. I won't share the gory details but a dremel and a rounded rasp file were involved.
The Omote was opened up a bit but not quite right - and the steel looked like a lava flow.
I put it aside to think about it. After a while, when I was pinning a razor, I realized that my 'anvil' has a similar radius to a Snapple bottle.
Why not just get a Snapple bottle you ask?
I don't know - I like to do stuff my own way I guess. Plus I'm headstrong and impulsive at times.
Anyway - I put some 400x on the 'anvil' (a 5 lb weight from a vintage bakery scale) and had at it.
Well - that 400x didn't do spit. I tried 220x and got some action. After a good while, and 1 full sheet of w/d I had a decent Omote again.
I don't think this razor can take another session like this - it's old, worn, and there just isn't enough meat on the metal to mess with.
Feeling good about fixing my original blunder, I took it to the hones.
While honing, the cladding near the edge, where it makes kind of a Shinogi, started to hone back a bit.
As I went along - I watched the rust issue near the toe melt away. All gone. Very cool.
Watching the swarf turn the slurry black as coal freaked me out a bit. Was to be expected though - I was setting a new bevel and grinding a new flat into the Omote to set the geometry. That was a bit of work too, I had to really fine-tune the pressure across the blade to get it squared up.
Eventually - it all fell into place - the false edge that had devoped thus far fell off and then the feedback started to sing.
The swarf build-up slowed down and after several stone-rinsings the real dulicot began.
Basically - it was Coti first, then a 6k for some polish, then back to the Coit for a complete Dulicot and a finish/polish on a Jnat.
This morning I stropped it on linen and then leather and went to shave.
Just finished.
Black Boar brush (ironically, was made by the gifter of the Kami), Arlington soap (was out on the sink), and then 3 passes plus some clean up (normal routine).
Holy crap. Now I get it.
I had an Azuma Kami for a while last year too, bought it long after the gifted one entered my life.
It shaved well, I didn't really enjoy the Yasuki steel much but that's another story. I got an edge on it and I shaved well.
But that 'Zuma didn't shave like this - oh no, it did not even come close.
This oldie but goodie semi worn-out battle-axe gave up the goods big-time.
Me happy - razor happy too.
Not ancient but very vintage. He had lent it to someone else previously and it wan't exactly well-kept by that person.
My friend knows I like to futz with stuff - and he also knew I didn't have a Kami - so, that's how a rather interesting Kami wound up on my bench.
I took some advice from my friend and others - read a bit online and decided to investigate the razor's condition.
There was a bit of rust at the toe near the cladding, and the edge had either been used to scrape lables off of tuna cans or possibly to bone out a chicken.
Just kidding - wan't that bad but it was mucked up for sure. I have hones, so - no prob, right. Hehehe. Yeah.
Anyway - I tried to hone it, and I did get a good edge. Wasn't right though - I'm fussy and something was off.
The Omote was an issue - the concavity was getting very narrow.
I was having trouble with the flat of the Omote sticking to the hone, and not gliding right.
What to do - my friend says "put 400x on a Snapple bottle and re-hollow it.
Uhm-hum... sounds good but I didn't do it. My mind said - 'gotta be a better way'.
This is where I should have just said 'no' and went with the given directions.
But - I tried a few things. I won't share the gory details but a dremel and a rounded rasp file were involved.
The Omote was opened up a bit but not quite right - and the steel looked like a lava flow.
I put it aside to think about it. After a while, when I was pinning a razor, I realized that my 'anvil' has a similar radius to a Snapple bottle.
Why not just get a Snapple bottle you ask?
I don't know - I like to do stuff my own way I guess. Plus I'm headstrong and impulsive at times.
Anyway - I put some 400x on the 'anvil' (a 5 lb weight from a vintage bakery scale) and had at it.
Well - that 400x didn't do spit. I tried 220x and got some action. After a good while, and 1 full sheet of w/d I had a decent Omote again.
I don't think this razor can take another session like this - it's old, worn, and there just isn't enough meat on the metal to mess with.
Feeling good about fixing my original blunder, I took it to the hones.
While honing, the cladding near the edge, where it makes kind of a Shinogi, started to hone back a bit.
As I went along - I watched the rust issue near the toe melt away. All gone. Very cool.
Watching the swarf turn the slurry black as coal freaked me out a bit. Was to be expected though - I was setting a new bevel and grinding a new flat into the Omote to set the geometry. That was a bit of work too, I had to really fine-tune the pressure across the blade to get it squared up.
Eventually - it all fell into place - the false edge that had devoped thus far fell off and then the feedback started to sing.
The swarf build-up slowed down and after several stone-rinsings the real dulicot began.
Basically - it was Coti first, then a 6k for some polish, then back to the Coit for a complete Dulicot and a finish/polish on a Jnat.
This morning I stropped it on linen and then leather and went to shave.
Just finished.
Black Boar brush (ironically, was made by the gifter of the Kami), Arlington soap (was out on the sink), and then 3 passes plus some clean up (normal routine).
Holy crap. Now I get it.
I had an Azuma Kami for a while last year too, bought it long after the gifted one entered my life.
It shaved well, I didn't really enjoy the Yasuki steel much but that's another story. I got an edge on it and I shaved well.
But that 'Zuma didn't shave like this - oh no, it did not even come close.
This oldie but goodie semi worn-out battle-axe gave up the goods big-time.
Me happy - razor happy too.
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Great stuff.
