SEptember is Stirling Month!
September 13 - DARE NIGHT!! The MAIN EVENT!!!
Razor - Hamamasa Kamisori style razor
Soap - Stirling Sheep
Brush - 30 DC LE
Post - Alum
Well, the main event was on! Time to pick up the Hamamasa from
@Drygulch and give a kamisori a real try. This one was advertised as shave ready, it's a Hamamasa vintage razor in good shape and should be interesting to try. One challenge - no wrapping or other covering on the handle. That makes the grip area small and extra slippery. Gonna have to keep an eye on this one.
I did some updated research on this style of razor. Two sides to the blade. The Ura is the stamped side and the Omote is the flatter side. Traditionally, the Omote is the only side used on the face. And, traditionally, you don't switch hands. This is a right handed version so I will attempt to shave with only my right hand and keeping the Omote against the face on both sides. This requires some interesting grips, but I used to do this a lot with pain sticks to learn the technique. By the way, you can shave with both sides, it's just tradition to use only the one. But I'm nothing if not one who honors tradition with fine vintage gear.
The soap chosen was Stirling Sheep for the slick and cushy mutton. It's unscented so nothing to distract me there. I chose the 30 DC LE brush from
@jtspartan because the limited edition brush seems to fit the challenge. And - off we go.
It should be said up front - that shave ready to some people means something else to others. I would have to disagree that this razor is fully shave ready. It's sharp but draggy. Clearly could use some more honing, in my opinion at least. So, the shave was not as smooth as I was hoping to achieve, nor was it as effective. However, I made it through two passes. WTG and XTG.
Once I found the angle, which took a couple of tries given the curve to the blade, I found the technique to be nearly identical to pain sticks. I used a very similar grip as well, and did adjust ok to the small handle. I'd like to wrap it in rattan or something, though, to make it a bit easier to grip. The razor is light and very maneuverable. No issues getting up close to ears, the goatee or other areas. Long strokes on the cheek and neck on the right side got the jitters settled down as I enjoyed the feel, in spite of the roughness of the blade. When I switched sides I had a little difficulty remembering exactly how to grip with the right hand on the left side. I used to diligently use only one hand on the pain sticks but finally gave that up as being unnecessary on a modern razor. I can say that the result on the left side was less impressive than the right, but with practice I'd smooth it out.
Checked the finish after two passes and it needed help. That "shave ready" thing again. So, I grabbed the CJB Greager from the head shave and did a pass to smooth it all out and finish DFS. I did use the one handed technique, though, to honor the kami.
But, you ask anxiously - what about blood? Cuts? Serious wounds? Stitches? ER visits? Sorry to disappoint but this was quite a bit easier than I thought it might be and no blood was shed. All in all it was quite a success story.
I plan to work on stropping it to see if I can smooth it out some. Stropping a kami is different than a western straight but I'll see if I can figure it out. Now. As to the future of kamisori style in my den........I now own two. My original one needs honed. This one needs work. So I'll probably send them both off in the near future for some professional help. Then we'll pick them up and run with them. I'm also thinking of breaking out the western straights I have just to play a bit with them and compare to the kami style and result. Suddenly, I feel as if perhaps Adam has a hidden agenda. Again. Or am I just being paranoid? Time will tell.
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