What Straight Razor Did You Use Today?

Up today is a Dovo Bismarck 2

 

Iwasaki. Settling into a rotation with my current nine straights.

 

21 January 2016

Day 21 - 90 Day Intro to SR



WD "Sight Unseen" 5/8
Omega Professional 48 Boar
Route 66 - Lumberjack
Alum
TSD 2x Iced FW type AS

Have a nice evening!

 

Mike any idea what the number 50 1/2 means mine as the number 50 like to take a guess?

 

No idea Jamie, it seems to be arbitrary. Takeshi at A-Frames Tokyo may know. While the tamahagane Iwasakis all seemed to follow a standard stamping convention, the Swede carbon Iwasakis were all over the place. Some western numbers, some not, some English lettering with the Iwasaki trademark, some not, Some with trademark, some not, some with stamps on show side, some on back side, etc.

The only info I'v found is from Jim Rion's old Eastern Smooth blog:

"...Sanjou Seisakujou produced a wide variety of razor designs. There is a larger, 7/8 or so "rounded square-point" full hollow Tamahagane; the smaller french-tip half-hollow Tamahagane; a 6/8 square-point full hollow Swedish steel "#90" razor, a shorter bladed 5/8 Swedish steel "#33" razor etc. All of these design differences filled specific needs and requests raised by barbers who collaborated with the Iwasaki workshop when they were developing their razors..."

Also, this is of note. The "M" stamp seen on some blades stands for "Medium" referring to the hardness of the steel. M-stamped Iwasakis were not hardened to the higher degree that other Iwasakis were:

"...On some Iwasaki razors, next to the trademark "Marusan" mark you might see an "M". This indicates a razor of medium hardness. Iwasaki razors, especially the Tamahagane razors, were hardened to roughly 800-820 on the Vickers scale, above 64 Rockwell. This makes them extremely durable, but harder to hone. According to Iwasaki-san, soon after they started making razors a fundamental social change in Japan led to a large increase in the number of women in barbering, and these women had a lot of trouble honing the larger, harder razors, that in fact women have trouble honing in general (his words, not mine...), so they started making softer razors. Razors marked "M" were only hardened to 775-795 Vickers, roughly 63 Rockwell. In addition, these razors tended to have shorter blades than the harder razors, making them even easier to hone..."

Note to myself: Iwasakis stamped "M" are not as hard as other Iwasakis. This could have a pretty significant effect on it's shaving characteristics .

I suspect everything you could ever want to know is contained within this following website: http://www.kakuri.co.jp/iwasaki/

Sadly, I do not read Japanese. None the less, based on some fascinating photos, I suspect if I could, it would be one heck of a history lesson, and many of the questions we have about Iwasaki straights would be answered.

In lieu of learning Japanese before you die, in quest for arcane knowledge of all things Japanese shaving I must recommend Jim Rion's Eastern Smooth Blog. If you take the time to search through it and do some reading, it's very rewarding.

http://easternsmooth.com/blog


If you could speak with Shigiyoshi Iwasaki, and have him tell you his secrets of honing, and also give you a handbook written for barber training in the 1930's by his Father, Kousuke Iwasaki, how cool would that be? Well, Rion did. and he painstakingly translated the handbook to english as well. See this goodness here:

https://sites.google.com/site/trans...sandNihonkamisoriMayUpdate.zip?attredirects=0

 

Frederick's Celebrated

 

today I used;
Eaton 85 Diamond Edge
5/8 full hollow spike
restored by @HolyRollah
Three passes for a great close comfy shave.
post shave the razor got 10 laps linen, 20 leather on my @Drygulch custom strop.

 

Custom George Wostenholm 'Pipe' razor…

 

that's on my wish list, beautiful razor

 

Hart 7/8 rescaled in G10 gold with purple liner by gssixgun - fantastic shaver
Crown King synthetic with the #2 knot in it - I am liking this brush more every time I use it
Razorock Mudder Focker
La Toja splash

 

January 20, 2016
Razor: Cattaraugus The Magnet
Strop: Drygulch Leatherworks Chromexcel Horse/ Linen
Soap: Jabonman Lima-Incienso
Brush: 24mm Badger in quilted maple handle
Post Shave: Cold water rinse, Alum Bar, Witch Hazel
Aftershave: Lustray Draggon Noir

 

Queen Charlotte Soaps Vetiver
Thäter 2 band silver tip
Whitehead scuttle
Dove Master's
PRC strop
Lucky Tiger AS
L'Occitane Cade ASB
YSL Kourous

Have a great weekend!

 

Filarmonica Friday...

Yet another great shave from a superb set up.

Have a great weekend gents.

 

22 January 2016
Day 22 - 90 Day Intro to SR



Ralf Aust 5/8
(freshly honed by @gssixgun )


Glen, it was a super smooth shave today!!!​

 

Wow, what razor is it?

 

J. A. Henckels made for Bastet in Holland

 

Tuckmar recently cleaned, honed and scaled by holyrollah
Caties Bubbles tactical Support
Rooney 26 mm super badger
Floid Blue
View attachment 90157

 

how
How is it going so far?

 

today I used
Clauss 5/8 full hollow squared end

first time using a scuttle. it may have warmed and softened my skin to the point I may have got a little closer than comfy with my shave. I'm definitely close.