Need an assist on kanji (on a stone)

[David Weaver]

I need an assist on the kanji on this stone. Thanks to anyone who can help. Hopefully it says something about ozuku, or at least not something contradictory to that (it feels like an ozuku stone). Color is a bit off, it's more of a grayish green, but the picture is under a light with a lot of yellow in it. 217593

[Sam Takeuchi]

Ozukuyama awasedo　(polisher)

[David Weaver]

Thanks sam, that tells me what I need to know. Or what I want to know.

Now I can freely run the stamp off of it by using it.

[David Weaver]

Well, a razor and a chisel into the stone, not exactly what I expected. Was hoping for something that's no good on chisel and great on a razor, but got the opposite - a good finish stone for carbon steel woodworking tools, a bit too soft and coarse for a razor.

That's just the way it goes sometimes.

[Terry Beadle]

Too rough....ouch!

Did you also try the stone with some half micron paste on it? It might toughen up the surface and allow the lightest touch of a honing stroke on the razor.

Still. A natural stone has it's own beauty and purpose. ( Sounds like a Burma Shave commercial ! Hoot! )

[David Weaver]

No 1/2 micron paste on this one (it is a bit pricey for that), though I did put some (just hand american 1/2 micron chromium oxide dust) on a chinese stone from woodcraft (which is also a good razor stone, and probably the only really good cheap one). It made it worse to use, I can't figure out why, but it's grabby now - I guess that's why! The same dust is great on hard leather or balsa, though.

I'd say this stone is somewhere in the 6-8k range, and finer when it's been used a little, but not as hard as another two asagi stones that I have, one of which is so fine that it just barely cuts. When it's not super hard as this one isn't, it'll still give up particles and not ever settle in to really fine like a good razor hone does. It could've been about twice as fine as it is to be a good razor stone, and twice as hard (it's still really hard for a woodworking stone, though).

It would be good enough if I went to the green stuff after it on a strop, but I like the edge on a razor straight off of a good stone with nothing but a bare leather or side of the palm strop - it is "soft" feeling, for lack of a better word. Cuts hair, but is easy on the skin and not unpredictable (the super sharp powder stropped eges can surprise you with a face full of weepers), and a razor stone is easier to keep in the bathroom than a hanging strop or a big paddle strop.

The really good razor stones (the antique ones designated as razor stones from the mine) are too fine to use for practical woodworking stuff. I have no idea what fineness they are, but they leave a brightly polished edge that shows almost no lines whatsoever under any magnification.

[Jonathan McCullough]

Shocked by the price of razor cartridges, and irked by the treadmill of planned-obsolescence consumer goods, I've also turned to straight razors. It's early days yet but the best shave I've had was off a Dan's Whetstones extra fine translucent Arkansas oil stone (usually used for chisels), followed by a strop. It's a tricky business, learning how to shave all over again, but I'm getting there.

[John Coloccia]

I thought this was going to end up like the Japanese tattoos people get, and they want "Love endures after death" or "Live Free Die Hard", but instead they end up with kanji for "My pig is lovely" and "Gas leaves me frequently".

[David Weaver]

The chinese stone that woodcraft has also does a very good job for cheap - it is slow, but any stone rubbed on it will make a slurry, or a diamond hone rubbed on it will do the same and it's quite fast with a slurry. Combine that with an ugly razor on ebay - or two, some cheap shave soap and a cheap badger brush (they're coming from china to begin with - the bagder hair that is - so there's no reason to get snobby and demand an expensive brush when there are tons of cheap ones) and you could shave for 10 years+ changing only the shaving soap.

If the trans does a good job, no need for a chinese stone, though. I brought up the arkies on a razor forum a few months ago, and a couple of people said they liked theirs in use, and a lot other people instantly referred back to razor-only hones.

I do a one-pass shave every day, takes about 4 minutes (not hurrying, of course, hurrying is bad!) including stropping the razor - probably took 10 minutes at first. On the weekend, I spend an extra 5 minutes on a finish stone bringing the razor back either saturday or sunday. What started out as a time-consuming novelty now doesn't take much extra time, and the bonus is the razor is always comfortable and sharp. It is such a nice process to shave, comfortable and such, and it's always nice to take something you have to do and turn it into something that you enjoy.

It has been a lot more expensive for me to shave with straight razors (though I could very easily do it cheaply). I was using about one cartridge every 3-6 months before, drying them off after each shave and storing them in the medicine cabinet, stropping them by running them backwards on my arm, and getting them at a mennonite salvage store, so they were dirt cheap to begin with. You have to tolerate a pretty dull razor to do that, though.

I don't know how else to describe what gillete and schick have done with prices in their war for earnings other than it's offensive. I saw 8 cartridges the other day for $35. I heard an investment update a few years ago that briefed on increased earnings of gillette (I think it was), and they basically said that they had a lot of room to increase prices based on their experience (i.e., they raised prices, increased earnings, and people didn't stop buying their razors). I'm just not into patronizing a company like that. I don't have any interest in influencing their business decisions, opting to not participate in using their products is just fine.

I haven't shaved with anything other than a straight razor for a good while now, except for thanksgiving I was on the road and used a new mach 3 cartridge. It gave me bad razor burn! Your face gets used to whatever you put on it (at least mine does), and always has to get used to any change.

I have a dans stone like yours. I'm tempted to try it. I don't have any extremely expensive razor hones (I would call a 5 1/2 inch long narrow escher stone at $500 expensive for what it is), but I don't really have any need for more razor hones. My finish hones are short, which is why I took a shot with the stone above. I could still use it and just swipe the short stones a few times, too, and end up in the same place.

A fellow shaving with a straight razor 100 years ago would never have had all of the options we had now (though they would've been able to get an escher stone cheaply, and the availability of good leather in every town was probably common).

We have an advantage over people who are somewhat new to shaving, too, in that we have plenty of stones around to refurbish an old razor, the understanding of how to keep them flat, and some touch developed to adapt to sharpening a razor quite quickly.

[Jack Curtis]

A long time ago my girlfriend gave me her black Arkansas with a two part wood case she made, teak I think, plus a strop to occupy the back of a door. I loved it, but her ultimate reward was a beard.

Jack

[David Weaver]

I thought this was going to end up like the Japanese tattoos people get, and they want "Love endures after death" or "Live Free Die Hard", but instead they end up with kanji for "My pig is lovely" and "Gas leaves me frequently".

Fortunately, it didn't end up like that, but you never know when you can't read anything and you're buying from sellers who can.

The tatoo craze, well, I don't get that - i'd rather just have the kanji on the stones.

[Nigel Tracy]

I haven't shaved with anything other than a straight razor for a good while now, except for thanksgiving I was on the road and used a new mach 3 cartridge. It gave me bad razor burn! Your face gets used to whatever you put on it (at least mine does), and always has to get used to any change.
If I may ask, are you fair-haired or thick-haired? I must say I'm mighty intrigued by this whole straight-razor approach, but leery due to my thick- and dark-hairiness... off to google I go...

[David Weaver]

In between, but on the thicker side vs. average. It doesn't really make much of a difference, though, with a decent razor and a shave right after you come out of the shower - one pass of a razor and 99% of it's gone right away.

There aren't too many hopping forums on straight razor shaving - straight razor place is the only one I can think of in the US. I can't link it per TOS, but you can find it. That'd be a good place to ask questions - guaranteed there have been some faces of guys on there who look like they grow wire and not hair.