| on cut throat razors... |
[Jan. 12th, 2009|11:16 pm] |
If you don't care about straight razors, move along.
So earlier this year [remember it's still the year of the rat for a bit longer] I decided to finally really give a good show at attempting to use a straight edge razor; and after some practice got in the swing of it much to my own pleasure. Now, after having given away my Dovos and kit (due to iffy origins relating to exwife and not remembering which was from a friend) and some of my goals being closer to being done, including hopefully the divorce (still holding my breath for a bit) and it being near years end and trying to get some dots lined up and all, I'm kinda in the market for new razors.
Well, got one today. Kinda by happenstance, I was doing a bit of research online earlier while sick and figured I needed to get out of the house and get some food; and oh hey there was some Japanese tool shop I'd driven by on San Pablo in Berkeley I'd been wanting to check out but never had, but since I wasn't at work and things were actually open when I was out - well lemme go find that. Now I wasn't quite expecting to find the crazy handmade Japanese straight razors I'd seen some stuff online about, but no worries I wasn't really prepared to spend $300-$2000 on a razor either. So after some foggy brained driving (post food, but still kinda sick delirious) and a few too many u-turns I finally came across the Japanese tool shop I swear I'd seen before, it's called hida tools (and turns out they have a website: http://www.hidatool.com/ ) neat little shop with friendly (and actually Japanese [or at least Japanese speaking American]) employees. Content to let me browse and just as helpful to ask me if I was looking for anything in particular when I said straight razor, I got a quizzical look and some hand motioning to the face in a shaving fashion to which I nodded, one of them lead me to a section amidst all kinds of other blades [really they have more tools than I can imagine uses for] and showed me the two straight razors they stock. Both are Japanese, from a manufacturer Suzumasa; interestingly they're both western style straight razors, with plastic handles, basically exactly like the Dovos I'd had before. One was $120, and the other AA grade was $161; being a palindrome, and being that $161 still isn't too steep for a new straight razor, and that in general you want better quality steel anyway, I opted for the more expensive one. I also picked up a really nice pair of kitchen scissors [which is perfect since I just went on a knife & scissor cleanup/throwout last night].
Anyway, getting home and doing some research, it looks like Hida Tools has been around for 27 years (25 at their current location) and I definitely recommend checking them out. I didn't find much about Suzumasa though; there's no Japanese on the box or blade that I can find, and there's scant mention of them in teh googlez. I did find one reference to someone using one in Hong Kong, and two old used blades on a Taiwanese ebay facsimile, one going for about $25 (which is about what you'd expect for an average used blade) and another going for $180 (which seems kinda spendy for a blade that looked to be in similar condition, especially if new ones presumably can be found for less). At any rate, no info about the manufacturer themselves could be found, nor any new retailers. I wonder if they're still in business, it certainly wouldn't surprise me if these were made primarily for export long ago (but then the old Dovo's I had still had "made in West Germany" stickers on their boxes, straight razors aren't fast sellers in most parts).
That said, I spent quite a bit more time researching errr 'traditional' Japanese styled straight razors or kamisori (perhaps specifically wakamisori, but my online dictionaries are failing me at the moment), look a bit different, e.g. :
http://oldschoolshaving.net/Tosuke_3.html
http://shouhonyama.topcities.com/Tosuke_5.html
http://www2.odn.ne.jp/mandaraya/iwassekishigeyoshi-wakamisori.html
http://www.japanesetools.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=213&products_id=2330&zenid=6d6b65087d438b23b0855780a49dc4df
http://www.munemasa.co.jp/english/1707/1707-301.htm
http://www.japanwoodworker.com/product.asp?s=JapanWoodworker&pf_id=05%2E001&dept_id=22924
http://www.geocities.com/soatoz/hamono/Iwasaki/Kamisori.html
I realize, I just posted different links to some of the same blades; but of note is only three craftsmen worked on any of those. Tosuke, Iwasaki Shigeyoshi, and Muh-Tsyr.
Now, Tosuke, passed away not too long ago, so there will be no more blades from him. That said, they don't look to be of the greatest quality; or maybe it's just the more recent designs using a plastic/rubber handle grip that is throwing me. Iwasaki Shigeyoshi is at least a second generation blade maker [son of Iwasaki Kosuke] and is getting quite on in years and it looks like he may be passing his craft off to Mizuochi Ryouichi soon and likely many of the blades sold now are actually made by his successor. As for that other guy... Muh-Tsyr.... well not much info on him other than what's on the page, not Japanese, practicing in America, studying under an american who studying under a Japanese craftsmen; but unlike Say Iwasaki it was not a lifelong discipleship (obviously no father-son lifelong stuff, or hey I'm old and dying take over my business now type lifelong) and well, I can't say the look of his work really looks all that noteworthy just yet, not to disparage him, some of this stuff can just take a really really long time to master!
This is interesting though:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&indexURL=1=&item=290284011144=&photoDisplayType=2#ebayphotohosting=
Sold not too long ago, for merely $300. This was made by Iwasaki Shigeyoshi's father, and according to some, was actually made of tamahagane, which is very rare/expensive sword-grade steel. Iwasaki Shigeyoshi has supposedly been known to make a razor from tamahagane every now and then, but more for collectors and they tend to cost at least $2000 or so, so whoever got that ebay buy really really got a steal and probably didn't even realize it (or at least the seller didn't).
At any rate, it's an interesting thing to read up on. It appears that Iwasaki and his disciples are probably the last currently active (or at least exported) makers of traditional Japanese straight razors still alive and working in Japan. Of course, that's not all they make, Iwasaki is a licensed sword maker; but apparently there's some post-WWII regulation which states that only two swords may be produced a month by such craftsmen and so much spare time is spent making other things; just seems that Iwasaki is the only one who cares to still make a traditional shaving tool in addition to knives and whatnot.
So doing more digging on this sort of thing reveals a number of vendors with various prices, and people pointing to The Japan Woodworker as kind of -the- reference place (and interestingly enough, the cheapest in the US too, not a significant markup over one Japanese retailer, and actually -cheaper- than another Japanese retailer). And I seem to recall a coworker giving me a catalogue of theirs some years ago and being enthralled by it, even though I don't work with wood at all, so it was kinda like "oooh pretty. ooooh, pretty useless for me." I can't really say I'm much of a cook either, so all the knives are mostly lost on me still too. However, shaving? Well, shaving is something I do do everyday (ok well I haven't done it at all in months due to this other crap, but soon I will be shaving again daily) and I can certainly see sinking some money into a handcrafted tool of quality for that. Anyway, let's be realistic - $275 for 50mm blade or $475 for a 60mm blade? Egads, kind of steep in cost, but supposedly the longer blade also uses more higher grade steel, so that accounts for the cost difference, still, barely more than the 50mm blade from that one Japanese importer, and hundreds less than other places sell it for.
So I'm staring at it:
http://www.japanwoodworker.com/product.asp?s=JapanWoodworker&pf_id=05%2E002&dept_id=22924
And researching...
And thinking about how, y'know a longer blade actually does make the shaving go a little bit more smoothly because you need to wipe/wash the blade clean less frequently between strokes. But man, $200 more? $275 I could easily drop (hell there are crufty machine made western straight razors for that, or even $500) but ... I dunno, it just feels kinda expensive. But hmm, yeah y'know it would be kinda nice to have something nice/special for especially that first shaving off the beard. It's symbolic, and well something special for the symbolism and just the general ceremony and ritual of straight razor shaving...
(oh and for those wondering/worried about -shaving- off a beard, while I grant you most razors will get clogged to the point of worthlessness with stubble that's a few days old, a single blade has no such issues - behold a neat demonstration of someone straight razoring off a beard in a mere five minute shave with no issues [albeit shorter than mine is, and certainly shorter than it will be by the time it comes off]: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3738198030255805151&ei=OVJsSeHxBYL8rgL3mdSVDA&q=beard+straight+razor [fyi on a totally tangential note there are some interesting videos of straight razor shaving Japanese women, like around the eyebrows and stuff, no waxing - straight razoring! Wow, that's kinda neat.] ).
And I'm thinking about this, and poking around. And for whatever reason I decide to go back on yelp to look up the hida tools place I went to earlier. And I'm like, huh these reviews don't look the same as the ones I read before I went out today; they kept saying how alameda was a drive, which didn't make sense to me at the time because the tool shop is in berkeley. But sick delirium, nothing makes much sense.
(review for reference, no mention of Alameda: http://www.yelp.com/biz/hida-tool-and-hardware-berkeley#hrid:KYt9wglO_MaV2iJNJ5HabA/query:japanese%20tools )
But I figure, what the hell lemme just go back and yelp for japanese tools. And well sure there's hida tool. But so is The Japan Woodworker.
(review for reference, with mentions of Alameda being far [now makes sense] and mail order [now also makes sense]: http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-japan-woodworker-alameda#hrid:uqGUoJrccxrxT42FhMQBhg/query:japanese%20tools )
Wait, The Japan Woodworker? Like, the one everyone was going on about as being the best importer in the country/world? The Japan Woodworker that had the best price on that razor that is really spendy but ohman LUST DOWANT MUSTHAVE?
Yeah... it's the same place, it's been around for 35 years... I drove by it on my way home from dinner just to convince myself I wasn't going crazy, and nope, it's there in a big huge warehouse along the harbor. And to make matters worse, just now using google maps to get driving directions not as-the-crow-flies far, EVEN THEN it's still less than a mile from where I live.
Clearly I'm doomed to buy that blade. May be time to earn some more money...
[update - female facial shaving in Japan - the eyelid stuff even wigs ME out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCZLjRs0068 ] |
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