Restoration - Yamamasa kamisori

rbscebu

rbscebu

Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2020
Location
Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, Australia
@LesC has graciously PIFed this kamisori to my from his modest collection. I have spent the last five days shaving with it to develop my kamisori shaving technique and see if this razor is for me. It is.
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"Restoration" is probable the wrong word to use for this project. The kamisori is already in very good condition. What I will be doing is modifying the razor more to my liking. There are two and possibly three things I intend to do;
  • sheath the gara (handle) in rattan cane,​
  • smooth the point finish which is currently rather rough, and​
  • (possibly) smooth the pinch area on the blade.​
I am not sure about smoothing the pinch are as its current finish provides for a good grip.

The gara currently has some patina on it that I will leave as is. My main concern with sheathing the gara is to try and ensure that I can prevent any moisture from getting onto the steel beneath the rattan sheathing. To achieve this, I will apply two coats of clear gloss enamel to the steel and then apply two thicknesses of heat-shrink tubing over the gara. To finally seal everything up, I will apply another two coats of clear enamel to the heat-shrink tubing. All of this preparation should give a good foundation over which I can wrap the rattan.

The rattan has been ordered from China and should be delivered in about a month's time.
 
Garry357 said:
Rattan cane wrap will really set this off. Looking forward to seeing any updates and the final piece.
Well done.
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I agree that it should set it off. I have not worked with rattan cane since primary school. I remember then that we had to soak it in water for 24 hours before use.

The rattan that I have coming from China is about 4mm wide. I will need to split it to about 2mm wide. I may also have to reduce its thickness so that it's surface doesn't crack when I wrap it around the gara.

This whole project is a new experience for me.
 
rbscebu said:
I agree that it should set it off. I have not worked with rattan cane since primary school. I remember then that we had to soak it in water for 24 hours before use.

The rattan that I have coming from China is about 4mm wide. I will need to split it to about 2mm wide. I may also have to reduce its thickness so that it's surface doesn't crack when I wrap it around the gara.

This whole project is a new experience for me.
Click to expand...
I was wondering how you will soften the rattan to make it more manageable.
 
Once the clear enamel had set, I applied heat-shrink tubing (like used in electrical work) to the gara. Due to the dimensions of the gara changing over its length, I use three different sizes of tubing and ended up with double thickness except for about 4mm at the blade end and 10mm at the other end.
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I will now apply another two coats of clear enamel over the heat-shrink tubing.
 
The more I shave with this kamisori, the more comfortable I become with it.

I have another 2 to 4 weeks before my rattan is received. While waiting, I am thinking of smoothing out the rough finish on the blade's point. This will most probable remove the muting on the toe. With my kamisori shaving technique the way it is now, I think that I can probably handle it with ba sharp and pointy toe. There is only one way to find out.
 
My rattan cane arrived from China in this morning's mail. Under AU$5 (including shipping) for more than 10m x 4mm width. This is enough for wrapping about 20 kamisori.

Rather than cover the rattan wrapping process here, I will start a new thread covering my method and lessons learnt. This new thread can be found here:

Restoration - Kamisori Gara (Handle) Sheathing in Rattan Cane

The intention of this restoration is to sheath the gara (handle) of a Yamamasa kaimisori be wrapping rattan cane around the gara. AS this is my first try at rattan sheathing a kamisori's gara, I will keep it simple. I started off with the kamisori looking like this: To help protect the...
paste-and-cut.com.au
 
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