Thread: Iwasaki western style

I was browsing one of the Japanese knife stores, which also happens to sell Japanese razors, and stumbled on this one:
IWASAKI Western Style Razor 75mm Tamahagane Blade,#1800.6
pretty high price , my question to the folks that live in Japan is is this normal or too inflated?

the guy also has a pretty nice collection of palm sized Nakayama Maruka stones for those that are interested.
He is based in Hawaii so shipping is fast.

I enjoyed that a great deal. Thank you for the link

Those are all old stock, used, from a barber shop in Japan. There are no new ones being made, to my knowledge--I haven't seen any new ones. The one a few months ago that went for 1500 or so was NOS--found in storage somewhere.

I paid considerably less for mine, and it was in similar condition.

For what it is worth, I have purchased other razors from this seller, Takeshi Aoki, and he is an excellent person to deal with -- an honorable gentleman in every sense. I heard about these tamahagane razors from him last month when he was waiting to receive them from Japan. Apparently, there are only three of them, and I don't know enough about them to say whether the price is fair or not for what he is selling. From the photos I saw, they were all in good to excellent condition, but not NOS. Even at that price, I was soooo tempted to take the plunge, but what kept me back is the same psychological problem I have with all super, super expensive razors, which is a fear that I will damage the blade while using it and so I won't end up using the razor at all!

One interesting thing Takeshi told me too -- apparently, the source he has in Japan ALSO has a tamahagane western straight razor make by KOSUKE IWASAKI himself!! Now, that probably isn't going to mean much to too many people, but from what I understand from those who follow this stuff, that's like having an original Van Gogh or something similar. God only knows what it would cost to purchase something like that, probably more than my car is worth.

Originally Posted by JeffE

For what it is worth, I have purchased other razors from this seller, Takeshi Aoki, and he is an excellent person to deal with -- an honorable gentleman in every sense. I heard about these tamahagane razors from him last month when he was waiting to receive them from Japan. Apparently, there are only three of them, and I don't know enough about them to say whether the price is fair or not for what he is selling. From the photos I saw, they were all in good to excellent condition, but not NOS. Even at that price, I was soooo tempted to take the plunge, but what kept me back is the same psychological problem I have with all super, super expensive razors, which is a fear that I will damage the blade while using it and so I won't end up using the razor at all!

One interesting thing Takeshi told me too -- apparently, the source he has in Japan ALSO has a tamahagane western straight razor make by KOSUKE IWASAKI himself!! Now, that probably isn't going to mean much to too many people, but from what I understand from those who follow this stuff, that's like having an original Van Gogh or something similar. God only knows what it would cost to purchase something like that, probably more than my car is worth.

Ahhhh...that pretty much confirms it. He bought his from the same place I got mine. The seller told me someone in America had bought some of his others, and the ones on aframestokyo are all in similar condition to mine, and the seller said he was only keeping two razors, and one of them was a Tamahagane made by Kousuke.

Now THAT is a rare razor...

I would want more than plain , black plastic scales for that kind of money . I would think that if the blade is so special , that the razor would have an awesome set of scales .

Originally Posted by dave5225

I would want more than plain , black plastic scales for that kind of money . I would think that if the blade is so special , that the razor would have an awesome set of scales .

Tamahagane @ HRC ~67, if I understand the properties of the steel correctly, that might prove as tough as a wedge to set a bevel, but then the edge retention would be phenomenal. I hope Jim tells us if at least the edge retention part is true?

He stopped making western style straights because the machine to make the handles was broken ? Yeah , right .

Originally Posted by dave5225

I would want more than plain , black plastic scales for that kind of money . I would think that if the blade is so special , that the razor would have an awesome set of scales .

They could be lacquered wooden scales, that would be more "Japanese" and would look the same in the photos.

Originally Posted by dave5225

I would want more than plain , black plastic scales for that kind of money . I would think that if the blade is so special , that the razor would have an awesome set of scales .

When you buy one of those razors, you aren't buying scales. Ever heard the term "gilding the lily"?