Thread: Can anyone ID some of the stamps on this Kamisori?

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

No expert,but the blade could be a Tamahange

Not sure about that, tamahagane is such a high quality steel, that if someone was to make a razor from it, they'd be sure to stamp it as a mark of its quality.

The steel has that sort of crude, unpolished look that's typical of tamahagane, but I think that could just be a feature of all japanese steel.

Here are the markings for tamahagane

Originally Posted by kcb5150

Thank you for that! For sub $70 to my door, I am ecstatic given the low wear.

What does the omote side look like? That's a better indicator of the wear. If the omote is covered in scratches, that's the hone wear. It's more important to look for hone wear on a kamisori than a western because they were made with soft steel on the inside and hard steel on the outside, whereas western razors were made entirely of hard steel. Because of this, they need less hone wear to no longer be salvageable.

It doesn't seem bad at all. Most of the ones on the bay are so flattened out on the omote, all you see is that small oval depression surrounded by mirror finish, or one that shows signs of having been gouged at with that curved bevel stick they use to bring some hollowing back. It was worth a punt.

I've looked at kamis for like three weeks on there and a lot of the used ones are more like this:



Just well past it. Some NOS ones look trustworthy, while others look like they were reground carefully. This one just seems honest to me as the seller had a lot of ronnied ones he sold as well for low $.

So far I have Yamamasa, one of the stamps near the spine means high grade, but I don't know what the one added above it closer to the toe means, nor do I know the meaning of any of the other data.

I'm not sure what is going on towards the handle end there. That doesn't look good.

On the ura side? I got to look at a heavy macro of the heel spike. Confident that it is just superficial staining. A lot fainter than it appears. I have had a lot of experience with the black/darker issues on steel, wispy black doesn't worry me, the blotches that look like you dropped ink on the bevel are the blades to run far away from.

Heel on omote side is just the light. It is clear of issues. It seems to be a very servicable kami.