Thread: Tamahagane nihon kamisori

I have a Tamahagane Iwasaki and cherish it....and of course shave with it. I recently bought a Tim Zowada razor in his version of kamisori, smelted by him from iron sand located around the Great Lakes, and dubbed Timahagane. He supplied a small vial of the sand with the razor. It is a Western grind and shaves very well. So some makers out there in razorland are trying keep the flame alive of this type of metal.

Originally Posted by old

I have a Tamahagane Iwasaki and cherish it....and of course shave with it. I recently bought a Tim Zowada razor in his version of kamisori, smelted by him from iron sand located around the Great Lakes, and dubbed Timahagane. He supplied a small vial of the sand with the razor. It is a Western grind and shaves very well. So some makers out there in razorland are trying keep the flame alive of this type of metal.

Timahagane, haha, I like it!

Wasn't there a lot of swords in the late 1800 that were remade into other things like razors?
I don't think a lot of good steel were thrown away just becourse they banned swords.

i have a kiridashi by bubba-san, made recently from re-forged broken katana pieces ...

cant shave with it tho

Originally Posted by etorix

i have a kiridashi by bubba-san, made recently from re-forged broken katana pieces ...

cant shave with it tho

I would love to have one like that, only got some shirogami new thing.
Any chance of a pic?

Originally Posted by Lemur

Timahagane, haha, I like it!

Wasn't there a lot of swords in the late 1800 that were remade into other things like razors?
I don't think a lot of good steel were thrown away just becourse they banned swords.

I doubt any Tamahagne swords were re-manufactured into anything else. The collector value in Japan for such items is maniacal and many would pay a kings ransom for a sword like that. Most swords were made of more common steel and maybe some of those were re-purposed though I have my doubts. My friend in Japan has his father's sword from WWll and he wouldn't part with it for anything and he's not alone.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I doubt any Tamahagne swords were re-manufactured into anything else. The collector value in Japan for such items is maniacal and many would pay a kings ransom for a sword like that. Most swords were made of more common steel and maybe some of those were re-purposed though I have my doubts. My friend in Japan has his father's sword from WWll and he wouldn't part with it for anything and he's not alone.

I don't think they had the choice to be a collector then, saw a picture once of hundreds of swords in a big pile to be scraped.
Edit; During the katanagari.

Originally Posted by Lemur

I would love to have one like that, only got some shirogami new thing.
Any chance of a pic?

sure, delighted to

its on a "Maruichi" brand Nakayama Suita from So's dad,

which is finally meeting a kamisori this weekend

ive seen it stated that both Iwasakis were licensed swordsmiths, hence eligible for access to tatara output

i wonder if the other tamahagane kamisori makers are also

im looking at the 17th century kamis on that site, they seem very long for faceshaving

maybe headshaving?

they are described as tamahagane tho, i think id like to catch one

A lot of them were probably for head shaving, they ofter appear together with "monk things".

Originally Posted by Lemur

Timahagane, haha, I like it!

Wasn't there a lot of swords in the late 1800 that were remade into other things like razors?
I don't think a lot of good steel were thrown away just becourse they banned swords.

Afaik they didn't ban swords, but the public wearing of swords. I would doubt many fmaily swords were turned into something else. Reusing the steel is usually only done with broken swords.