Thread: Tamahagane nihon kamisori

According to some, Heisenberg is still making Tamahagane razors.

Originally Posted by xenophon

If I'm not mistaken the term is protected in Japan and can only be used with items made from steel produced following the traditional procedure (iron ore sand, hand working in a charcoal fuelled furnace etc). The tamahagane kamisori have a hardness of about 67 HRC. The 'Echigo Munenori' is in honour to a local smith who forged knives and katana and had devised the original shape of the kamisori blade such as is still used by Iwasaki.

It's not.

Tamahagane itself is highly controlled. The name is not. I got this confirmed by So Yamashita. Just like in the west, it has been used as nothing more than a marketing name, like Silver Steel, Damascus, crucible steel etc on western blades.

But even if the name was actually accurate, Tamahagane refers only to the way it was made. It has no significance in terms of quality. Tamahagane is made in China and various othe rplaces where people don't mind shoveling charcoal and iron sand into a furnace for a couple of days non stop. But even in the case of Japanese made Tamahagane, the situation is more complex than you may thingk. After the tamahagane blooms are broken down, the very best stuff gets sorted from the medium quality stuff and the junk. The high end stuff is tightly controlled and goes to swordsmiths. The medium level stuff can be made available to people with really good connections. The junk gets recycled into somwthing else or thrown away.

So
1) The term Tamahagane does not automatically mean it is actual Tamahagane.
2) The term Tamahagane does not automatically mean it is Japanese tamahagane.
3) The term Tamahagane does not automaticclly mean it is high quality.
4) While blades other than swords are made from Japanese Tamahagane, it is not the same quality of steel.
5) The nuggets of Japanese Tamahagane you may buy from reputable sources can be authentic but are not the sword quality stuff.

Good post Bruno!

Here a link to Hitachi Metals, they bought Yasugi Specialty Steel ( YSS ) who have made Tamahagane for a long time using both old and a modernized way.
Hitachi Metals>Tale of tatara>Tama-hagane and the Japanese sword

Today the Japanese mostly go for the closest thing they can find to Tamahagane, old Swedish steel!