Thread: Japanese speakers/translater/people who know stuff about kamisori's assemble! :)

Anyone know anything about this? The seller says it is samurai steel, which I'm not sure if that even means much... Any info would be nice! Thank you very much!

maby its seki steel?it is weird but very nice .lol id have to give it a go.

It's a Henkotsu. Nice razors but not what the author is representing it as. I haven't found much on the company but they were producing razors maybe 40 years ago.

Samurai steel does sound impressive, though I would assume it's just a standard Henkotsu.

I take it that the listing is on eBay or the like, rather than being some kind of professional retailer...?

That's still a nice razor though, even if it's not been used by a samurai!

Henkotsu and the whole samurai steel, katana sword etc BS is to make westerners that have no clue buy those kamisori easier.
Total marketing trick. To my knowledge Henkotsu have never made tamahagane razors, Iwasaki and Shiso Saburo Tamahagane razors can be found in good condition. There are some other makers that I do not know how to pronounce, but they are very very rare and usually in horrible condition due to age and use.

I see the front side of the razor not used a lot(he also sanded it by hand to clean the patina), but I see some pretty good pitting right where the edge is, that there is bad sign, the core steel is very thin and you have a chance of pitting going all the way through..

Thanks everyone!

Originally Posted by mainaman

Henkotsu and the whole samurai steel, katana sword etc BS is to make westerners that have no clue buy those kamisori easier.
Total marketing trick. To my knowledge Henkotsu have never made tamahagane razors, Iwasaki and Shiso Saburo Tamahagane razors can be found in good condition. There are some other makers that I do not know how to pronounce, but they are very very rare and usually in horrible condition due to age and use.

I see the front side of the razor not used a lot(he also sanded it by hand to clean the patina), but I see some pretty good pitting right where the edge is, that there is bad sign, the core steel is very thin and you have a chance of pitting going all the way through..

Hi, I was wondering something about Shizo Saburo, if you look at this example, the razor has no sign of Tamahagane signs, BUT the box shows very clearly (especially the upper part) what IS written on the razor (so no Tamahagane) AND beside the picture of the razor on the box IS clearly Tamahagane symbol, is it correct to say that if you see such a razor (whitout the box and thus without Tamahagane symbol), it really is a Tamahagane? (I have seen Shizo Saburo with other symbols on the razor and the where not Tamahagane)

If it is not stamped on the razor, imo it is not a tamahagane, no matter what it says on the box. After all, it is easy enough to put a different razor in the box.
With western razor it is common enough to buy them second hand with the wrong box, so the same could be true for Japanese razors.
After all, if it would have been tamahagane, they wouldn't have 'forgotten' to stamp it on the steel, considering that it is a major selling point.

Bruno is right they certainly wouldn't let a razor go out unmarked if it were made from Tamahagane.

Celticcrusader, I've got a razor, Daishi 800, marked as yours; Tamahagane Razors.Co LTD.

I would say that look more like a name of a company than a class of steel...
But, on mine it also say Yasuki (they made tamahagane) and "Made from iron sand" (how they made tamahagane).
Maybe someone can shed some light on it!