Tamahagane Steel

I was in Japan recently and went to visit the Japanese Sword Museum which was extremely fascinating. Some of the swords on display dated back to the early 1300's and probably far earlier.

Having learnt that Tamahagane Steel is widely revered in the Straight Razor / Kamisori world for its properties, it was quite pleasing to actually be able to purchase a small piece of Tamahagane Steel which was presented in its own wooden box. Apologies if I have the top of the box the wrong way around, I can't read Kanji.

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What was equally fascinating was this 2.5t piece of Kera outside the museum. I'm sure a couple of the resident SR artisans wouldn't mind grabbing a piece of this steel for their own production.

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Thanks for sharing that with us. Most appreciated.

That is neat! I bet there were some amazing blades on display, do you have pictures to share?

Very cool.

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Originally Posted by Ernie1980

That is neat! I bet there were some amazing blades on display, do you have pictures to share?

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There are probably around 30 swords on display with a length of around 71/73 cm and also several smaller dagger types.

Unfortunately no photos.

There was a sign clearly indicating that taking of photos was prohibited and with a couple of guards in the sword display room, I wasn't going to risk seeing what the outcome would be.

If you look carefully, as I did when I visited the museum, you will see that couple corners have been chipped at. Seems that someone couldn't resist taking a larger souvenir.

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Originally Posted by Thug

There are probably around 30 swords on display with a length of around 71/73 cm and also several smaller dagger types.

Unfortunately no photos.

There was a sign clearly indicating that taking of photos was prohibited and with a couple of guards in the sword display room, I wasn't going to risk seeing what the outcome would be.

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Fascinating - I have one completed razor and another waiting for scales that were made from the sections of two 17th Century tamahagane Japanese swords. Bruno did the work.

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Originally Posted by Phrank

Fascinating - I have one completed razor and another waiting for scales that were made from the sections of two 17th Century tamahagane Japanese swords. Bruno did the work.

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So you were the one that got those masterpieces from bruno! That is so awesome! How's the shave???

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Originally Posted by prodigy

So you were the one that got those masterpieces from bruno! That is so awesome! How's the shave???

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One is still unused in a beautiful box downstairs, the one Bruno named, "Azumi", the tamahagane steel crafted in the 1600's by sword master Hata Mitsuyo.

Bruno posted the thread here regarding the sections he made them from, I found four sections, two were made into razors for myself. You can read about it here if you're interested.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/custo...-progress.html

Thanks for the post Thug, my dream one day is to visit Japan and see the some of those ancient swords, I've heard a lot about some of the treasures in the museums in Japan.

I would have loved to seen the swords:( I wonder why no pictures? It would be funny if the guards took cameras from people taking unauthorized pictures and chopped them in half with one of the swords:tameshigiri:

Tamahagane is good stuff, works great with straight razors.

Very nice to share with us.
I actually looked up just steel on Wikipedia the other day & was reading & steel goes back as far as 1300 BC., so the Chinese already had it down to an art. I think I read something about the Chinese working steel back in earlier days so by the time they developed Tamahagane steel, they knew what they were doing & were master's of it.
That's fascinating!