Thread: My first Tamahagane razor

I found this on Tamahagane and Iron sand; 靖国刀 - トム岸田 - Google Böcker

Originally Posted by mainaman

Jamie,
authentic Tamahagane was used for Kamisori, and Western Iwasaki, on western style kamisoris and factory made straights factory made tamahagane steel was used. I do not have any source of that info, but unless it was a marketing trick it is reasonable to think the steel used was similar in composition. The razors made from that steel are typically hardened more than usual and take very good edge.

Hi Stefan, do you have any info on the makers mark?

Jamie

Originally Posted by celticcrusader

Hi Stefan, do you have any info on the makers mark?

Jamie

Jamie,
I am not familiar with the mark, and have never seen it, but you can ask your vendor for the translation.

Originally Posted by Lemur

I found this on Tamahagane and Iron sand; 靖国刀 - トム岸田 - Google Böcker

Interestingly enough I was told a bout a month ago that current tamahagane production yields very low grade product that is unusable for razors.
The steel is just not good enough to produce fine edge.

That's probably true of the current supply of Tamahagane, but as with anything vintage more than 40 or 50 years old as with this razor I would imagine this would not apply. Anyway when the Japanese are today producing steels such as the worlds finest steel CLA189 the same used on their Rockstead knives, ZDP189 and VG10 I doubt even the finest Tamahagane ever produced with live with CLA189.

Jamie

Originally Posted by celticcrusader

That's probably true of the current supply of Tamahagane, but as with anything vintage more than 40 or 50 years old as with this razor I would imagine this would not apply. Anyway when the Japanese are today producing steels such as the worlds finest steel CLA189 the same used on their Rockstead knives, ZDP189 and VG10 I doubt even the finest Tamahagane ever produced with live with CLA189.

Jamie

Vintage is vintage once it is made it is there to stay.
This razor however is not made form Tamahagane made in the traditional way by a bunch of guys around a Tatara somewhere in Japan, it is made in the Hitachi factory. The traditional tamahagane was used for swords(mainly)/chisels/planes/knives/ and razor but only certain smiths would have access. It was/is a very big deal to get good tamahagane, as one run would produce a few kilograms out of ~10 tons of raw ingredients. And not always one would get good quality steel from each run.
I would not call VG-10 fine steel by the way.

Holy moly, those are nice.

A sweet find for sure and what a great looking razor! Enjoy!

I managed to find out the makers name Ryujin, I know they made Tamahagane razors and that's about it, any other info would be welcome.

Jamie

Just an update on the razor, the maker is written with a bit of calligraphy and it reads Ryujin. The first kanji is Dragon, and the second one is God. So it is the Dragon God, quite fitting to own a razor called the Dragon God, when my countries flag and figure head just happens to be a dragon.

Jamie.