Yukio Kamijo was a well known Japanese blacksmith in the early/middle part of the 20th century. He was known for his top tier razors and teaching Iwasaki everything he knew about razor forging and grinding. Razors from this renowned smith are hard to find in any condition.
This particular razor is a quarter grind 6/8, and came with too much hone wear for my preference. I personally don’t mind regrinding an old razor, as long as it is done gently and as little material is taken off as possible. Though someone else had done some sanding on the blade, I felt the grind needed some more corrective work, so I reground it using sandpaper wrapped around a wheel - sanding it by hand, no power. This limited the amount of material I could take off, and eliminated any chance of catastrophe. I took it from 80 up to 2000 grit and finished with mothers mag polish.
This razor does have a hamon, which is a visible trait that indicates it was differentially hardened. It is seen as a dynamic cloud across the face of the blade, and judging by the ‘wispiness’ or activity in the hamon this is a shallow hardening, really simple steel. I can’t confirm that it’s tamahagane, but I would bet it’s in that range. The current pics are after some gentle etching to bring out the hamon, followed by more mothers mag polish. Seeing the half-moon part of the hamon closest to the tang, this blade looks like it was vertically quenched. I'm not sure the hamon in the center of the grind was intentional, meaning I don't think Kamijo applied a heavier clay there to create a hamon in the traditional sense. Sometimes these so called auto-hamons can appear on their own simply because the steel is so pure and 'shallow hardening', and the grain so refined, that when the center of the blade cools down a little slower than the edge and spine during the quench it creates a different structure in the steel there. This is a testament to Kamijo's skill as a smith and the quality of steel in the razor.
I still have the original faux ivory scales, but if there is even the slightest chance that they could off gas then I’d rather leave them off. They’re not the greatest looking scales either :/ What I’m currently thinking is transparent acrylic in either clear, light smokey grey, dark smokey grey, or diffuse white, with a silver, uchigumori, or ohira shiro suita wedge. If anyone has any opinions on new scale material I would love to hear them.
Check out the grain in the steel in the brighter parts of the hamon:
This particular razor is a quarter grind 6/8, and came with too much hone wear for my preference. I personally don’t mind regrinding an old razor, as long as it is done gently and as little material is taken off as possible. Though someone else had done some sanding on the blade, I felt the grind needed some more corrective work, so I reground it using sandpaper wrapped around a wheel - sanding it by hand, no power. This limited the amount of material I could take off, and eliminated any chance of catastrophe. I took it from 80 up to 2000 grit and finished with mothers mag polish.
This razor does have a hamon, which is a visible trait that indicates it was differentially hardened. It is seen as a dynamic cloud across the face of the blade, and judging by the ‘wispiness’ or activity in the hamon this is a shallow hardening, really simple steel. I can’t confirm that it’s tamahagane, but I would bet it’s in that range. The current pics are after some gentle etching to bring out the hamon, followed by more mothers mag polish. Seeing the half-moon part of the hamon closest to the tang, this blade looks like it was vertically quenched. I'm not sure the hamon in the center of the grind was intentional, meaning I don't think Kamijo applied a heavier clay there to create a hamon in the traditional sense. Sometimes these so called auto-hamons can appear on their own simply because the steel is so pure and 'shallow hardening', and the grain so refined, that when the center of the blade cools down a little slower than the edge and spine during the quench it creates a different structure in the steel there. This is a testament to Kamijo's skill as a smith and the quality of steel in the razor.
I still have the original faux ivory scales, but if there is even the slightest chance that they could off gas then I’d rather leave them off. They’re not the greatest looking scales either :/ What I’m currently thinking is transparent acrylic in either clear, light smokey grey, dark smokey grey, or diffuse white, with a silver, uchigumori, or ohira shiro suita wedge. If anyone has any opinions on new scale material I would love to hear them.
Check out the grain in the steel in the brighter parts of the hamon:
I'll post some updates once they're in place.
