Help Identifying a Handmade Knife Sourced by Harrelson Stanley

I received a beautiful handmade Japanese straight razor as a gift from my brother 15 years ago. When I received it, I didn't really understand what he was giving me; all I knew is that it was the nicest thing I owned (I was in my early 20's). The gift included Shapton 8000 and 2000 grit stones to sharpen it on. In retrospect it must have been a week's pay for my brother at the time. He sourced the knife through Harrelson Stanley, who is now the president of Shapton USA, and knows a bit about knives. Apparently, the razor was made by an elderly Japanese master craftsman. It took nearly a year for the knife to be made, and it was apparently the one of the last knives the craftsman ever built; he died shortly thereafter.

My brother has no recollection of who made the razor, and can't find any records related to the purchase. Mr. Stanley is a bit tough to get a hold of these days for things like knife identification . This knife is still my most prized possession, and I intend to pass it down to my own son when he is ready for it. I'd like to know the name of the craftsman who built it, so that I can tell my son the story of the knife, and honor the craftsman who made it.

The blade has no shortage of kanji, but it's all Greek to me. The folks on this forum know more about Japanese knives and Japanese craftsman than anyone else I know; I'm hoping there is someone out there that might be able to help me. Here are some pictures.














Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to give me.

My Japanese speaking friend says "Iwasaki". The Kiri box says Echigo(city), Shigeyoshi.

Iwasaki razors are one of the best, if not the best in Japan.

Very special gift you received.

It looks like your right. I posted it on a straight razor forum and found out it's a pretty rare razor. There's actually a debate over on the straightrazor forum as to whether or not I'm pulling some kind of prank (which I'm not). :dontknow:

It turns out that it's actually a tamahagane blade, which only master Shigeyoshi Iwasaki himself is allowed to forge. It's also a very rare western style razor that they didn't make that many of. I'm kind of blown away by what an amazing gift it was. Iwasaki doesn't make them anymore, and they're apparently impossible to find, let alone in completely unused condition!

The scary thing is that I've had it in my bathroom with steam from the shower for the past 14 years. Thank god I kept it oiled!

Yup, that's a rare beast you have there. As an avid straight razor user and honer, i'd love to get my hands on it even for a day to see what the hype is about. Alas I'll never be able to afford one of these as they rarely go for under $1k in north america if/when one is made available.

There is a lot of history/mystery surroundin Iwasaki and i won't begin to try and sum it up here. I'll just say that with some searching, you'll be able to dig up more info that you probably want to skim through!

If you are ever interested in having it honed on japanese natural stones, shoot me a PM and i'll set you up with one of my friends that's in New York and has honed thousands of straight razors.

Thanks for the really generous offer to get it honed on J-Nats. I've been dying to use this thing for 15 years. It always seemed way out of my league even before I knew how rare it was. To be honest, I don't think I've ever even stropped this thing let alone used it. I was planning to shave with it on my wedding day, but the logistics didn't work out. Now that I know how rare it is I'm afraid to even handle the damn thing.

I've been emailing with the proprietor of tokyoaframes (Takeshi Aoki) and he said he's never seen anything above the 1900's, so this may indeed be among the last ones that Shigeyoshi Iwasaki ever made. He told me these razors were famous for being able to be used for over 1000 beards between sharpenings (just stropping) by professional barbers, who were the primary clientele for these razors in their heyday. I guess it'll last my lifetime at my current rate of use!

Mr. Aoki does have 8 of these Iwasaki Tamahagane Western razors for sale at the moment, which appears to be the largest collection of these things in the world. The prices for the ones with a lot of blade wear are going for around $500 but the ones less blade wear are going for $1,800. If mine was among the last ones ever made, and it's in NOS condition, I guess that really does make it a pretty rare bird. I cringe at having stored it my bathroom with high humidity all those years; thank god I've been oiling it religiously!