Wed. Oct 9th, 2024

Tamahagane Knives & Swords

Update May 26th 2019

Tamahagane steel is an ancient, traditional made Japanese steel by smelting Iron Sand. Even earlier Chinese blacksmiths had a similar traditional way of smelting steel for the best Chinese swords and knives. Where the Japanese tradition and knowledge remained among the best blacksmiths, the Chinese tradition and knowledge got lost in time.

Until Master Rich (or Rudy) Chen got aware of the old procedure of smelting bladesteel. He experimented a lot and did a lot of research but a lot of the knowledge was not available anymore. He even went to Japan to study the Japanase way. Master Chen is now one of the few outside Japan who masters the smelting of Tamahagane steel and makes the finest knives and swords.

Please look under menu Zubeng-forge-tahamagane-offerings for actual offerings.

On this page I will compile as much info as possible for those who are interested. And I will add several of Master Chen’s knives (& maybe swords in the future) which can be bought. So stay tuned!

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Play list of short video’s covering a lot of stages and demonstrations at the Zubeng Forge workshop.

Some trivia:

The name of Master Chen explained:
His name in english is Rich Chen
His name in chinese is Chen jung liang
His name translated to Japanese is Takemoto Chen

The name Zubeng:
Zu = zoo: pronounced the same as in the place where you get to see African animals
beng = bun: pronounced the same as the bread where you stick your wienie in
Forge = 4 judge: pronounced as where men get stuck with child support