Video of my test of Zubeng Forge Knives..

[dingy]

He is a Chinese. But Zubeng happens to be a Japanese surname. So he has confused a lot of people by calling himself Zubeng and Chen.
He made his steel himself and I don't think he has any certificate to prove his steel is the same as Japanese tamahagane.

zubeng is not a japanese surname , just a yiming(it means that bamoo and a stupid man, i am not kiding).
chen is a surname!

 

[3_hard_boiled_eggs]

zubeng is not a

japanese surname , just a yiming(it means

that bamoo and a stupid man, i am not

kiding).
chen is a surname!

when master chen was studying calligraphy the name was give to him by his teacher. this is the tradition, i have asked him about this. here is his reply.

zu = bamboo
ben = book or volume or books.

but master chen has a funny side to his personality. people that watched him
work for years and only make 1 sword or 2 per month and when they were ( in his opinion ) less then perfect he will cut weeks of work up and use the steel again. they called him 'ben lao toe' sorta translates as ' stupid old head ' or we could say stupid old man.

they say to him you can not make any money doing this. he just does not answer. stoic in his demeanor.

when CCTV-9 come here and made the documentary on him they asked him on camera: If today was the last day in your life what would you do?

His answer was:
I would go and make swords.


master chen is a craftsman, money is needed for everyday things but his
direction is to make the best of the best steel and swords he can possibly make. money is a side effect of his work.

regarding the name Zubeng:
it can also be spoken as ' pig stupid ' in english we would say ' stupid pig ' even master chen will when asked in the workroom some local dude will come around and ask you do all this by hand no machines how can you make any money?

he tells them my forge is Zubeng. i am a stupid old man or i am a stupid pig.

the craftsmanship idea is not popular in china. money is king. doing work for the sake of a good job is not something they can not fathom.

so if anyone on this forum has the chance to meet master chen you are allowed to call him a stupid pig or a stupid old man without worries.

 

[3_hard_boiled_eggs]

So because 1000 years ago Japanese learn steel making from Chines, Chines now can use any Japanese brand to sell whatever they made... Sounds pretty logical.

I think you may also reuse not only tamahagane word, but learn more and use them as well - ZDP189 for example. Why not? After all it was Chinese who teach Japanese metallurgy!

Thanks, Vassili.

i must say one thing here. please do not lump master chen, because he is chinese will all the other chinese.

you can not say all chinese are this or that. just as you can not say all americans are like bill clinton and did not have sex with that woman.

each person is one of a kind. some are bad some are good.

but i ask you do not categorically place him in that class.