mystery chisel with decorative forge line

[djwong]

I picked up a chisel at auction that is quite interesting. Here are some photos...




The makers mark looks to be 鉄之助, which is "Tetsunosuke". This is confusing, as that name is famous as a saw maker Tetsunosuke Miyano. The higane is shaped somewhat like rip teeth on a saw. Could this chisel be some sort of commemorative item?

David

[dmccurtis]

Was that from Junji Sugita? He's had a few like that recently, described as 'midare-ba.' I can't speak to anything other than that, but I've seen enough of them now, from various makers, that I don't think it to necessarily be commemorative, just decorative. That's merely speculation, though.

[djwong]

Thanks for the clue! "Midare-ba" I think transcribes to 乱れ刃, which means a "not calm or turbulent blade". A quick Google search turned up a couple of other examples. Something for me to look into.

I don't know Junji Sugita, but if his collection is online, I would love to see his examples.

[Chris Hall]

I've seen tools from Tasai with a corrugated forge weld line- their 'On' plane blade for example:

onkannna2.jpg (14.23 KiB) Viewed 13853 times

Sub-blade too:

onkannna3.jpg (16.96 KiB) Viewed 13853 times

I presume they grind the hagane to shape and then forge the jigane down onto it until it conforms. Looks neat, but really it's a decorative treatment and not much else.

[dmccurtis]

Sugita-san runs an eBay store selling used Japanese tools. Here's an example of one such chisel he sold recently: 15mm midare-ba tataki nomi.

[djwong]

Guess I was wrong in my speculation about my chisel. Leaves me wondering about the maker. Thanks for all the info.