Craftsmanship in Wood

The delamination could be resultant of low-temperature forging, and relate to their cutting performance. It's sometimes a good 'flaw' to have. Perhaps Yamahiro is focusing his efforts on heat treatment, and not fit and finish, frustrating as that may be.

I'll fine tune them on the belt sander and re-evaluate. I plan to put a slight hollow in the sides and a minor taper away from the edge.

I read a write up on tuning mortise chisels by Stanley Covington, so maybe it's not as unusual as I expect.

I also plan to email the seller to see if this is unusual.

This is unusual according to Tomohito.

I have been debating the hollow grinding, it seems like high risk and low reward. So I'll probably just work them a bit more with diamond plates.