Craftsmanship in Wood

Came across this half-hour documentary on the blacksmith Yamazaki, who made the Hidari Ichihiro brand of chisels:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ij9z9J6T1c

It's all in Japanese, so much of the detail might be lost if you don't have a good understanding of that language, but his enthusiasm for his work, and thoroughness in his approach come through loud and clear. It gives a concise look at the processes involved in forging a high-class chisel. Note the mix of old school and new school, pounding hot metal at the forge and examining the pieces under a microscope later, scraping with a sen and tempering/annealing using a digital temperature gauge.

Yamazaki is generally acknowledged as one of the finest blacksmiths in the last 30 years or so. He passed away about 8 years ago now I think. I have one of his planes and treasure it greatly.

Thanks for posting this, I really wish it had english subtitles as I'd love to hear how Yamazaki spoke of his own work. Still a great video to watch.

Thanks Chris! It is very interesting how he blends traditional methods with new technology. Using a microscope in one instance to inspect the work, in another he is heat treating in the dark room with a magnet, presumably so that he can see the colour well and also so that he can double check that the steel has been heated to non-magnetic.

Also, pretty awesome to see those chisels worn to a nub.

Yamazaki was/is not alone in his approach to his work. From what I gather, Kengo Usui did similarly.

Funatsu-san, the smith behind the Funahiro line of tools, has an interesting back story. Seems that after he completed his blacksmithing apprenticeship and went out on his own, he had a fair number of tools returned because they were not performing well. He tried to figure out what was going wrong, but was unable, grew discouraged, and quit. He pulled all his product off of dealer shelves. Later, he went to technical school and got a degree in Metallurgy, and went back to work as a smith. Now his tools are among the best ever made.

Watanabe-san, the swordsmith I helped out in Japan for a couple of years, also was the product of both a traditional apprenticeship and a technical school degree in metallurgy.

I very much appreciate their devotion to making the very best. I watched the video of Watanabe-san by Takeshi Fukunaga, it seems an often trying and lonely path to perfection, it's very humbling.

It's interesting to read that they are often studied in metallurgy, I have often held that top craftsman are scholars as much as experts on technique.

Are you going to Kezuroukai in Brooklyn at the end of the month? I've been debating going.

I spoke with Yann about that yesterday. He let me know it was going on and invited me (you can tell I spend zero time on Facebook, if not for his call I wouldn't have known about the event at all). I might be able to make it, but can't confirm at this point. Still recovering from my elbow injury, and it's going very slowly.

If you go Brian you'll be feeling a certain kanna urge soon afterwards. Don't say I didn't warn ya!

I actually came across it by random chance of visiting his website. It looks pretty interesting, I'm just hoping it's acceptable to be a somewhat casual observer, in other words there is no chance I will be there by 10am.

I pulled a core muscle pretty good the other day with surfacing that top with the jointer. I worked through it but for the rest of the day was yearning for wooden planes.

Even using my small chamfer Kanna has been really nice to work, I'm eager to move into the rest of them.

I've been kicking around the idea of getting a few of them in thinner sizes just to test out and become acquainted with the process.