ebay Chisel

Do you have a Japanese plane, or chisel, or box, or brochure and you can't read the characters? Post a hi-res. pic of what you are looking to read and see if the mystery can be solved!
siavosh
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ebay Chisel

Wed Jun 03, 2015 3:08 am

I bought this 49mm chisel on ebay about a year ago for $14. Finally got around to cleaning the handle up, and now I'm curious what the characters mean.
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Chris Hall
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Re: ebay Chisel

Wed Jun 03, 2015 9:13 am

What you have there is '土弘'

That would be read as: tsuchi-hiro

Literal translation of that would be 'wide earth'.

I am unfamiliar with that maker and an internet search for that chisel brand netted zero results. Not sure if it was a smith's name or a generic brand. The character 'み' (read 'mi') at the top, is likely a blacksmith guild abbreviation, perhaps short for 'Miki', but I'm guessing.
siavosh
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Re: ebay Chisel

Wed Jun 03, 2015 1:45 pm

Awesome, thanks Chris. Knowing what it reads somehow makes me want to take even better care of it :lol:
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Jon B
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Re: ebay Chisel

Wed Jun 03, 2015 8:29 pm

Doesn't the Kanji actually read yoshihiro, 吉弘?
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Chris Hall
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Re: ebay Chisel

Wed Jun 03, 2015 9:55 pm

Hey, Jon I think you're right! I didn't catch that at all, as the '口' part of the '吉' character simply looked like a square block and I ignored it.

And looking into that a little more, I found a picture of another chisel by the same maker, though the stamp is very slightly different:
yosihoromukou1.JPG
yosihoromukou1.JPG (55.65 KiB) Viewed 6473 times
It seems that the smith was named Suzuki and the company, Tokyo based, has been out of business for many years. They were at one time supported by Kokubunji (a famous temple).

There was also a Hidari Yoshihiro smith as well: 左吉弘
siavosh
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Re: ebay Chisel

Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:13 pm

Thanks guys! It definitely looks like a big timber framing chisel, so not surprised they provided tools for temple builders. So I'm guessing it's a descent quality chisel, although the blade needs a lot of work, oye.

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