A Visit to the Blacksmith: Tokyo

In February of this year Somakosha had some rare work in Tokyo, helping to raise a new house. While we were there we took a day to go to some tool shops as well as visit a couple of Blacksmiths in the Tokyo area.

First stop…..

Nakaya Takijiro-san: Japanese Handsaw Maker

Takijiro-san is one of only a few remaining saw makers in Japan. He works out of a small shop that looks like it’s been in a time-warp for the past 100 years or so. Like every blacksmith’s shop that I’ve visited so far in Japan, Takijiro-san’s shop looks chaotic and messy at first, but clearly everything has it’s place for a reason.

There is no artificial lighting just the natural light than streams through the windows, and Takijiro-san talked about how he’s become so attuned to the quality of light in his shop that he can’t look at a saw blade anywhere else and get the same kind of reading. Good natural light is crucial for inspecting the teeth of the saw, particularly during sharpening.

Takijiro-san scrapes new saw blades with sen (hardened blades used by blacksmiths for scraping metal). Sen make it possible to very carefully remove metal, giving the blacksmith a ton of control when removing material. Below is a pile of metal shavings from the sen work.

And here are the sen hanging on the wall nearby. They are held similar to a spoke-shave, with handles on the ends and the hardened blade in the middle.

Takijiro-san’s makes new saws to order and does metate work (saw setting and sharpening). The walls are lined with saws wrapped in newspaper that customers have sent in for re-sharpening. A new saw is not cheap, but everyone who has used a saw made by Takijiro-san will tell you that it’s worth every penny. It’s clear after meeting Takijiro-san and seeing what goes into his work that you are paying for something that has been incredibly well made, and fined tuned by a person that has spent his life perfecting his craft.

Hidari Konobu – Carving Tool Blacksmith

Saito-san is the man behind Hidari Konobu (左小信) blades. Konobu has a reputation for being one of the best blacksmiths making gouges and chisels used for carving and sculpture work, but he also makes standard bench chisels and occasionally plane blades.

As soon as we arrived at Saito-san’s shop he sat down and started filing away on some gouges he was making for sculpture students at a Tokyo university.

Saito-san uses a combination of grinders, files, and buffers to shape and sharpen his gouges.

After showing us his equipment and forge, Saito-san starting pulling out finished tools for us to look at. As he pulled out box after box, he told us that he doesn’t like making the same thing twice, so when he can, he likes to experiment by making blades outside of his usual repertoire. Hence the pile of bench chisels and plane blade below.

For a group of tools fanatics a place like this is dangerous. We didn’t leave empty handed. We unwrapped every tool Saito-san brought out for us….. and slowly our wallets got lighter and lighter.

Stay tuned for another round pictures from the shops of Yamamoto and Keizaburo.