The end of September was moist and warm in El Cerrito, California. Trucks rolled into the El Cerrito Community Center early Saturday morning and loads of folks were ready to manhandle their cargo of heavy redwood logs fresh from the peeler. Other volunteers helped to carry the heavy blacksmiths’ anvil to its station. Read More …
The yariganna is a rather difficult tool for the beginners to use, and the sharpening requires some different practices compared to sharpening other woodworking blades. There are two types of yariganna: one with a curved sharpening face that was resurrected in the Showa Era (~1926 to 1989), and the other with a straight edge developed by Kezurou-kai Japan. I’ll show you my way of sharpening both of these blades. Read More …
The planing competitions put on by Kezuroukai USA are about improving our skills as woodworkers. Competitors are not competing against each other, as much as they are competing against themselves.
There are so many small factors that add up to getting a Kanna to perform at it’s best, and it takes dedication to master these skills. Having a way to gage your progress is very helpful. A thin shaving can tell you everything you need to know about the state of your tool.
A blade that can cut a clean 10 micron shaving has no scratch in its edge deeper than 10 microns. Even the size of the throat opening and the flatness of the sole can all be judged in a shaving. Read More …
“NO SECRETS, just how much –pay attention…’’ Imai-san
The challenge and hope of improvement comes with many tangents. Finding focus helps to establish approachable and appropriate practicality. Connecting the elementary dots of practice creates a working framework, a conceptual platform for performing tasks that lead to solutions-not absolute answers. Read More …
My short talk/demo about URA DASHI [at the Kezurou-kai USA 2017 event in October] was basically showing what was needed to be able to produce more ‘land’ at the front edge of the backside, ura, of plane blades and chisels. This process is not what ‘tapping out’ sounds like, maybe an incorrect translation. This is not done on western single steel blades, so maybe that’s where the confusion comes from. It is not possible to tap out the hollow grind on the ura side of the blade to establish more land near the cutting edge of the blade. This area is worn away by the repeated sharpening of the blade. Read More …
Mori-gii (old Mr. Mori) of Awaji. It was the early 1980’s when a children’s song called ‘A Blacksmith of the Village’, which begins with “Sound of pounding never stops and scattered sparks…”, disappeared gradually from the elementary school textbook. That’s because children can’t imagine the scene anymore. It has been more than 30 years since, so it can’t be helped now. Yet it is unfortunate that the knowledge and the technique were lost without passing them down to today. Read More …
When Makoto Imai came to the U.S.in the early 1970’s, he brought with him the extensive training he had received in Japan. When he arrived, he was part of a crew that was reconstructing a meditation hall in Northern California.
He had started his carpentry training in the Gifu Prefecture/Takayama area as a high school student working on the early morning crew. After a few successful years, the moved down the river to Kyoto area where he completed training in the Ura Senke tea construction tradition. Read More …
Blacksmith(s) and Economy: There was a war over a half a century ago, and Japan lost a lot of time by ruining the modernization done after Meiji (Meiji era ended in June 1912). Everything from technologies to natural resources had been spent on the war. It is said that (during the war) there was a period of price control of nokogiri (saws) and nomi (chisels)- regardless of the quality. Any iron available was to be used to make weapons, so that couldn’t be helped at the time. Read More …
Life offers many paths of adventure. Some or most end up as entertaining distractions or worse. Others offer activities opening up new horizons and life-changing challenges – ways to working and experiencing deeper modes of learning- offering challenges that require clearing our awareness with fuller engagements of ones curiosity, with endless opportunities to develop the discipline needed to follow personal insights to their completion. Read More …
What is learned by observing craftsmen more skilled than yourself comes with certain surprises. First is how easy, comfortable and relaxed they seem to be while working. From personal experience of 40 years, this comfort and ease are hard fought challenges to be won. Learning to get out of your own way is not always easy or obvious. Figuring out the intricate steps of procedures and techniques are usually seen as “in the way of getting done” – sharpening a chisel/plane blade when way past due. Read More …
