New set of Japanese chisels

Alex Reid

Member
Messages
739
Location
Zushi, Japan
Found these on the Auction site the other day. (Good thing Stu wasn't looking.:p) I have a nice five chisel set but wanted a full 10 chisel set for a while. So I was thinking to buy new and then be assured I get what I want. Then I found these so I put a bid in. I admit I took a bit of a risk as I couldn't clearly determine the quality. But the seller said he bought them for 120,000 yen 13 years ago and never used them. And sure enough they haven't even been honed yet. My logic for bidding; there is no Japanese blacksmith that is worth his weight in gold that would charge that kind of price for sub quality and even at my top bid they were worth it. In U.S. bucks 120,000 is about a grand. I know you're thinking :eek: but good quality Japanese chisels are handmade and very nice. You all can relate to the handmade pricing thing I'm sure. Maybe you can't relate to Japanese chisels so I strongly recommend them. Anyways my preamble is leading up to I got them for 32,500 yen for nine chisels, about 300 bucks. They do not dissapoint. Check out the detailed dragon engraving. :D
 

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Well, even if I was looking, those are out of my league for sure :rolleyes:

They certainly look nice, almost too pretty to use............. almost!

You should research the smith on line, never know, might be someone famous..? :dunno:

Anyway, nice set of chisels you got there, and boy, at that price, about $35 each.....?

Nice! :thumb:
 
Sweeeeet! :thumb:

The dragon is the icing on the cake!

Japanese chisels sure can be adictive.
 
Ya there is no doubt Japanese chisels are sweet. You can pay anywhere from 10-200 bucks a chisel. Good quality ones run from about 30-50 bucks and upward. The high end ones tend to verge on art pieces where the journeyman blacksmith puts all his mettle (no pun intended) into it. For those that are interested the blade is composed of a laminate steel. The bottom layer is a very pure high carbon steel. The upper layer is a more mallable low carbon steel. The upper layer acts as a backing for the bottom layer allowing the blacksmith to hardon the high carbon steel a little more then usual: app 64 Rockwell whereas European and North American chisels are hardened to about 58 Rockwell. They hold an edge and sharpen fine.

Toshi Odate's book Japanese Woodworking Tools: Their Tradition, Spirit, and Use iis a good place to start for learning about these fine tools.

One day I would like to visit a blacksmith here, do one week intensive and learn more about the process. Sounds like my kind of holiday.
 
Stu told me He can get a better deal !

Stu told me he can get the whole set over there for 50.00 :D

Nice tool gloat!

BEn
 
That's a sweet-looking set, but ya know, the instruction book is probably in Japanese, so I don't know if I'd be able to figure out how to use them. Good thing you understand that stuff. (At least I'm assuming you do, living there and all.)

Seriously, looks and sounds like a great deal. :thumb:
 
Stu I was wondering about that.

Vaughn no operating instructions came with them. But I heard there are three steps to the on switch so maybe they qualify as three phase chisels. :rofl:

1. flatten the backs
2. hone the edge
3. set the hoop

Each one will take a little time to work but thereafter it is a short time honing the edge.
 
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