Meeting with Fujiwara Teruyasu

On Friday, we met with Fujiwara Teruyasu.  Some of you may know who he is, but for those of you who don’t, he is one of the most well-known Tokyo based knife makers.  We headed over to his shop in the early afternoon for your meeting.   After about a 45 minute train ride, we arrived at the shop he and his wife run.

As with many knife shops, the walls are literally lined with knifes.  Fujiwara is probably best known for his stainless clad carbon knives.  He makes them in both western handle and wa-handle varieties, and in all shapes and sizes.  He is the 4^th generation of knife makers in his family.  His family has been forging blades (swords in the beginning) since 1871 (the third year of Meiji).

Fujiwara Teruyasu produces a number of knives, both single bevel and double bevel.  Some of his more known lines are Maboroshi No Meitou, Nashiji, and Denka no Hotou, however, he is a very talented guy and can make many more things.

Here is a great example of his Denka no Hotou line (yes… he made this one).

We spoke for a long time, and I had a chance to ask a lot of questions.  Fujiwara Teruyasu produces knives from a number of steels, including the most common white and blue steels.  As many of you know, my favorite of these Hitachi steels is White #1.  Its ability to take an edge is pretty much unmatched among knife steels.  I asked what his favorite steel is; both to work with and to use… guess what his answer was… WHITE #1.  Why?  Because it’s awesome.  Guess what you’ll be seeing some of very soon ;)

For the Uber dorks out there (of which I am one), I made sure to ask about Rockwell hardness.  He took a lot of time to answer this and in doing so made sure to bang some crappy knives on a huge hardened piece of metal to demonstrate why softer steel knives suck.  For his knives he shoots for 64 hrc.  He thinks this is the best balance… the knives are not super brittle, but are hard enough to hold the kinds of edges he likes them to hold.  He believes softer is just not worth it.  Even though I don’t always agree, having used his knives, he is absolutely on to something.  He really is producing knives for people who know and care.  It’s very important to him that people understand about the knife (steel, shape, sharpening), and so he tries to take as much time as possible to educate people wanting to use his knives.

I then asked his what goes into his decision about the geometry of his knives.  His answer… its more or less just a feeling.  When it feels right, that’s what he goes with.  He tries to make the knives thin enough so as not to wedge, but not too thin so as to be flimsy or not stand up to abuse.  The leads directly into the next question, which was how he sharpens his edges.  I was wondering if he uses a flat grind or a hamaguri grind (convex).  He says unless he is asked to do something else, he goes with hamaguri edges on his knives.  He thinks this adds to the strength of the edge and produces a better cutting knife.  We talked a little bit about technique, and suffice it to say after many years of doing this, they guy knows his stuff.

After that, we talked a little about his forging and heat treating techniques.  Now I am no expert on these processes (in fact, I know very little about how to do them), but I have used a knife or two and I know what different things feel like.  Fujiwara’s White and Blue #1 are the only ones I have used (so far…but I aim to fix that soon).  For those of you who have sharpened them, you know the burr/wire edge comes off very nicely and easy.  It’s really a pleasure to sharpen.  He takes special care in his forging to make this so (he also says that the steel he chooses to work with makes it easier… the man loves his white and blue #1).

Very soon you will be seeing these knives on our site.  In addition to the normal things you may see from him, he has some super cool knives that he makes.  We hope you will like them as much as we (and by we, I mean “I”) do.

Thanks for reading… more coming soon.  We will also have some non-knife related stuff to post in the near future for you Japanophiles out there.

(Dinner with my wife's family... her dad made the plate...

Yes, that's right... he MADE the plate!!!

I got lucky... i have the coolest in-laws)

Our First Official Knife Maker Meeting- Jin Knives

Yesterday we went to our first knife maker meeting in Tokyo.  There aren’t a huge number a knife makers in this city… lots of stores, but not so many makers.  While we were researching knife makers before our trip, we stumbled upon this guy.  His knives seemed unique and had great personality.  We were truly in for a treat meeting with him.

His store/workshop was about a 45 minute train ride from Tokyo center.  Walking around the area near his shop really felt like Japan to me.  If his shop doesn’t look like it belongs in japan, I don’t know what does.

After a quick greeting and a short chat, he invited us into his workshop.   We began to talk about his knife-making philosophy, methods, and some crucial decisions he has made that set him apart from other makers.  He’s 83 years old and has been making knives since before the end of WWII (he started knife making with his father when he was 13).  As it turns out, he also built almost every machine he has in his workshop.

One of his biggest points of pride is that he does everything by himself… making the knife, the handle, the saya.  He even boasts that he was able to swing a 13.5kg hammer himself by hand, while moving the steel with his other hand.

An interesting thing about his knives (and knife making philosophy for that matter) is that his knives are made out of a high speed tool steel.  He says he chose it because it offers better edge retention, toughness, and rust resistance without too much sacrifice in the actual edge taking ability.  I wasn’t so sure about that until I easily shaved my arm with a small hatchet he had sitting around ;)

He’s got a lot of knives sitting around… and some of them are HUGE… I’m talking like 450mm Yanagiba huge!!!  He even took one out to demonstrate his sharpening with.

JIn knives are primarily single bevel knives… and of that, mostly yanagiba.  He’s not making so much anymore, but what he’s got around is amazing.  And he’s a super nice guy to boot.  You can expect to see some of his knives pop up on the website as soon as I have a chance to take some pictures ;)

I just want to say the following for the record, because it speaks to his 70+ years of experience as a knife maker.  He uses oil stones to sharpen… really cheap ones, lubricated with extra virgin olive oil.  With those stones, he is able to get as good, if not better edges that I can get with a normal progression of synthetic water stones.  Shows how much skill is a part of the sharpening.

We ended the day with a beer… one of my favorites- Hitachino Nest Beer White Ale

Our Japanese Excursion- The Beginning

As many of you know, Sara and I are going to be spending the next three months in Japan, meeting knife makers, stone companies, and anyone else we have time to talk to.  In the process, we are hoping to find cool new products for our customers, increase our knowledge so we can better answer questions, and take lots of pictures to make you want to visit Japan more (everyone should visit at least once) ;) .  During this time, we will be adding all kinds of new products to our store… new knives, new stones, and some other little surprises.  We will also be introducing you to a lot of the makers we work with (and some new ones).  When time permits, we will try to give you a heads up of who we are meeting with, so that, if you would like, we can take questions from you to be answered by the makers.

So here we go…

After a nearly 10 hour flight, we arrived two days ago in Japan.

fter a few short train rides, a little bit of food, and some praying for good luck at a shrine (who can resist a buddah-belly statue for good luck in business?), we started our quest.

In addition to the many knife makers and stone companies we will be meeting with, we decided to take some time and track down really cool traditional craftsmen in some other fields as well.  One of the first places we went to was a Scissor shop in Tokyo.  For many years, these guys have been known for making excellent traditionally forged scissors.  They make scissors in both blue and white steel, and have a variety of sizes.  The shop owners are extremely knowledgeable and took the time to explain a little about scissor sharpening and general care.  Their family has been forging scissors for generations.  The shop has some very cool scissors from the Taisho period on display on the right side of the store as you enter.  There is a chance you might be seeing some of scissors pop up on our store at some point soon ;)

After that, it was off to Tsukiji… I just wouldn’t feel right without stopping by here.  The first single bevel Japanese knives I bought for myself, I bought in Tsukiji (at Masamoto).  I still use those knives today.

There are a few knife shops in the Tsukiji area.  The oldest four are Masamoto, Aritsugu, Sugimoto, Masahisa.  Nenohi is a newer addition (but cool nonetheless).  We took some time to walk around, take pictures and ask lots of questions.  Tsukiji is an interesting place for knives… all of the knife makers there (except perhaps nenohi) really gear themselves towards providing professionals with working knives.  To them, it’s very important to see their knives get serious use… they take pride in this.  As with most Japanese knife shops, each shop had one or two people standing around sharpening knives.  It’s quite a spectacle… especially when you see a guy in the back sharpening a 4 foot long maguro hocho on a huge rotating wheel (he was shy though… no pictures).

After Tsukiji, we were going to swing by Kiya, but it seems like they are in the process of moving and expanding.  I guess we’ll have to see them in December.

At the end of it all… a little coffee and cake.  It wouldn’t quite be Japan without that.

Today we are off to meet with a very cool Tokyo area craftsman… we’ll be taking lots of pictures and keep you posted when we get back today.