Tool porn
Tuesday 2 September 2003
A business that hypes itself as an exclusive purveyor of quality Japanese tools offers a set of Akio Tasai’s chu totsu mokume shiage chisels with aromatic sandalwood handles.
Akio Tasai, born in 1939 in Yokomachi Ichinokido, was apprenticed to a blacksmith when he was 12. He carried only one wicker trunk and knocked on the door. His master’s name was Sato Etoshi. He then studied blacksmithing all day long everyday for ten years living with his master until he was 21. He remained for six more months without pay in his master’s service after finishing his apprenticeship, by way of returning thanks.
There are 17 chisels in the set, each with a back forged by the mokumei shiage process (which I think is similar to Damascus forging) that displays a peculiar grained pattern. On the fan shaped wooden box is written The gnarly root of a thousand year old pine tree.
If you have to ask the price, you can’t afford them.