50 years times 60 blades forged per day is how many knives?

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milkbaby

milkbaby

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Forgive me if this was discussed earlier... but I was browsing around on Carter Cutlery website and saw that he described Kenichi Shiraki as having spent 50 years forging an average of 60 blades per day (which he also says is a conservative estimate considering Shiraki was supposedly able to forge 250 blades per day in his prime).

If you could forge a blade in 10 minutes, that's still only 60 knives in a 10 hour workday with no downtime... I can't even begin to imagine how somebody can forge 250 knives in one day?

Are there other well known Japanese bladesmiths who are/were just as prolific?
 
60 blades a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year, 50 years = 750,000 blades give or take...
 
milkbaby said:
Forgive me if this was discussed earlier... but I was browsing around on Carter Cutlery website and saw that he described Kenichi Shiraki as having spent 50 years forging an average of 60 blades per day (which he also says is a conservative estimate considering Shiraki was supposedly able to forge 250 blades per day in his prime).

If you could forge a blade in 10 minutes, that's still only 60 knives in a 10 hour workday with no downtime... I can't even begin to imagine how somebody can forge 250 knives in one day?

Are there other well known Japanese bladesmiths who are/were just as prolific?
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there are a few others on that level in sakai... also, dont think that he works every day or made that many knives every day... that would just be wrong
 
JBroida said:
there are a few others on that level in sakai... also, dont think that he works every day or made that many knives every day... that would just be wrong
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So as a knowledgeable person. How many would you estimate 100k? 200k?
 
probably more than that, but not quite 750k... i could be wrong though... i mean, he is good and he can make things quickly, but there are vacations, weekends, days its too hot to forge, or days its too cold to work. And also, keep in mind that he's not making completed knives... they are rough forged knives that require significant work to get close to what we consider to be a knife. I really should post more about this when i'm in japan this year. I know i've posted on it before, but i think its important for people to see the steps the knives go through in the making process.
 
Yeah, hadn't really thought of it that way, worth the reflection. Thanks, To know more about the process and degree of finishing would certainly be cool 😎
 
JBroida said:
probably more than that, but not quite 750k... i could be wrong though... i mean, he is good and he can make things quickly, but there are vacations, weekends, days its too hot to forge, or days its too cold to work. And also, keep in mind that he's not making completed knives... they are rough forged knives that require significant work to get close to what we consider to be a knife. I really should post more about this when i'm in japan this year. I know i've posted on it before, but i think its important for people to see the steps the knives go through in the making process.
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I know I personally would love every scrap of incite you could give on the knife trade in Sakai. But especially seeing some of those top smiths work would be a really treat. There's definitely an audience for such info here~
 
JBroida said:
I really should post more about this when i'm in japan this year. I know i've posted on it before, but i think its important for people to see the steps the knives go through in the making process.
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Yes please Jon. Your insights in to these topics are always informative.
 
JBroida said:
probably more than that, but not quite 750k... i could be wrong though... i mean, he is good and he can make things quickly, but there are vacations, weekends, days its too hot to forge, or days its too cold to work. And also, keep in mind that he's not making completed knives... they are rough forged knives that require significant work to get close to what we consider to be a knife. I really should post more about this when i'm in japan this year. I know i've posted on it before, but i think its important for people to see the steps the knives go through in the making process.
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Yea,ok so we are are saying the smith have forged few 100 k blobs of steel [emoji1] still impressive though but in the realm of possible.
 
Going from step one to finish... carbon steel and hammering it out together with its cladding then cutting to size and tempering... I would estimate a skilled forger can make anywhere from a couple to 10-30 good quality blades a day, depending on size and steel.

Now if he were talking about rough looking quickly hammered out blades like some of the kurouchi knives out of Tosa. Then I might believe him.

Or as Jon stated, it depends on what he is hammering and what stage from and til
 
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