History of Western Knives Crafted in Seki, Japan

[Crothcipt]

sounds like next years ecg is starting to shape up.

[Korin_Mari]

How about organising a paid tour to these knifemakers under your expert tour?? There could be some interest; afterall it is THE Kitchen Knife Forums.
Have fun..
D

+1: The language barrier would kill it for any non native speaker otherwise. Also as part of the tour, can you include japanese deep fried chicken. I know they are not known for it, but the one time I had it in Tokyo - a whole fried chicken. It was amazing. Blew everything else i had tried to date out of the water.

Oh there will probably be some of that sushi thing too...

I would love to organize a tour of knife makers. If it happens it will probably be vincent (apprentice sharpener) and myself leading the tour. Ms. Kawano is coming home from Japan today, so I'll run it by her. If it does happen it will probably be during spring. Nice weather + cherry blossoms in full bloom = Awesome. I will make up an itinerary, an estimate of costs, and put it up here for anyone who is interested.

Surprisingly, I think non-native speakers would survive just fine in Japan. There are English translations of things everywhere, plus some Japanese people actually speak english (or will try really hard to.) Only really difficult thing would be ordering food, if they don't have an English menu.

I love japanese fried chicken too. My favorite thing to do is to put a little spicy mayo (sriracha sauce + japanese mayo) on it, then stick it into the middle of a rice ball. Sometimes I'll wrap the rice ball in a thin layer of egg too. Personally, I'm a bigger fan of Japanese home cooking than things like sushi. LOL

[Korin_Mari]

Eamon mentioned about sparks when hammering and you spoke of it on the wheel. I suppose there can be no sparks if it is a water wheel.

I supose there should be some significance of color of the sparks? temperature ( heat generated) and materials flying off?

Oh I was just talking about a wheel, because he was telling me this as he was sharpening knives. Forgers do hammer the steel, and now I think of it sparks do fly... Just not to the extent shown in the pictures. That is a lot sparks... lol

I think hammering out the impurities to a tighter denser material is probably right. I'm still waiting for Mr. Sugai to come into the office.

[Korin_Mari]

Mari has totally changed my impression of Korin for the better. I may not buy a lot of stuff, but they will get my business!

These comments make me so happy. Thank you so much!

[Korin_Mari]

Thanks for reading and for all of the kind comments, guys! It really makes my day to know people enjoy what I put up here.

[zitangy]

[QUOTE=Korin_Mari;124039]Oh I was just talking about a wheel, because he was telling me this as he was sharpening knives. Forgers do hammer the steel, and now I think of it sparks do fly... Just not to the extent shown in the pictures. That is a lot sparks... lol

Agreed... what you are saying is that the first picture especially.. is doctored to make the hammering process more dramatic!

Btw.. teh water wheel that you have in your shop of which I believe John Broida has one too, does it cost an arm and a leg? any ball park numbers?

Tks
D

[Korin_Mari]

[QUOTE=zitangy;124063]

Oh I was just talking about a wheel, because he was telling me this as he was sharpening knives. Forgers do hammer the steel, and now I think of it sparks do fly... Just not to the extent shown in the pictures. That is a lot sparks... lol

Agreed... what you are saying is that the first picture especially.. is doctored to make the hammering process more dramatic!

Btw.. teh water wheel that you have in your shop of which I believe John Broida has one too, does it cost an arm and a leg? any ball park numbers?

Tks
D

I have to ask Mr. Sugai (He's not in today) how much the wheel costs, so I will have to get back to you on that one. It was installed before I started working at Korin, probably when I was still 12 or so. But I know it was custom made from Japan, and we had people fly in from Japan to install it properly for us. I don't really know what kind of wheel Jon uses actually, so I can't say for him.