“One-man” operations

[SirCutAlot]

Just checked my Wakui Warikomi Nakiri (Blue2) and it is real warikomi.

Btw. the looks of a real Warikomi is superb if the Damascus flows over the neck like the Tsukasa HInoura Damascus river jump etc.

SirCutALot

 

[bsfsu]

Ahhh, this is something I misunderstood, I always thought Rikizai was warikami bar stock and San-mai was the 3 layer sandwich flat billets.

A little clarification from Junichi-san

Rikizai 利器材 (also called fukugozai 複合材)is industrially made forge welded stock. It comes in warikami/san-mai/kata ba(single bevel)

Tansetsu 鍛接 is forge welded in house,
warikami/san-mai/kata ba(single bevel)

 

[Corradobrit1]

This was an interesting read comparing prelaminated vs hand forged knives and specifically mentions Yoshiaki Fujiwara.

https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/437989431

 

[Markcg]

A little clarification from Junichi-san
View attachment 248944

Rikizai 利器材 (also called fukugozai 複合材)is industrially made forge welded stock. It comes in warikami/san-mai/kata ba(single bevel)

Tansetsu 鍛接 is forge welded in house,
warikami/san-mai/kata ba(single bevel)

Sorry I don’t know who Junichi is, but Kataba is a bevel style, and not a billet type. You can make a kataba knife from a sanmai billet- TF is famous for this since they use the same sanmai prelam for both ryoba and kataba knives. If the billet is thick enough, you can even grind one of the iron layers off to make a nimai from a sanmai.

Does Junichi buy and use prelaminated warikomi? All warikomi makers I know forge weld their knives, so I’m really interested to find a maker that uses industrial prelaminated warikomi billets.

 

[blokey]

This was an interesting read comparing prelaminated vs hand forged knives and specifically mentions Yoshiaki Fujiwara.

https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/437989431

Interesting theory, he’s also the guy I read about plate martensite vs needle martensite from

 

[bsfsu]

Sorry I don’t know who Junichi is, but Kataba is a bevel style, and not a billet type. You can make a kataba knife from a sanmai billet- TF is famous for this since they use the same sanmai prelam for both ryoba and kataba knives. If the billet is thick enough, you can even grind one of the iron layers off to make a nimai from a sanmai.

Does Junichi buy and use prelaminated warikomi? All warikomi makers I know forge weld their knives, so I’m really interested to find a maker that uses industrial prelaminated warikomi billets.

Junichi Ide is the blacksmith at Yosimitu Kajiya, Shimabara. Great guy to deal with and I like his knives, a good amount of Wabi Sabi but well made. Many of my customers love the premise of the "One man" knife operation.

I'm not sure but I think kataba/ni-mai are interchangeable in this situation.

Junichi-san just messaged me with this

"Warikomi can be done not only in Tansetru but also in Rikizai.

The company that makes the Rikizai is asked to determine which type of steel is to be blended and in what percentage, and then the Rikizai is made by roll rolling with large machines.

I then forge it and make my knives.

The advantage of outsourcing tansetsu is that it is less expensive than doing tansetru myself, and there are no tansetsu mistakes, so there is no loss of material"



Here's a pic from one of the steel suppliers with different forge welds that come in various stock sizes.

 

[Markcg]

Junichi Ide is the blacksmith at Yosimitu Kajiya, Shimabara. Great guy to deal with and I like his knives, a good amount of Wabi Sabi but well made. Many of my customers love the premise of the "One man" knife operation.

I'm not sure but I think kataba/ni-mai are interchangeable in this situation.

Junichi-san just messaged me with this

"Warikomi can be done not only in Tansetru but also in Rikizai.

The company that makes the Rikizai is asked to determine which type of steel is to be blended and in what percentage, and then the Rikizai is made by roll rolling with large machines.

I then forge it and make my knives.

The advantage of outsourcing tansetsu is that it is less expensive than doing tansetru myself, and there are no tansetsu mistakes, so there is no loss of material"



Here's a pic from one of the steel suppliers with different forge welds that come in various stock sizes.

View attachment 248953

Sorry, not calling your supplier’s word into question- just curious if there are warikomi makers that are using prelam, that’s all. I know it’s possible to order the configuration, and probably should have worded it better, but as a general question to the community, is anyone making warikomi with rikizai?

 

[bsfsu]

Sorry, not calling your supplier’s word into question- just curious if there are warikomi makers that are using prelam, that’s all. I know it’s possible to order the configuration, and probably should have worded it better, but as a general question to the community, is anyone making warikomi with rikizai?

Junichi-san

"For kurouchi knives, I believe most blacksmiths are Warikomi.
San-mai is mostly stainless clad, etc.
However, San-mai is also used in kurouchi for some items.
I use San-mai for knives for harvesting vegetables (mainly cabbage and lettuce), because the blade has to be attached all the way to the top."

I would assume most makers who make Tansetsu (forge in house) would make warikami over san-mai for ease of making.

As Junichi-san said above, most KU we could assume to be made from warikami unless you can see a cladding line on the spine, like this Kyohei Shindo

Junichi-san told me Kyohei Shindo is a friend and he uses san-mai to speed up the process so I'm assuming San-mai is quicker to forge than warikami?

 

[bsfsu]

Sorry, not calling your supplier’s word into question- just curious if there are warikomi makers that are using prelam, that’s all. I know it’s possible to order the configuration, and probably should have worded it better, but as a general question to the community, is anyone making warikomi with rikizai?

I love the question, by the way, it is something I have wondered myself and you have pushed me to ask questions and get answers.

 

[Delat]

A nice discussion from Birgersson regarding his warikomi.

Stuff like this is why I like the Western makers (the vast majority of which are 1-man shops). You get the personal insights on their work, peeks behind the scenes, and a general sense of them as a person and craftsman. And the final product is a realization of one person’s vision - not that it’s necessarily better, but you know who’s responsible for every detail.

 

[Lurkernomore]

Sorry, not calling your supplier’s word into question- just curious if there are warikomi makers that are using prelam, that’s all. I know it’s possible to order the configuration, and probably should have worded it better, but as a general question to the community, is anyone making warikomi with rikizai?

Super rare, at least I’ve never seen it in Sakai. 99 percent of double bevels are prelaminated sanmai. The same goes for most other places I’d say.

 

[DitmasPork]

Firstly, I'm a Mazaki fan, have bought 5 so far. However, have always wondered if he's really a one-man shop considering his huge output of knives.

 

[gwhphoto]

My understandig about Maz (just got a 210 dammy gyuto and OMG!) is that the knives he labels hon san mai are one man shows even the damascus. The more standard less expensive ones use pre made billets. I dont know much so if anyone knows more about this I would be interested to learn.

 

[Miyamoto Musashi]

Miyazaki, Isamitsu, Hayashi, Yamada, etc

i thought Isamitsu was two guys? Not that it really makes a difference at all.

 

[Miyamoto Musashi]

A blade to shape a blade.

Here is Jiro using one he made earlier

I need one

 

[ReiHamono]

Turns out they have a woman also

i thought Isamitsu was two guys? Not that it really makes a difference at all.

 

[DitmasPork]

My understandig about Maz (just got a 210 dammy gyuto and OMG!) is that the knives he labels hon san mai are one man shows even the damascus. The more standard less expensive ones use pre made billets. I dont know much so if anyone knows more about this I would be interested to learn.

Pretty much all of the Mazaki descriptions from vendors suggest it being a one-man shop, even for the w2 knives.
"Mazaki-san is a relatively young blacksmith from Sanjo, but he originally hails from the island of Hokkaido. Unsure of what to do with himself as a young man, he left to travel Japan on his motorcycle. He made a stop in Sanjo, and was fascinated by the knife making & blacksmithing industry in the area. He decided that he wanted to become a blacksmith, so he got an apprenticeship with Yoshikane. He spent about 5 years working at Yoshikane but decided he would like to pursue a more traditional, hands-on way of making knives. Now, he forge-welds all of his carbon steel knives in house, and finishes his bevel with a variety of different whetstones, all by hand. Every step of the way, he strives to be true to the trade." —Knifewear

 

[Miyamoto Musashi]

Turns out they have a woman also

I mean at the end of the day all that matters is that they make a quality product.