Thomas Johnston recently wrote to me in response to the chisels section of the woodworking tools page:
I just read your article on tools, and I would like to say that your section on Japanese tools is far from accurate! I, and others, can see a total bias on Western tools. Clearly you have not used them often enough to have a clear understanding of how to use them. You keep advocating the use of high carbon steel, the best steel in the world comes from Japan. White or Blue steel is far superior than A2 or O1. Also, no Japanese tools come preconditioned for a good reason. The reason they are not is so the woodworker can tune it to their needs. I should say that you should have a little more experience with these tools before telling people they are clumsy in the hand.
Thomas
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Hi Thomas,
Thank you for your comments. I dont know how old you may be and how long you have been using handtools. I am 63 and have been making and using handtools all my life. I was in fact one of the early adopters of Japanese chisels and later Japanese saws and planes when they came avaliable in the UK in the early 1980s I first wrote in “Woodworker” about the benefits of using them and recommending them in 1983. My tool box has half Japanese and half European blades.
However these are tools from a culture different to our own, they are tools largely made for joinery, especially in softwood; highly complex and done at a high level but different from small delicate furniture making joinery. There are fine delicate blades in Japan but they are not so easy to come by, and in my experience not perfect for the western hand and western way of working.
The recent economic changes in Japan has decimated the small workshop culture of tool making. This makes it much harder to get the very highest quality hand forged blades. Two years ago I spent time and money in Japan attempting to get a small workshop tool maker to make a western style light weight and sensitive blade with the object of bringing a best quality blade to the market. He could do it but the cost was beyond the market.
Please, do not dare suggest that I should have a little more experience before I comment on this situation.
David Savage
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You just sent me what you said in your blog. I do dare, and say you have no idea what your talking about! I’m 39, and started out with Japanese tools. I have only used some western tools and they are crap compared to any good Japanese tools out there. The real problem is that most people will not or cannot take the time to actually know how to use the Japanese tools. I have taken three classes just on setting up hand planes. The more I learn the more I can see that it is this lack of mastery of the tools is the problem, not the tools.
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Hi Thomas,
I am delighted to hear that you are getting training in the proper use of Japanese hand tools. Where are you studying? You are right that poor information and totally different cultures gets between the Japanese blade and its proper skilled use. However, describing western tools as crap when compared to equivalent Japanese is like comparing ducks and chickens. Both have wings, feet, and feathers, but they are not the same. The jobs Japanese tools have been developed for are often different from the jobs we seek to use them in the west.
We are attracted to Japanese blades because of the sharpness and the way the blade holds that keen edge for a long time. The quality of steel is exceptional as you say but it is not just this that makes it so good. The blades are forge laminated, hammering red hot soft steel onto the hard blue or white steel. This process in the forge, the hammering, changes the nature of the steel itself. Steel has a structure a bit like long grain rice when it is hammered and red hot those grains realign to form a finer structure a close grained edge that will take a keen edge very, very, unlike A2 which is a blunt edge in comparison and it will hold it unlike unforged cold rolled carbon steel. The nearest we have in the UK is Clifton’s forged plane blades which are good.
This is attractive to us as makers but the form of the Japanese tools especially for furniture makers is, in my opinion, too heavy and clumsy for everyday use. We use Japanese paring chisels and Japanese heavy chisels with mallets but there is sadly not the everyday work horse Japanese chisel that comes to hand and will do a wide range of work.
Also we now have fewer specialist Japanese blacksmiths who will put their name and reputation on a blade, so guaranteeing that the hard work of forge welding had been done properly. Japanese makers generally only buy from individual blacksmiths to get this guarantee. What we in the west are sold is often the production of small factories which are more profitable, less expensive but not the same.
I wish you good luck in your work
With kind regards,
David Savage
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I guess we will agree to disagree! I have a Clifton 3 in 1 and a bull nose. The steel blades are way to soft!!! I also have many Stanely groove planes from the 1900’s, again the steel sucks!!!! I make combat, tactical and hunting knives. I have and will do more forging in the future. At the moment I do stock removal. I do my own heat treating as well. I know something about steel!!!! This is partly the reason we do not agree, I know from my own experience in making knives that the steels available that aren’t being used would do much better. Like L6 would make a huge difference if used in place of O1. It has less carbon than O1 but its hardness and abrasion resistance is far better. Or for that matter Cru Forge V. Hell in some cases the heat treat is just wrong. If you are having a hard time trying to find Japanese tools I can send you more links than you would like. I agree that the pool of good tools over there is declining but saying its hard to find tools is just plane wrong! Hida in California has all one needs and the prices are fair. I have been using Japanese tools since about 2000. Also if you would like, on Facebook look up the “Piedmont Japanese Carpentry Club“. I’m a member.
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Hi Thomas,
I think the key to this is not steel quality, the type of cold rolled steel used, but the forging. The hammering in a red hot condition. This is how the Japanese sword smiths achieved their steel. Also known as Damascus Steel developed by the Syrians. It’s a process, probably you know, of taking high carbon simple steel to a much finer structure that takes and holds a keen edge. Yes the Clifton 3 in 1 and bullnose are, as you say, pretty poor, but it’s a cheap unforged blade. Don’t compare this to the Clifton Victor plane blade which is properly forged and we believe the best plane blade we can readily get for furniture making.
I am not saying it is hard to find Japanese tools, quite the opposite. I am saying it is nearly impossible now to find the really well forged blades. Most of the small factories only half do that expensive process and sell us westerners something very different to blades provided to Japanese makers. Good luck with those Japanese planes, tell me how you get on.
All the best
David
