Just found this very, very useful site for those of you who have the concern of import duties to wherever you live.

Import Duty Calculator.

I know not all of you will find this useful, but I think I’ll be visiting often, just so I can do all I can to keep the tax bill . . . → Read More: Import duties?]]> Hello again Olde Faithful,

Just found this very, very useful site for those of you who have the concern of import duties to wherever you live.

Import Duty Calculator.

I know not all of you will find this useful, but I think I’ll be visiting often, just so I can do all I can to keep the tax bill as low as possible without breaking the rules.

That is all, back to it. New stuff coming, some of it is very interesting indeed…

Stu.

The store has had a few (!) new additions.

Firstly, the Koyamaichi dragon chisels are now listed.

These are top shelf chisels. Starting with a bright finished blue steel chisel, they are sent off to have a dragon engraved into the neck, complete with inlaid eyes. They are award winning (Miki city hardware association) chisels, . . . → Read More: Some more new chisels…]]> Hello again Faithful Reader,

The store has had a few (!) new additions.

Firstly, the Koyamaichi dragon chisels are now listed.

These are top shelf chisels. Starting with a bright finished blue steel chisel, they are sent off to have a dragon engraved into the neck, complete with inlaid eyes. They are award winning (Miki city hardware association) chisels, due in no small part to their uniqueness. Simply put, there’s nothing else like them out there in chiseldom.

They’re purely nice to look at, and I must warn you that if you pluck up the courage to actually buy one, you’ll probably spend not enough time using it and too much time looking at it.

(There will be some variation on these soon too. Black dragons, where the engraving is done on a black-neck chisel and tigers. These are so new, nobody knows what they look like. Not even Koyamaichi.)

Koyamaichi slicks have also been added.

Just really REALLY big chisels to be used with hand pressure. If you’ve never seen one, trust me, they’re enormous. They’re the chisel parallel of an infill plane. The weight of the things command respect from any bit of wood they touch.

Also, a new style of chisel. Specially commissioned ‘bachi-nomi‘, designed specifically for dovetail sockets.

Every detail in their design was put there to make this occasionally challenging task easier and more efficient.

While there are only 2 sizes, 9mm and 15mm, and they’re a single purpose kind of chisel. But I can say they make the task ridiculously easy. I’ve used skew chisels, hacking out the waste with a regular chisel and a few other methods out there. These things are by far the easiest way I know to get the job done. Almost enjoyable, so easy do they make the job.

Also added are Fujikawa brand chisels.

You might be wondering who are Fujikawa, and it’s a valid question.

They are based in Miki city, Hyogo and make chisels. They’ve been making chisels since 1930 and originally made only mortising chisels, usually distributed through stores with a generic branding on them typical of the time. With the introduction of metallic sash windows, the need for mortising chisels declined, so Mr. Fujikawa branched out into making a broader line of chisels, often with the distributor’s brand name on them.

Only quite recently have Fujikawa put their own name on their chisels, and are actively working to build that name into a well known, trusted brand for good quality, reasonably priced tools.

And they’re doing well at it!

While their foundation doesn’t sound very mystical or fantastic, it has given them one big advantage in an increasingly competitive market. Because they were able to simply make chisels without needing to boost their name (leaving that to distributors and stores), they were able to spend their efforts refining their products and trying new ideas, all while making as many chisels as possible and getting them out into the market at large.

The final result of this unusual strategy is very interesting…

As they have a lot of experience and know-how at just ‘making chisels’, they’re able to provide different grades of chisels to suit a particular need for the end user.

Starting at their ‘Maruya‘ line, which are simple, unadorned chisels that give up some of the finer details to be ‘just a chisel’ and ideally suited to those on a budget or looking for a chisel that performs well and isn’t difficult to live with. They are not the equal of a higher priced chisel aimed at the professional (or spirited non-professional), they are simply an economical chisel that’s easy to use, easy to work with and easy on the pocket.

Next up the scale are Fujikawa’s ‘Yasaku‘ chisels, which add in improved fit and finish with better performance and edge retention and a choice of red oak or boxwood handles. Again, with an eye to a good ratio of cost to performance and these chisels deliver professional grade performance at a cost that’s difficult to ignore.

Finally, some chisels that put up a valid argument to be ‘the king’ when it comes to edge retention, Fujikawa’s ‘Funmatsu-Nezumi‘ which start with the same basics as the Yasaku chisels, but are ‘bright finished’, not the traditional black. The handle choices of red oak or boxwood are the same, and topped off with a faceted black hoop. The ‘Nezumi’ part of the name is reserved for Fujikawa chisels of the highest quality they can produce, and simply translates as ‘mouse’, as shown on the label. ‘Funmatsu’ translates as ‘Powder Material’, which may sound ominous…

And ‘Powder Material’ is the difference between these and most any other chisels commercially available today, making up the laminated layer of Powder Metal High Speed Steel (PM-HSS) which takes these unique chisels to a whole new level of edge longevity.

The actual PM-HSS used is a patent Hitachi steel, YXR-7, which is engineered for enhanced shock and impact durability combined with improved edge retention and grindability.

The ultimate goal is to have a tool that stays sharp for longer in any ‘wood’ material, and based on my own preliminary testing, it does so to an excessive extent.

The concern however is how do you get chisels like these sharp?

It is not a simple proposition, and the extreme durability and abrasion resistance of the hard steel, even being laminated, means that not every sharpening method is effective in sharpening these chisels.

Power grinding, as is permissible with typical HSS is not recommended with these chisels. Fujikawa do not specify exactly why this is, but I believe it’s a combination of the heat treat and resultant hardness of these chisels, where typical high speed grinding and it’s associated heat will actually affect the steel (unlike most HSS tools available today) and the lamination of soft steel may affect a grinders ability to be effective. So that leaves normal sharpening stones.

I can say that of the coarse stones, almost any of them will work to some extent, but the Sigma Power ceramic #120, Select II #240 and #400 are exceptional and highly recommended. The Shapton Glass Stones below #500 are also quite suitable.

To the #1000 grit range, from Sigma Power any stone currently available work well, with the Select II #1000 and #1200 being excellent (and one situation where the #1000 really shines, the #1200 staying as flat as ever and works very well). The Bester #1000 is quite good, King Hyper and Neo are suitable and any diamond type plate/stone are also quite suitable. Norton work well enough as well.

But you may notice 3 distinct omissions in that list…

Shapton stones are, as normally used, completely ineffective. They’re worse than ineffective, they’re useless. If you are willing and able to raise a slurry with a diamond plate, then they do become effective, but tend to clog somewhat if more than a small amount of work is to be done and will tend to dish more than usual. The Naniwa Chosera is equally ineffective, and again needs a slurry raised for them to become effective, the included ‘nagura’ stone is sufficient to this task.

(You may think I am being sensationalist here, but at the same time didn’t hear my language when these stones simply polished the steel, but did nothing to abrade it.)

Going to higher grits, most stones are effective enough provided you keep the amount of steel being worked small and avoid trying to work excessive amounts of steel. The focus here should be the edge, not the finish as the only stones available designed for this are the Sigma Power Select II.

And the fear of stones being unable to abrade the ‘hard carbides’ found in these super hard steels?

Perhaps diamonds may sharpen these hard particles, but in testing, I’ve distinctly avoided anything other than normally used sharpening stones (to make sure most folks won’t need to buy anything special to sharpen them) and these chisels won’t be lacking sharpness when sharpened with conventional ceramic type stones. There’s a reason for this that I will expand upon at a later time, but for now, whatever you have can be made to work with these tools which is a good thing.

(And certainly better than the recommended ‘sharpen to #1000′ suggested by Fujikawa!)

Also added recently are Fujikawa mortising chisels.

Fujikawa, having started out as a specialist mortising chisel maker, I don’t think it needs to be said that these chisels are very good. Lacking some of the finish found in similar chisels from other makers, a quick glance confirms these chisels are made to work hard down to the split resistant cored white oak handles.

And they’re available in 12 different sizes, from 1.5mm to 24mm. Significant as few Japanese mortising chisels are available these days in anything larger than 12mm.

And for the immediate time being, that’s the extent of the additions. Most of these chisels are available at a nominal 10% discount for the next few weeks as an introductory offer, but if you miss out, don’t fret. There will be more chisels planned for addition in the not too distant future (I’m burned out on chisels for now!) and for the next few months at least, you should expect large influxes of tools to be added on a regular basis. Perhaps they won’t be something you want, need or even like, but they’ll be there to at least look at.

Thanks for reading, as always,

Stu.

(2 posts in 24 hours, I must be sick!)

Just wanted to put this out there, somewhere…

Here’s hoping . . . → Read More: Here be dragons…]]> Hello again faithful reader,

(2 posts in 24 hours, I must be sick!)

Just wanted to put this out there, somewhere…

Here’s hoping it works…

Stu.

I received an email today from one of my customers (who shall not be named) that one of the boxes I sent arrived in a very sorry state.

I asked for a picture, and this is what I got…

You know how you occasionally read about stuff someone has ordered being damaged during delivery, . . . → Read More: Going 12 rounds?]]> Hello again faithful reader,

I received an email today from one of my customers (who shall not be named) that one of the boxes I sent arrived in a very sorry state.

I asked for a picture, and this is what I got…

You know how you occasionally read about stuff someone has ordered being damaged during delivery, and how the wonderful folks they ordered their stuff from went ‘above and beyond’ to correct the problem?

I don’t get that kind of logic…

I prefer to not have to fix anything, so I miss out being mentioned in those kinds of conversations…

(In case you were wondering, there’s a sharpening stone in that box. Something that doesn’t like being bashed around, and it’s completely undamaged.)

I’ll not mention how often this kind of thing happens for fear of hexing myself. But it was interesting to see how the packing stands up to abuse.

That is all, and it provides some light filler until some new stuff comes on line later this week. I just spent the past few hours bashing in details for some new chisels.

A lot of new chisels…

Thanks for reading, as always.

Stu.

(Sorry, my son and daughter are 5 and 4 years old, and we like Dr. Seuss…)

If you’ll take a cursory look at the store (linky on the right) you’ll see a few new things.

First, the Sigma Power ceramic/Select II #1200 is available. The all go, no dish, cranked to 11, tough as nails, . . . → Read More: Cheap stuff! New stuff!]]> Green stuff! Blue stuff!

(Sorry, my son and daughter are 5 and 4 years old, and we like Dr. Seuss…)

If you’ll take a cursory look at the store (linky on the right) you’ll see a few new things.

First, the Sigma Power ceramic/Select II #1200 is available. The all go, no dish, cranked to 11, tough as nails, Sigma Power ceramic/Select II stone that seems to roll all the good parts of a bunch of different stones into a single, fused white alumina block of goodness.

And there’s cheap stuff. The bargain bin comes back with a bang.

A box of planes arrived today, and they need to leave As Soon As Possible. They’re all quite a bit less expensive than they normally are, and combined with their free shipping, they’re a steal.

(I couldn’t buy them this cheap even here in Japan AND I’d have to pay shipping. When I say “they’re cheap” I really mean it. I’ll be disappointed if they last a week.)

And they’re all very, very good planes. No funny stuff going on, they’re just excess stock and need to find new homes.

(And once they’re gone, they’re gone. No guarantee they’ll ever be available again.)

There are a few more things that need to find their way into ‘the bin’, so expect that one to be topped up periodically with nice stuff.

Thanks for reading,

Stu.

Hello again Olde Faithful,

Just a quick popping up of my head to mention that things are on the mend, both body (flu, nasty) and spirit (no need to mention) and I had a visitor yesterday. A very rare occurrence.

And it wasn’t just anyone, it was someone I can talk turkey with (of . . . → Read More: It’s not all doom and gloom here…]]> … contrary to popular belief.

Hello again Olde Faithful,

Just a quick popping up of my head to mention that things are on the mend, both body (flu, nasty) and spirit (no need to mention) and I had a visitor yesterday. A very rare occurrence.

And it wasn’t just anyone, it was someone I can talk turkey with (of a fashion) and they listen, which is always nice. It’s ok to be heard, but much better to be listened to and ultimately, what’s been said is acted upon.

The gentleman in question was Mr. Saito of Sigma Power, and even though I was masked up, he stayed and we talked over coffee.

Nice.

He left two large boxes of cakes/treats, so my kids REALLY like him now and he left 4 small rock looking things for me to have a play with.

Well, that’s not quite true. 3 of the rock like objects are combination stones, which I don’t use and they’re combinations of things I already have. So I know what they’re going to do so there’s no point in my doing much more than simply eyeballing them.

Ok, one is spoken for but the other two are not. I’ll work out how to offload them soon enough, so pay attention and keep up to date. Looks like I need to shift some booty.

One however is something new.

And when I say new, it’s something I’ve never used before. Which by extension means you’ve never seen it before either.

It’s a new Select II stone.

It’s a #1200 grit stone.

It’s white.

It’s, well, lets not get ahead of ourselves too much, but preliminary testing tells me one thing.

It’s off the *^%&$%^&* planet.

I’ve not used it much, but here’s what I can tell you…

I’ve never found the ‘ultimate’ #1000 stone. Every one I’ve ever used has been a compromise of some kind, and generally speaking the best compromise I’ve ever found has been (unsurprisingly) the Sigma Power ceramic #1000 hard. Again, it’s not perfect but the parts I don’t like aren’t serious and they’re small, easy to gloss over things.

What I’d really like is a stone that polishes like a Naniwa Superstone, stays as flat as a Shapton Professional, has good feeling the equal of a Chosera, is as tough and robust as the Sigma Power ceramic and chews through steel like a Select II, especially the hard, tough stuff. It should also be relatively easy to flatten and less mud would be nice (but not essential).

Now with the very few bits of steel I’ve put to this new #1200 (comes in a lime green box) I’ve found.

The polish is second ONLY to the Naniwa Superstone, but only by a small amount.

Stays as flat or flatter than a Shapton Professional. Shocking flat actually, since I abused the heck out of it, and it flattened nearly instantly. If I’d abused anything else, it would have screamed with indignity.

Feeling wise, it’s not bad. There is feeling there, but it’s danged hard as well, so it’s never going to be silky smooth like a Chosera. But still, the #1200 isn’t bad at all. Call it a hard Chosera.

It’s a Sigma Power stone. They don’t do fragile little flowers, so it’s as tough as they come (and yes, needs soaking.)

It’s matching the Select II #1000 for speed so far, only tested against HSS, O1 and white steel though.

So far, it’s as close to perfect as I’ve yet found. After more testing it might actually hit that mark or not.

And that’s the problem I think. Perhaps it is exactly what I’ve been wanting, and now it’s here, perhaps I just can’t see the forest for the trees. I’m still undecided as to whether it’s a great stone or not.

Anyway, just wanted to let that cat out of the bag. If it keeps on doing things as it’s been doing them so far, then another genuine contender just showed up.

No, that’s not quite accurate.

What I should say is that “perhaps everything else just got taken down a notch on the ladder”.

Since the great testing saga was largely (but not quite, not yet!) completed, I’ve been getting my hands on every single decent #1000 stone I can find, and this is the first in that range that’s really catching my attention.

And the stupid part is, it shouldn’t be able to do what it does the way it does it. Because it’s a genuine #1200 grit (JIS standard, 10 micron) stone playing in a field of #1000 or coarser stones.

Odd, strange and weird.

More updates as they arrive.

(For those of you who’ve already splashed out on a #1000 stone recently, don’t fret. This bad boy isn’t going to be cheap. It’s looking like being Chosera money. So if that nice #1000 stone you just bought was actually a Chosera. Sorry. If you’re thinking “Ahh, but I bought my Chosera for razors!” then I’m really, really sorry.)

Stu.

I’m writing this as an ‘open letter’ to all regarding what’s going on here at Tools from Japan.

It’s no secret I was in Australia for a week, which limited how much time was available to me to reply to requests, questions and to send thank yous for orders. The fact that even though I made . . . → Read More: Update, St. Valentine’s day 2012.]]> Hi all,

I’m writing this as an ‘open letter’ to all regarding what’s going on here at Tools from Japan.

It’s no secret I was in Australia for a week, which limited how much time was available to me to reply to requests, questions and to send thank yous for orders. The fact that even though I made it quite clear that I would be mostly unavailable during this time, and yet questions, orders and messages of condolence (especially these) came through, mostly unabated is something of a confirmation that I must be doing something right and a vote of confidence of no small measure.

And for all of that, I thank you all.

It’s been quite difficult for me to ‘get back in the saddle’ after returning. I thought that day after I got back I’d be able to simply switch back on and get back to work, and for all of 12 hours, I did. However, as time goes on and the loss of my grandfather sinks in, it’s been increasingly difficult to focus my attention. I know grandpa would disapprove, but even so, as far apart in distance as we were at the end, he was (and still is) very important to me and we were very close in ways I never appreciated until now.

So, it’s been trying to say the very least. This is my problem to get over, and I will, and all I can ask is that you please have patience with me.

To add insult to injury, the doctor says I’ve got the flu and am not supposed to work. The I’ve been given the proper medicine to deal with it which is working, but I’m still only running on fumes.

All I can ask is for time to heal all wounds and illness, and I promise that I will get to all requests and questions as soon as I am able. Orders will still be processed (most are still in the works, only needing boxing up and dragging to the Post Office) as fast as I can manage it, and to humbly ask to be able to test your patience further than I already have.

For what was looking to be a great year, so far it’s been unadulterated garbage.

Stu.

Well, as I type this I am no more than a metre or so from where I used to sleep for much of the first 27 years of my life.

Or, in other words, I’m in Australia at my parent’s house.

Without my own little brood in tow. Just me.

And to be . . . → Read More: Homesick? At ‘home’?]]> Hello again Faithful Reader,

Well, as I type this I am no more than a metre or so from where I used to sleep for much of the first 27 years of my life.

Or, in other words, I’m in Australia at my parent’s house.

Without my own little brood in tow. Just me.

And to be honest, I’m starting to miss them, hence the odd title up there. I’m at ‘home’ but feeling a little homesick…

Odd, huh?

To those who are in the dark as to why I’m several thousand units of distance measure from Japan, here’s the concise timeline of events in the past week or two.

Friday, Jan 27 my grandfather had an accident, fell down and broke his pelvis.

Sunday, Jan 29 my mother called me at 3AM and told me grandpa had passed away.

Monday, I was looking at my options. You see, my passport had expired (which is not unusual, nor normally a problem) as I’d not expected to be going anywhere for a while. My visa in Japan has nearly 2 years on it, which is all that’s actually important. So for me to get to Australia I’d need to get a passport and then a re-entry permit and a plane ticket and actually make the plane.

It was not looking good…

So I made a few phone calls, worked out the possibility of getting the needed paperwork and everything else, and worked out it was ‘possible’ to get the needed things, but time might be a problem, and I might not be able to get there until today, Monday.

Dad told me my cousin could make Friday, but not Monday for the funeral, so the date was locked into Friday and I needed to get things sorted out and do all I could to get there.

Tuesday, made some more phonecalls to work out the particulars of what I needed. Found out that I was looking at a 3 hour bus ride to the heart of Osaka, a 4+ hour wait on an emergency passport from the consulate in Osaka. Then a possible 45 minute subway ride to the Osaka immigration office to get a re-entry permit which should take an hour “if we’re not busy”. It could take longer, and was likely to. Then a subway ride back into the heart of Osaka and out again for 35 minutes to the airport to catch a plane. And even then, I wasn’t guaranteed the re-entry permit would be issued, which I needed or I’d be kissing a plane ticket goodbye.

Wednesday…

5:30AM, I’d slept through the alarm and the taxi was waiting outside for me. Taxi to the bus stop, then I waited for the bus. Saw one come in, was ‘sure’ it was the wrong one, and watched it go. Thought it might be the right one, and panicked. Badly. Screwed up before I’d even got going for the day. I was wrong, my bus arrived at it’s scheduled 6:12AM.

(Thank gad for Japanese schedules!)

9:20AM, arrive at Osaka station. Walk up to the train station, train is 3 minutes late (!) and waiting for me. Jump on as the doors close. Then walk to the consulate, luggage over my shoulder.

9:35AM, arrive at the consulate and start the ‘estimated/quoted’ 4+ hour process.

9:50AM, was informed that I’d given all the needed info, and that if I could spend an hour using the interweb and reading books, they’d have my Passport ready.

10:40AM, they lied…

10:50AM, after talking (and crying a little) with the wonderful, delightful and fantabulous Mrs. Ueda at the consulate, I walked out, passport in hand.

11:50AM, arrived at the Osaka Immigration office, ready for what might be a really long wait and a really thorough wringing out at their hands.

(I need to explain here a little. I live in Takamatsu, which has it’s own Immigration office, where I get all my ‘stuff’ done. I live there, so by law, I need to get ALL my stuff done there. I’d been told I should get the Passport, go back to Takamatsu, get the re-entry permit then go back to Osaka to catch my plane. Ignore that it’s 3 hours each way and costs at least $100 per return journey. Then got told I should fill out a form explaining, in explicit detail, why I needed to flout the law and get Osaka’s office to look after me. Oh boy, this was going to be F-U-N-!)

Midday, explain my situation to the lady at the desk. She hands me the appropriate form and sends me off. I protest that I need more paperwork, she waves me off. Ok…

I fill out the form, take it back with my old, mangled passport and my new hamstrung one and take a number, expecting the worst. I take a risk, buy a drink and a ‘revenue stamp’ to cover the cost of the permit. Haven’t even got it yet, but I’m hoping for the best.

12:20PM, number is called. Here we go.

12:21PM, handed a bit of already filled out paperwork to say I’d paid for the permit, and handed my two passports. I hold one in each hand, look dumbly at them both and ask “is that all?!?” Rather gruff looking gentleman there says “Yes, no problem. Enjoy your trip.”

12:22PM, I lost the plot. All the stress, worry and concern about keeping my grandpa waiting bled away. Left a trail of eye water to the exit.

(Let me explain. Until I was 8, grandpa was my ‘dad’. And until I left for Japan, I saw him nearly every day at least once. We were as close as it was possible to be, and to say goodbye to him was something I needed to do. I was looking at being denied doing my own lack of foresight (mostly) and bureaucracy (partly) and here I was, stuck in the heart of Osaka with 5 hours to find something to do with.)

Wednesday afternoon, ate lunch, went to a few stores, looked around, rinse, repeat.

Wednesday evening, checked in, got onto plane, ate dinner, slept.

Thursday early morning, slept.

Thursday early-mid morning, ate breakfast, slept.

Thursday morning, arrived at Gold Coast. Found 3 intercontinental aircraft arrived at the same time. Saw long line, panicked.

10 minutes later, “All Australian and New Zealand passport holders and their families please walk this way”.

(Citizenship has it’s privileges…)

1 hour later, hit customs…

5 minutes later, “please walk down aisle #1″

1 minute later, exit customs.

(Honesty has it’s privileges…)

1 more minute, curse. Boarding is closed for my plane. Nice lady says “you’re ok, come here please”.

Thursday 9:00AM, plane leaves Gold Coast. Sleep.

12:05PM, arrive at Melbourne airport. Get off plane…

Friday was grandpa’s funeral and I must say it was very, very good. Very emotional for everyone, but very, very good and I feel honoured to be part of it, as well as having such a good man as my grandfather.

And since then, I’ve been catching up with folks left, right and centre. Just go, go, go and that’s about it.

So, if you’ve made an order or asked a question, all of the above and then some is why you’re not getting much activity out of me. I’m spending time with my family, it’s a rare event and I need to milk every second of it I can.

I’ll be back in Japan late Wednesday, and back to work on Thursday.

And that’s it.

Thanks to all for your kind words, thoughts and prayers. They’re all appreciated, and while I do have some regrets about not seeing grandpa before he slipped away, I can also say with absolute honesty that every memory I have of him is a great one, and I’m finally learning how much of an influence he was on my life.

And how proud he was of me. Even though I’m far from perfect, I was pretty special to him.

That’s all I can say for now, I can’t see the screen any more.

Stu.

(I say that because these posts are so irregular, you can’t be a faithful reader any more!)

Just wanted to pop my head up and say hello, that I’m not kaput just yet and I’m so busy that I really do not have enough time to get everything done that I want to (same . . . → Read More: January, almost gone already?]]> Hello again Lost Sheep,

(I say that because these posts are so irregular, you can’t be a faithful reader any more!)

Just wanted to pop my head up and say hello, that I’m not kaput just yet and I’m so busy that I really do not have enough time to get everything done that I want to (same old sob story, I know) and what gets lost? This blog does.

At the moment I’m focusing on getting orders out, as that’s most important. After that, answering questions which is a blessing and a curse. Blessing, because I can make sure whoever is asking the question gets a proper, honest answer. A curse, because those answers take time, and that time could be better spent working on a solution that would make the question unnecessary. Things like articles, videos, etc. If I can get them done, then the information is out there, free for all to see.

Oh well, I’m working on it.

As promised (somewhere?) there are some new things to look at in the store. Specifically, plane stuff.

Finally, after months of sitting on them, I’ve decided to let Tsunesaburo’s ‘Iron plane replacement blades‘ be listed.

I’ve been sitting on these for about 7 months now. They’ve been broadly available for quite a long time elsewhere I know, but there’s something special about these.

I have delayed listing these blade because I wasn’t happy with them. Sure, they’re great blades and even though they’re not going to win the ‘thickest blade you can fit in a Stanley’ contest, nor do they have a replacement chip-breaker to go with them (yet), they do have a couple of really nice features.

They’re really, really easy to sharpen. Being laminated, the hard, tough steel (blue steel no less!) is only half as thick as the blade. They’re nice to handle, without the sharp sides that I find are annoyingly common on most modern blades I’ve seen. They take a fantastic edge and lastly, they’re inexpensive.

No, let’s be frank here, they’re downright cheap! Add in the 10% off as a ‘new product’ and there’s nothing on the planet that costs so little but adds so much performance.

But the delay, why did I do such a thing with such nice blades?

Well, as they were, they had one problem that I was unwilling to accept if I could avoid it. That is, that when they were surface ground flat (on both sides), occasionally the edges of the blade were not planar with the rest of the blade back. I talked with Tsunesaburo about this, and discussed why it was happening and how it might be solved and why it was important, especially with today’s replacement blades.

Now, it’s fixed for the most part. Still not perfect, but better than they were and for the money, frighteningly good.

And they’re also available pre-sharpened. Not “they’ll cut paper they’re so sharp!” more like “they’ll split arm hairs/atoms/space-time continuum” sharp. And there’s options for that in the form of ‘small back bevel/ruler trick’ or ‘fully flattened back’.

Which is why I wanted those backs as flat as possible. If I’m going to be flattening them, I want to make it as easy as I can make it.

(It’s astonishing to me that these blades have been available for a very long time, but nobody has made any effort to get them prepared properly…)

And on the plane front, there’s another new option available on selected Tsunesaburo planes…

Meigoryoumo, Muga, Tanjyosan and Meimon-Tsunesaburo have a small ‘check box’ at the bottom of each plane’s listing. This little check box simply says “Optional ‘uradashi-fuyoh’ blade back”, and means that if you select that option, the plane will be made with a blade that does not require tapping out. It’s not a free option, but it does allow some freedom in that the potentially fearsome “tapping out of the blade” exercise is not required, and makes these planes a little more user friendly.

I’ve restricted it to these planes because they represent the ‘full range’ of plane sizes and a good selection of edge steels.

So that’s all that’s new for now. More is coming soon, including a swag of chisels. Hundreds of the silly things, which is why I’m so busy trying to work my way through them.

Oh, and there’s a search available in the store now.

That’s it, I’m getting back to work. No I won’t make claims as to when the next installment arrives, but hopefully soon and impressive.

Thanks for reading,

Stu.

I must apologize for the lack of activity here on the Tools from Japan blog. Posts were planned, but didn’t pan out. A holiday greeting was planned, but don’t get done. Many things were planned, but never happened.

The reason?

Time, or actually a severe lack of it.

Over the Christmas/New Year period, I was expecting that things would . . . → Read More: Apologies,]]> Hi,

I must apologize for the lack of activity here on the Tools from Japan blog. Posts were planned, but didn’t pan out. A holiday greeting was planned, but don’t get done. Many things were planned, but never happened.

The reason?

Time, or actually a severe lack of it.

Over the Christmas/New Year period, I was expecting that things would slow down somewhat, and I’d be able to do a few things I wanted to get done.

Alas, it was not to be…

Lots of email, a few orders, getting things done ‘in the real world’, and very little that was planned actually happened.

I am sorry that of the time I should have had available, there is little tangible to show for it.

I am also sorry that I was not even able to wish you all “season’s greetings!”, so please accept this exceptionally belated one to suffice. I don’t actually have time to make a flowery one, even now!

And that’s how it’s going to be for the foreseeable future. And the crystal ball only sees for 4 months in the future, so that’s how long I’m going to be busy just keeping the gears turning here.

You see Mrs. Schtoo, my co-pilot, is leaving her current employer, and is making noises about studying something useful. Not a big surprise really, especially since she’s not going up or down at work, and is largely working for work’s sake and not making some healthy paycheck every month.

(What she doesn’t know, I’m going to be cracking the whip and making her pull her weight around here!)

After that, I don’t know what’s going to happen, other than a; I’m going to be a little bit more freed up and productive on ‘special projects’, b; the effects of her being able to actively contribute to the goings on here are going to make me busier than ever or c; it’ll be a continuation of the current status quo.

I’m hoping for a mixture of a and b. A little extra time to get the ‘little things’ done along with added work on the bigger things.

But we shall see.

Either way, I’ve been busier with things than I ever have before, so much so that it’s nearly a full time job by itself just running the store.

(And I still run around teaching English, which is a job all by itself.)

So that’s why I’ve been busy, and probably will be for a while.

And it’s mostly all your fault.

Danged savages…

And thank you, every savage one of you.

Stu, Tom, Koko and Akiko.