Description

It is rare these days when you can call an ordinary bench chisel a work of art, but we think we have found that work of art in these Damascus chisels made by Mr. Akio Tasai, master of blacksmiths, who is probably the most famous Japanese chisel maker.

During a recent trip to Japan, we asked Mr. Tasai if he would honor us by making a set of his famous chisels with hand-selected Ebony handles, which are time consuming to forge and take months to complete. One set of these beautiful chisels is now available, and we anticipate having a second set available in the next several months.

Mr. Tasai and his son, Mitio, a master swordsmith, are renowned chisel makers from Sanjo city in Niigata prefecture. Their mokume-shiage (wood grain finish) chisels, made from the finest blue paper steel, have multi-hollow backs and are well known throughout the world. Working with blue steel, a much harder steel than Western versions, poses some challenges. For example, steel must be removed during the process to shorten the time it takes for flattening. Also, the Tasai father and son had to perfect a special forging process to make it easy to sharpen the chisels.

The Tasai 10-piece set includes all of the most commonly used sizes from 1/8″ to 2″ in metric dimensions, with the approximate inch equivalents, and comes in an attractive Paulownia box that is signed by the maker.

• Handmade by Mr. Akio Tasai, renowned master of blacksmiths
• Blue paper steel
• Multi-hollow backs
• Hand-selected Ebony handles