Brand: Hitohira ひとひら (一片)
Blacksmith: Tanaka 田中打刃物製作所
Production area: Sakai-Osaka/Japan
Profile: Petty
Size: 135mm
Steel Type: Carbon Steel (Oxidizable)
Steel: Yasuki White (Shirogami) #1, soft iron plated
Handle: Cherry wood and octagonal ebony ferrule
Total length: 261 mm
Edge length: 137 mm
Length from handle to tip: 137 mm
Blade height: 28 mm
Thickness: 1.9mm
Handle length: 124 mm
Weight: 58g
Hand orientation: ambidextrous
Grinder: Yohei
Considered one of the best blacksmiths in the region, Yoshikazu Tanaka has been a blacksmith for over half a century. He now works with his son and an apprentice. He is a traditionalist, but he is always looking to improve his process and skills. He uses the traditional method of quenching with pine charcoal and then uses straw ash. It is a very old way of making knives. He does not use a thermometer for quenching; he manually calculates the temperature of the steel by examining its color. Tanaka-san is always looking to improve. He uses a temperature-controlled furnace for quenching, which only a few blacksmiths in the region use. He and his team only forge 30 knives a day between the three of them. For reference, some blacksmiths forge as many as 100 blades in a single day. The reason he only forges 30 is that he takes his time, carefully forging at very low temperatures. At lower temperatures, the steel does not stretch as quickly, but it will retain the grain size of the steel much better. Stretching the grain size will make the steel brittle, which he tries to avoid. He frequently moves the steel in and out of the furnace to check the color, then when the entire blade is a specific shade of color, he quenches the steel in water. Water tempering (Mizu) is the most difficult to achieve and requires very careful handling.
Brand: Hitohira ひとひら (一片)
Blacksmith: Tanaka 田中打刃物製作所
Production area: Sakai-Osaka/Japan
Profile: Petty
Size: 135mm
Steel Type: Carbon Steel (Oxidizable)
Steel: Yasuki White (Shirogami) #1, soft iron plated
Handle: Cherry wood and octagonal ebony ferrule
Total length: 261 mm
Edge length: 137 mm
Length from handle to tip: 137 mm
Blade height: 28 mm
Thickness: 1.9mm
Handle length: 124 mm
Weight: 58g
Hand orientation: ambidextrous
Grinder: Yohei
Considered one of the best blacksmiths in the region, Yoshikazu Tanaka has been a blacksmith for over half a century. He now works with his son and an apprentice. He is a traditionalist, but he is always looking to improve his process and skills. He uses the traditional method of quenching with pine charcoal and then uses straw ash. It is a very old way of making knives. He does not use a thermometer for quenching; he manually calculates the temperature of the steel by examining its color. Tanaka-san is always looking to improve. He uses a temperature-controlled furnace for quenching, which only a few blacksmiths in the region use. He and his team only forge 30 knives a day between the three of them. For reference, some blacksmiths forge as many as 100 blades in a single day. The reason he only forges 30 is that he takes his time, carefully forging at very low temperatures. At lower temperatures, the steel does not stretch as quickly, but it will retain the grain size of the steel much better. Stretching the grain size will make the steel brittle, which he tries to avoid. He frequently moves the steel in and out of the furnace to check the color, then when the entire blade is a specific shade of color, he quenches the steel in water. Water tempering (Mizu) is the most difficult to achieve and requires very careful handling.
