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Making Handplane Irons Out of River Sand

A reminder that this planet came with just rocks, water, grass and trees. Everything else, we made

By Rain Noe - April 17, 2015

in Hand Tools | Materials

When Toshio Tokunaga needs irons for his selection of kanna (handplanes and spokeshaves), he turns to Master Smith Yasuhiko Ohara to have them made from scratch, the traditional Japanese way. Which as it turns out, is quite the pain in the ass—because Japan doesn't have any iron mines. With no ready source of ore, that means they get their iron particles by sifting through the sand at the bottom of a river.

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He uses a magnet to pick the stuff out.

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Then Ohara builds a tatara, a furnace, out of clay. Amazingly, he builds the furnace anew--by hand--for each job.

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Once the fire gets going, it's time to smelt the iron powder.

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In his shop, Ohara welds the raw material into blades and hammers them out.

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The dude is hardcore. He works in his socks!

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And now Tokunaga's got his blade.

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Er, blades.

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Rob Wilkey

9 years ago

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This is the most Japanese thing that has ever happened.

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Stephen Johnson

9 years ago

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check out more at their main website http://tokunagafurniture.com

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Toby B

9 years ago

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Super-cool (well, hot). When the tamahagane comes out of the furnace it looks like an ugly, flat blob, too, which takes a bunch of forging to get to be anything vaguely blade-shaped.

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Scott Kendrella

9 years ago

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素晴らしい！(Awesome!)

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