Thursday, March 21, 2013
Yokosaka san
Yokosaka Masato (横坂正人) is a Japanese blacksmith, plane maker. He is most famous for his rakuzan (樂山) plane. I wanted to post a photo of him, demonstrating the making of a plane blade during kezuroukai 2007.
On the photo, notice the simply shaped but massive anvil, the forge itself, the "magic" powder (bottom left) to sprinkle on the steel before forge welding on the iron, the wooden tub full of water for quenching...
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Still alive and what happens to blogspot, answer to comments?
It's been well, 5 years since I didn't write anything on my blog, 5 years during which I kept in touch with woodworking, Japanese, Taiwanese and western style, sharpening, but some personal troubles kept me from investing myself into what I like to do.
Troubles are behind for the moment, and I hope they remain there.
I see some comments on my posts but can't find out how to reply, I only have the option to mark them as spam, delete them or remove the content! And blogspot is now in mandarin since I am writing from Taiwan! Moreover I received no email notification about the posted comments. I'm quite unhappy about this. I used to be notified when a comment was posted, but in 5years things may have changed in the way blogspot works.
I sincerely apologize to those of you who asked questions, and I thank those of you who found the few posts on this blog interesting. I'll try to address the comments:
Chris and JimR: About the black stone: they are quarried in Taiwan, or were, as my understanding is that they are over 50yrs old. They were only available from local hardware stores near where I live, hidden on a shelf in a corner, as almost no one has any interest into these stones. They are not perfect in shape (may have been chipped) but I find them very interesting to use. They are very very hard, but with a preparation with a nagura or better a diamond stone, they produce a fine slurry which makes the stone much more pleasant to use. I gave one to the boss of Kezurokai (Mr Sugimura) back in 2010 and one to a good friend of mine, so I have only one left for myself. I don't know if they are still available but if you are interested I can check. Let me know (hinokidotkuaimuatgmaildotcom where, dot = . and at = @)
Mark: about tools for making shoji: I'm afraid I am not able to sell any tool for the moment, but you can order from several tool shop in Europe (big one in Germany: more than tools.com but expensive, some in the USA, in the UK I am sure you can find what you need). James: about a link to your friend's shop: yes, why not!
Tibor Hegedüs: about quotation on timber and veneer. I don't have connection with wood wholesaler, sorry.
Karl Holtey: thank you for your encouragement. I am back and will post more indeed.
I see some comments on my posts but can't find out how to reply, I only have the option to mark them as spam, delete them or remove the content! And blogspot is now in mandarin since I am writing from Taiwan! Moreover I received no email notification about the posted comments. I'm quite unhappy about this. I used to be notified when a comment was posted, but in 5years things may have changed in the way blogspot works.
I sincerely apologize to those of you who asked questions, and I thank those of you who found the few posts on this blog interesting. I'll try to address the comments:
Chris and JimR: About the black stone: they are quarried in Taiwan, or were, as my understanding is that they are over 50yrs old. They were only available from local hardware stores near where I live, hidden on a shelf in a corner, as almost no one has any interest into these stones. They are not perfect in shape (may have been chipped) but I find them very interesting to use. They are very very hard, but with a preparation with a nagura or better a diamond stone, they produce a fine slurry which makes the stone much more pleasant to use. I gave one to the boss of Kezurokai (Mr Sugimura) back in 2010 and one to a good friend of mine, so I have only one left for myself. I don't know if they are still available but if you are interested I can check. Let me know (hinokidotkuaimuatgmaildotcom where, dot = . and at = @)
Mark: about tools for making shoji: I'm afraid I am not able to sell any tool for the moment, but you can order from several tool shop in Europe (big one in Germany: more than tools.com but expensive, some in the USA, in the UK I am sure you can find what you need). James: about a link to your friend's shop: yes, why not!
Tibor Hegedüs: about quotation on timber and veneer. I don't have connection with wood wholesaler, sorry.
Karl Holtey: thank you for your encouragement. I am back and will post more indeed.
