Nothing to see here unless you like pictures of nice Japanese axes.
These gorgeous woodworking tools came from my Japanese friend Tomio Imaru.
Imarusan and his woodworking friends have very kindly scoured Japanese auctions for me to collect these beautiful tools. I hope to share some of them with the European carpenters that came to Japan with me and also am considering running a short course where folk could come and try them out and learn the basics of Japanese hewing.
Here are a couple of short vid clips of the tools.
and this is how they are used
Edited to add a link to my mate Nigel’s blog, he came out and had a play with the axes and adzes and took this vid of me having a quick play with a chouna.
now i don't normally believe in love at first sight, but things change. a little tear appeared in the corner of my eye seeing that first axe. it's a bit early in the morning to be looking at photos like these, i'm off to compose myself and then carve some spoons.
Beauties! I can completely empathise with Barns comments. No tears for me, but they are certainly something to behold. Your Japanese friend did you proud.
Crackin old tools beautiful shapes all with their different purposes. I try to buy older tools when I get the chance. But no Japanese tools turn up at the car boot sales in Scotland. Occasionally something nice shows up 🙂
Love the last video and bare feet… Not sure I'd trust myself to do that!
Hi Robin,Very nice axes, you can see they have been used well for decades and they look fit for another hundred years.I was wondering about the laced rope protection for the axe that you can just see on picture 9 and 11. Do you have a clear picture of that? It looks really practical.Erik
@barn yes me too, it is a sweetie.@Eric follow the edited link at the bottom to Nigel's blog he has a nice photo for you.