Thread: Kagi-ba-Sword forging shop

Four people

JimR, DSweet, Gugi and Paco664 were generous enough to lend me their Kamisoris.

I ended up with a good cross section. A vintage and newer Iwasaki no.1, an Iwasaki No.2.

and two other vintage razors-one very small.

I have studied them, measured them, taken pictures of them and shaved with them.

But the place to make them is lagging behind.

So, in the meantime I thought it would be of interest to see the progression of building a traditional Japanese sword forging shop or Kagi-ba.

Here is the basic plan






Now the actual construction. Prior to the build a wind storm ripped the Tyvek house wrap off the wall. The house itself is also in a state of construction but that is a whole 'nother story.









More later

Very cool. Looking forward to more photographs.

It looks like your helper isn't too much help!

Fantastic!

Originally Posted by Jimbo7

It looks like your helper isn't too much help!

Yea!

Yuki is a great digger-never in the right place though.

Thank you for the pictures they are very interesting. I admire the clean layout.

Charlie

can't wait to see the finished shop and some of the magical creations you make...

Very interesting.
I am a bit puzzled though. What is the pit for?

Bruno, of the Japanese smiths shops I've been to...the young men work kneeling or squatting on the floor. As they get older and their knees suffer the effects of carrying more birthdays...they move the floor downward. One of the most entertaining fellows put a solid floor on the bottom and had a nice little roll about stool in the pit. We had a huge laugh with him about that when we asked why not simply raise the equipment up to waist height and work from a solid floor.

The simple answer is that it is their tradition to do it this way.

Looks nice. It's amazing how much work goes into such a simple design....