The Forging of a Hunting Knife in Tosa, Japan - 2013-3-7
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- Опубликовано: 9 мар 2013
- This is master craftsman Hiro Komatsu. As a child having grown up next to a blacksmith shop he wanted to become one very badly. He apprenticed at the age of 16 under a master craftsman of forestry and hunting tools. He specializes in hunting knives. We were allowed to film him forging a 210mm "sword nata." The links to their guild site are below. Japanese only for now on both the information and buying their products, but we are working to change that. Incredible people. Incredible craftsmanship I feel so honored to have seen this.
www.tosahamono.or.jp/
www.zakuri.com/ 
Хобби
As a blacksmith myself, I have to say this guy is probably the most impressive japanese master smith Ive seen on youtube. He has optimized everything for the least amount of blows and movement and his use of small angled blocks and gauges is impressive.
David West You are easily impressed. This guy is a freaking amateur.
+William Jefferson Troll?
+Mike Hill That radius block...im sure he must have, through many year of working with his steels, developed an affinity to gauge how much it stretches. Wish I had a power hammer. While I like hand hammering, the speed and efficiency is something to admire.
Guess we found the armchair black smith
@@williamjefferson8280 i know right? Any real blacksmith can point out so many things in this video.
The only skill that is mastered is that of repetition. I guess you can be great at that too. There are many factories like this fabricating knives by the thousands.
Any real master is worth his steel many times over. Risking a forge weld for mass produced knives means this factory worker is worth less then the risk of loosing a blade. If this was really a master he would use way more high carbon steel instead of just the bare minimum.
And yes, these are mass produced knives. They are priced mainly in the 100-200 dollar price range, meaning the bare minimum is done because there is no room for additional work.
Master bladesmith. Watching this guy work the metal in that shop is like magic.
He makes it look so simple...absolutely amazing. This is probably my favorite forging video.
Mine too
He is one of the most excellent blacksmiths in my town.
Next time you see him, please tell him, his work impresses people in germany. My grandfather was a blacksmith. That´s why I came across this video.
united states here, also highly impressed. his accuracy, speed, the sheer knowledge one would have to have of how steel behaves to make something that quickly, it is utterly awe inspiring.
takashi kajihara Me too impressed from India....and inspired with his master skills.
takashi kajihara Brasil (no Brazil!) here too!!
his work impresses many people here!
Master is a good word for him! ... He is so fast a whole knife in less than 10 minutes as far as the forging - WoW!!
Obviously he has mastered his art and there is NO lost time or motion. One thing I notice is how much work he gets done on each Heat ... I have watched many blacksmiths who get maybe 10-15 hits on the metal before they have to reheat ... he gets 25-30 hits in ... this is partly why he moves along so fast !!
Always fascinated by blacksmithing / bladesmithing
nice video greetings !!! What I like about the Japanese Forge, they give it between the Old touch and the Industrial Touch, in turn with that Machinery for the Forge ... Interesting, Greetings from Venezuela!
Absolutely amazing. The speed and accuracy he shows is far superior to anything I have witnessed in life, or on youtube. Crazy.
his speed and precision is amazing
Oh man, this is so satisfying to look at. Thank your for filming it.
i always trust in Japanese products. thanks fo sharing.from France
Amazing to watch. Thank you for sharing the work of this craftsman.
Great craft. This guy nails it. Just one thing, the first steel he hammers is not the mild steel, but the hard one. It will be the core and edge of the knife. Probably the hitachi aogami.
Amazing craftsmanship and a beautiful work of art.
Awesome to watch a master craftsman, I am sure most of the end users are blind to the level of skill in the making. have plenty of old japanese chisels but no knives.... a must get i think! thank you.
Thank you for posting it. Very smooth and effective method. Great to see.
So very awesome to see an extremely skilled craftsman at work!
Great, beautiful mastery! Learned a lot! Thank you!!!!
I'm not only left in awe of the skills that Japanese blacksmiths can weld a hammer and tell when the metal is at the right temperature to work on but jealous of your Japanese language. It's just something I can't learn... Anyhoo, great video and thanks for sharing 👍🏼😊
anyone can learn given enough time and practice, but it is hard to learn the writting there are 4 types of characters, higara, kanji, kanna, and romanji
as for the power hammer its just like the one Murry Carter uses, well the style, anyway, and if you dont know of Carter He is a guy from canada that went to japan and fell in love with watching the making of cutlery and apprenticed to a japanese master, and was named the master of the yoshimotto bladesmiths then moved to the usa oregan or washington state and makes knives and japanese cutlery up there, the only known westerner to be a japanese master and an american bladesmith society master.
as for the japanese hand made knifes well they take the dedication to a whole new level, and the way they sharpen is what sets it apart, as for the knives they have one for each task in cooking, such as types of fish, and veggies, or for breaking the fish down, the deba
Excellent video. A master at work. His economy and precision of movements is impressive.
I liked how he knew his surroundings so well he didn't even look back to wet his tongs at 4:30
Very nicely done and very good workmanship!
That was awesome! Such skill coupled to methodical and precise movements!
Great video it was the a pleasure to watch this knife Smith work and the finished knife was lovely looking
Thank you and shop owner for making this video very intresting subject. Makes me want to become a blcksmith too💪
Wetting the hammer helps remove the scale from the piece being forged and hammered as far I can see.
Amazing Work !!
very good. always like the forged knife
Great video, thanks to you and the smith for sharing. Amazing to see the efficiency of his work, I don't think I saw one hammer blow wasted. Keeping the hammer wet is for keeping the scale from being hammered in to the surface and marring the finish isn't it? I liked his power hammer, and metal shear!
That was very fine indeed. I wish I could work there. Thanks.
The master's piece!
Thank you for the video very interesting
Great video, have been to Japan many times for business, (worked for a Japanese company), and spent most of my time in Northern, Central Japan, and the island of Hokkaido, (spelling?), and that mostly non English speaking areas are very closed off to the rest of the world....so I know this is special. Again, nice job!
Blazing fast and acurate ! Leave it to the japaneese to be master craftsmen in blacksmithing too. But having those tools so close means alot i guess :)
You are right, I prefer to call blacksmith's working area a "studio" rather than shop !
love it man.
Thank you all for the comments. I told them I was just a regular guy and I might get 500 eyes about outside of Japan to see it and I am proud for them to be getting close so soon.
More like 300.000. Wonderful video!
Very cool.
I've always wanted to go to northern Japan and make a knife with the iron sands. This video reminds me why.
that part of the hammer that hits the metal and hollows out the inside?
What a beautiful blade, are they available for purchasein the US?
very nice
Wow that's a sic looking hunting knife :O
awesome
True SKILL!!!
Verry nice video. Machine hammer how mucht is weight?
SUPER NICE .
Can anyone explain what he is doing in the very last step, when he is hitting the blade (with some occasionally hard blows!) while it is cold? It's my understanding that if you hit cold steel like that, especially if it hasn't been annealed yet, it's likely to crack. Obviously he knows what he's doing, I just don't understand it...
Man, if this dude doesn't have Tinnitus, it's a freakin miracle.
Is the power hammer shop made or a particular Japanese brand?
Mantul mang 😅👍
what kind of forge and fuel is he using
Bạn cho mình hỏi bột cho vào lúc 1. 32 và 1 phút 50 là gì vậy ạ. Tại sao phải cho bột vào lúc rèn ạ. Có tác dụng gì không. Cám ơn bạn trước nhé
So this is awesome but I do have one question. How does he get out? is there an entrance I can't see, does he crawl over or under the work benches?
its actually not work benches, he stands in a hole in the floor - its rather common practice in japanese blacksmithing
4:38 Can someone explain me what is he doing exactly please?
Just curious as to what type of forge he was using?
Nice!
oggi stesso farei questo lavoro....è un qualcosa di misterioso....che solo i maestri possono
Japanese perfection!
Anyone have any idea,why he wets the hammer?
So there is no need for heat treatment or steel tempering if you hammer forge the knife?
yes there is still a need for heat treating! unless you just want a knife that is very brittle or very soft, depending.
why are the Japanese smiths always in those holes?
Because that way they can stand up and still have the anvil / fire, etc at comfortable working height. These days with power hammers etc it's not so big an issue anymore, but in the olden days they'd have apprentices with sledgehammers for power hammering. They obviously needed to stand up, hammering down. being in a pit meant the master would not have to kneel down in order to do his part of the job: to keep an eye on the project, hold the tongs and do manual corrections with a hand held hammer.
If he had been at ground level, he'd have to be kneeling all day (which would be excruciating at that age) or raise all heavy equipment a couple of feet as well as create stable platforms for the apprentices with the big hammers.
I have a kujira from Tosa. Aogami blue #2 core. My favorite steel 🐋🐳🐋🐳🐋🐳🐋
damn, this guy is good.
WOW!
That knife is beautiful.
But how does the guy leave his working place? -He is encircled by equipment. (Or just very determined ;) .)
he uses an elevator ;-). they always say a blacksmith needs to be so close as possible to his tools and his fire, so this is pretty much how close as it get. he savesa lot of steps, so the 1 time he need to crawl out is nothing. great workout for the old days hehe
He gives the impression that this was not his first time......
this knife is gorgeous !
Anyone knows where is possible to purchase this knife?
+giancarlo tatarella I don't know if it's the same company, but Kanetsune knives look just like the finished one they showed. Very beautiful.
I was looking for a large sturdy japanese knife.....
why do they forge in knee-deep pits? i've seen the same thing previous videos also
warren buitandag Simply to adjust the working height.
oh ok, thought it might be culture/tradition related as ive only really seen it with Japanese smiths. thanx!
+Mohammed Aslam They haven't developed table technology
***** I hope Mr. Mike, it will environment friendly...what a nice thing with these people the whole family indulge in the same line of business. What ever they are producing the family is connected.
+Ash Scott And have you?
That is one Big Ass Hunting knife. Don't know how practical it would be but I still want it. Be to scared to use it to cut twigs, more of a show piece.
Can anyone tell me what he is applying at 01:33 ?...
my guess would be some type of powder metal/ steel on steel flux combo
Borax, helping fusing the 2 metals, high carbon and mild steel
Papi Chulo Its flux, which keeps the steel from oxidizing, and ruining the weld between the two steels. Japanese blacksmith's traditionally use sand for this, and it looks like it may be a fine sand. However, it could also be another type.
what's the sand you put on it for
+Shawn P It's flux. It's a powdered mixture that helps weld the two different steels. It's more complicated than that, but that's the basic idea.
Shawn P flux... most smiths in the US use borax
BTeamHooligan thanks
his skill is awesome but i'd like a blade thats been folded and forged again and again
like they do with the katana
folding is only required when using impure poor quality steel
aopfin not true at all. Folding is used to create patterns within the metal and the metal used in a katana is extremely pure which is folded several times in the making of the sword.
***** What is amazing about Japanese blade making is that they were able to engineer high quality blades despite using inferior steel. Had they been able to get crucible steel from Persia, they would have used different processes to make the blade (no folding or layering of hard and soft steels, etc.) Look up the PBS program on making a Viking sword for a good intro to crucible steel.
synapse131 they werent high quality blades. you had to be trained to use a katana just so you wouldnt break it and have it shatter.
making me cringe watching how close that machine is to his skull, haha...awesome
鍛造
hmm no wasted movements here, no over elaborate ceremony like making of a katana in the traditional fashion for sure, but he is certainly working dilligent, deliberate, and no bull about the making of this tool, i bet the knife there goes for at least 300 us dollers, made by a master like that and its size, no made in china cheap cutlery here in the making, lol
I would have thought it to be more economical to have an all high carbon steel knife and cut out the need for the forge welding.
Ironically, no
Look at fällkniven
What specifically about Fallkniven? They seem to specialize in stainless steel knives. They use vg10 which is really high end stainless. Not your standard 420, but still not really in the same niche of knife making as anything on this video as far as I can see
Laminated steels are good when you are trying to solve specific problem with the environment the knife will be used in. For example with Helle of Norway. Norway's population is concentrated around the coastal waters, thus they ran into the problem of the knives rusting. So they laminate corrosive resistant tougher steel around a much harder cutting steel. In that instance it makes sense to laminate the steel. However aside from very rare environmental and use specific problems it doesn't make sense to laminate the steel. It is much more economical and all around better to use a single steel for a blade. This is doubly true for exotic steels like damascus/pattern welded steels, they don't make as good of a knife and they are more expensive.
TheLameBucket Well, yes and no. In Japan (as opposed to medieval Europe) high-grade steel capable of being hardened as an edge steel was relatively scarce, so it made economic sense to forge a small amount into a lower grade yet tougher cladding. And as you suggest, this made for a more durable tool/weapon.
it makes the blade tougher.simple as that. knife that are too hard have the tendency to break easily under heavy condition. by putting in a metal that is softer easier to bend the overall of the blade becomes more tough and less able to snap. (that how i hear it from all those samurai and katana videos i've seen the last years. feel free to correct me if i'm wrong.
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外国人の皆さん買ってください。メイドインジャパンをよろしくお願いします。
I'm sure it is a very sharp hunting knife, but ugly.
This doesn't look that difficult.
William Jefferson Like in many krafts, the simpler it looks the harder it is.
one of better blacksmith ? serius? forgin on cold? it there isnt much profesional