The backside of Japanese chisels is hollow ground to facilitate honing. A common question is what to do when the chisel is ground down to the point where the hollow grind reaches the edge. Rest assured: by regularly honing the backside (the flat rear side), the hollow grind gradually and slowly moves backward, allowing you to maintain your straight edge. So, you can safely dismiss this concern. On the contrary, with many users, excessive honing or grinding of the backside enlarges the flat area between the edge and the start of the hollow grind.

In Japan, chisels are typically struck with a steel hammer, but you can also use the familiar wooden mallet. All chisels offered on this page have a length of approximately 22 – 23 cm (8-13/16 – 9 in.).

The forges in Japan that produce chisels are very small, often one-man operations. They give the impression of a village forge. At first, it’s hard to imagine that from such low-tech operations come the world’s best chisels. But they do, indeed, and the key is the skill and experience of the blacksmith.

We offer several product lines:
Affordable standard chisels from the brand "Hikoza". They have very good practical quality. The chisel is made from pure carbon steel and is harder, but also somewhat more delicate than European chisels. These chisels are drop forged.

Chisels made from HSS steel:
For a long time, no chisels were made from HSS steel because it wasn’t fine-grained enough to achieve really sharp edges—until a relatively fine-grained one was developed. You can get the HSS steel of these chisels very sharp, but the much more outstanding quality is the robustness of these chisels. With carbon steel, small parts of the edge break off relatively quickly with poor treatment; this doesn’t happen here. You can really get down to business with them without having to be overly careful. Sharpening is a bit more effort than with carbon steel.

Fujikawa
The Oire Nomi come from the FUJIKAWA forge in Miki City, Hyogo Prefecture. These very well-processed chisels are forge-welded and stand up to any comparison. The cutting steel is made from White Paper Steel (Shirogami No.2), and the handle is crafted from red oak. The ferrule is mounted so that the handle protrudes about 1 mm over the ferrule edge. When striking with the hammer, you hit the wood and not the metal, which is important because chisels in Japan are traditionally struck with a steel hammer, not a wooden one. Over time, a mushroom head forms over the ferrule, as desired with Japanese chisels.

KOSHIMITSU
The blacksmith Yasushi Hanyo continues the KOSHIMITSU brand after Mr. Matsumura, who supplied us for over 20 years, retired. Yasushi Hanyo works practically in the neighborhood, in Yoita, Niigata Province. Yasushi Hanyo is a very experienced blacksmith and produces chisels of the highest quality and finesse. The chisels are hand-forged from White Paper Steel, an especially fine-grained carbon steel, allowing you to achieve extreme sharpness when sharpening and honing, like with very few other steels.