About these chisels. When I bought them they were covered with rust and the handle almost black with I don't know what. But as I restored it, it turned out to be a superb one. The steel is likely to be a very well forged White Steel #2 . You might not doubt it even if I said it is White Steel #1. It is quite hard and tenacious. Definitely not cheap sloppily forged White Steel #2 chisels. The handle is even boxwood ! One of the most prized and expensive handle material (read "On Handle Material page on top of the Chisels section). The body is shaved by sen (handtool) and not by grinders. The lamination line is as clean as Ichihiro . (Check the lamination line of Ichihiro chisel in Japan-Tool if you are keen. I would say Sukesada's lamination is even cleaner than Ichihiro). The ferrule and the hoop is handmade (you can see this in the above page as well). Everything points to super high quality. I was suppsed to get a cheap tool for novice sharpeners to practice, but this one wasn't so cheap. Sorry guys, I'll try to get a cheaper ones soon....

Restored, adjusted (uraoshi) and sharpened , very old unused chisels. Ready to be used. I was requested by mutliple people to sell not so expensive old tool, that was sharpened to the maximum by me, so they can observe as a sample piece and study the proper sharpening, and adjustments. I have another request to sell cheap old "unsharpened & unrestored" tools so that people buying new tools from me can practice sharpening before sharpening the new ones, and I should be getting them in quite soon.

These, especially the 24mm was seriously warped to the steel side, so I spent two full days grinding the back. Since the back requires delicate handling to keep the back hollow shape clean, I cannot grind with much pressure as I can with the front bevel, so it takes long time. I have so many cuts on my finger tips from the corner of the back digging in and cutting.

If I were to be commisioned to have these fully adjusted, sharpened and restored to this level, I would charge $50 each. It might sound absurd but it is that tough since I really make it perfect. I took me 3 days to just flatten the back, and another 3 days to sharpen and polish up the body and the handle. I hope they won't go too cheap....

The condition is pretty good. Unused, so back hollow was in perfect shape as you can see. The rust in the hollow is only skin deep so it won't affect the performance, although it does not look too nice. Also the front side was scrubbed with sand paper badly, so I had to take care of that, so the oxide film is basically gone, but the blacksmith's file mark is still intact.

Along with these chisels I got a slick chisel from the same carpenter, and it was to my surprise 2nd generation Ichihiro (Tsuki Ichihiro = Moon mark Ichihiro by Yamazaki Isami). It is listed as well in the Slick Chisel's page. Since these chisels are from the same owner, they could be something special.

Old tools charm. One doesn't have the mei, but they are definitely from the same maker.

Before restoration.

BTW, don't expect all rusty crummy looking tools to be this good after restoration. I was just lucky with these. If you are going to try buying rusty tools for restoration, make sure to check the back hollow's condition. If the rust in the back hollow is too deep, it won't be usuable.

Back is perfectly flat now. It took me 3 days to flatten them. I hope these won't sell too cheap....

Superb lamination. It almost couldn't be any better. If you are not familiar with the various lamination style, you might want to check Ichihiro page, and compare the lamination line. Not all chisels' lamination are as neat and properly done as these.

Shapened and polishied to the max. I used Shoubudani Tomae this time for the 24mm, Tanba for 18mm. You should be able to see the difference when you take them in your hands and observe closely. The one polished with Shoubudani (24mm) look more polished and the 18mm hazy. These chisels should give you some idea on difference of the finish depending on various stones as well.

In order for these chisels to serve as educational pieces, I did my best to make the blade as good as possible and all the adjustments as well. A properly sharpened and polished bevel should look as if the steel was cut off completely flat by some sort of super lazor beam technology (that's what I feel). No readily visible marks from the stone, and the reflection on the bevel should not be distorted but like a mirror. Although it looks hazy in this photo, the bevel is highly polished to a half mirror state when seen from another direction.

When an old rusty tool is sharpened like this, I realy like the contrast of the rough looking body and the clean pure looking of the newly surfaced iron and steel of the bevel.

Handmade hoop. Lowered to the proper position. You can see the welding line of the hoop. Also this boxwood is very beautiful. I couldn't capture the beauty of this wood good enough. Very hard wood. It is very shiney now that it is treated with oil and polished up.