Several years ago, much before I became somewhat familiar with Japanese hand tools, I received a surprise package from Osaka ,Japan. It was box containing a nokogiri (which is the Japanese word for hand saw). It was sent by an Indian acquaintance who was living in Japan at that time. In the note that accompanied the saw, he wrote that this saw had belonged to his Japanese father-in-law who no longer used it and he hoped I would find good use for it.
The nokogiri was quite unlike anything I had encountered: its shiny stainless steel blade looked as new as the day it had been made, only the bamboo handle wrapped in rattan suggested the saw had seen better days. Nevertheless, it's dark impulse-hardened teeth were razor sharp even after whatever time it had been used for and cut through a piece of hard White Ash like a hot knife through butter. I was astounded!
After this surprise introduction to a Japanese hand tool, I started finding out more about them. I ordered Toshio Odate’s famous book titled Japanese Woodworking Tools (available on amazon.in). and realised that Japanese hand tools were quite apart from their Western counterparts. The only problem was they were difficult to procure. They were not readily available in India at that time and one had to order them from Japan.
Fortunately, at that time, there was a very good Australian-run online store in Japan called www.toolsfromjapan.com. The owner of the store sold his tools at reasonable prices with reasonable shipping charges. I bought a number of tools from him over the years and would have continued to do so had he unfortunately not shut shop a few years ago. With that I had no option to buy Japanese tools at reasonable prices from Japan any more. Ordering from Amazon Japan or from other Japanese stores proved to be prohibitively expensive.
Now we have Mr Abid Ali to our rescue. He is a tennis coach and avid woodworker, who, having encountered a problem similar to mine, decided to import Japanese tools in some quantities and sell them at a modest markup to woodworkers in India. Mr Ali is a great help to anyone who wants to learn anything about woodworking, is passionately devoted to the craft and a woodworking instructor himself.
He recently got his first import consignment from Japan and is selling them through his website www.beyondboxes.in. He can also be reached at abid@beyondboxes.in. A complete list of the items he is offering are available at this website under the “japanese Tools” section. These include handplanes (kanna), chisels (nomi), knives (kiridashi), small brass bar clamps (hatagane), marking gauges (kebiki), saws (nokogiri), hammers (tsuchi), sharpening stones (toishi) and a honing guide.
His prices are reasonable and the quality of his offerings rather good. At present, he is importing all his tools from Kakuri, which is supposed to be a reputed Japanese hand tools brand (details available at www.kakuritools.com). Hopefully he will reach out to other companies as well in the future.
The heartening part is that the response to his Japanese tools sale has been overwhelming. “The stuff is flying off the shelves”, Mr Ali says. He plans to order his next shipment next month which is good going.
Buying tools from a person who is a woodworker himself is always preferable to buying from people who are merely trading in them. Not only will a woodworker ensure the tools are of a certain standard, but he will also be able to advise customers on the proper use and care of each tool. For, often it is not clear which tool is suited for which specific purpose. Here Mr Ali’s expertise would be invaluable. He is also offering to tune the tools (for a small price) to customers who are unfamiliar with Japanese tool usage.
I picked up a Ryoba, a set of small clamps and a kiridashi, which was absolutely stunning and easily the sharpest tool I have ever come across!. A kiridashi is used for various purposes including carving. I will only be using it as a marking knife and that alone would be worth it. The Kakuri ryoba too is a fine sturdy saw designed for cutting fairly solid pieces of lumber (though not designed for really fine work). The little hatagane are so pretty and delicate, I feel I should use them for decoration only!
It is satisfying to know that we can finally get a few decent Japanese tools at reasonable prices. Apart from Mr Ali, there is another individual, Mr Deepak Chaddha, who sells Japanese saws from the well known saw maker Nakaya. Unfortunately, he does not seem to have a website or a publicly available address where potential buyers could contact him.
Toshio Odate writes in his book: “...the craftsman, the ultimate user, must respect both the toolmakers and those who provide the opportunity to use the tools. Finally, the craftsman must respect himself, the craft and the tools.” Truer words could not have been written.
Indranil Banerjie
29 May 2022
The nokogiri was quite unlike anything I had encountered: its shiny stainless steel blade looked as new as the day it had been made, only the bamboo handle wrapped in rattan suggested the saw had seen better days. Nevertheless, it's dark impulse-hardened teeth were razor sharp even after whatever time it had been used for and cut through a piece of hard White Ash like a hot knife through butter. I was astounded!
After this surprise introduction to a Japanese hand tool, I started finding out more about them. I ordered Toshio Odate’s famous book titled Japanese Woodworking Tools (available on amazon.in). and realised that Japanese hand tools were quite apart from their Western counterparts. The only problem was they were difficult to procure. They were not readily available in India at that time and one had to order them from Japan.
Fortunately, at that time, there was a very good Australian-run online store in Japan called www.toolsfromjapan.com. The owner of the store sold his tools at reasonable prices with reasonable shipping charges. I bought a number of tools from him over the years and would have continued to do so had he unfortunately not shut shop a few years ago. With that I had no option to buy Japanese tools at reasonable prices from Japan any more. Ordering from Amazon Japan or from other Japanese stores proved to be prohibitively expensive.
Now we have Mr Abid Ali to our rescue. He is a tennis coach and avid woodworker, who, having encountered a problem similar to mine, decided to import Japanese tools in some quantities and sell them at a modest markup to woodworkers in India. Mr Ali is a great help to anyone who wants to learn anything about woodworking, is passionately devoted to the craft and a woodworking instructor himself.
He recently got his first import consignment from Japan and is selling them through his website www.beyondboxes.in. He can also be reached at abid@beyondboxes.in. A complete list of the items he is offering are available at this website under the “japanese Tools” section. These include handplanes (kanna), chisels (nomi), knives (kiridashi), small brass bar clamps (hatagane), marking gauges (kebiki), saws (nokogiri), hammers (tsuchi), sharpening stones (toishi) and a honing guide.
His prices are reasonable and the quality of his offerings rather good. At present, he is importing all his tools from Kakuri, which is supposed to be a reputed Japanese hand tools brand (details available at www.kakuritools.com). Hopefully he will reach out to other companies as well in the future.
The heartening part is that the response to his Japanese tools sale has been overwhelming. “The stuff is flying off the shelves”, Mr Ali says. He plans to order his next shipment next month which is good going.
Buying tools from a person who is a woodworker himself is always preferable to buying from people who are merely trading in them. Not only will a woodworker ensure the tools are of a certain standard, but he will also be able to advise customers on the proper use and care of each tool. For, often it is not clear which tool is suited for which specific purpose. Here Mr Ali’s expertise would be invaluable. He is also offering to tune the tools (for a small price) to customers who are unfamiliar with Japanese tool usage.
I picked up a Ryoba, a set of small clamps and a kiridashi, which was absolutely stunning and easily the sharpest tool I have ever come across!. A kiridashi is used for various purposes including carving. I will only be using it as a marking knife and that alone would be worth it. The Kakuri ryoba too is a fine sturdy saw designed for cutting fairly solid pieces of lumber (though not designed for really fine work). The little hatagane are so pretty and delicate, I feel I should use them for decoration only!
It is satisfying to know that we can finally get a few decent Japanese tools at reasonable prices. Apart from Mr Ali, there is another individual, Mr Deepak Chaddha, who sells Japanese saws from the well known saw maker Nakaya. Unfortunately, he does not seem to have a website or a publicly available address where potential buyers could contact him.
Toshio Odate writes in his book: “...the craftsman, the ultimate user, must respect both the toolmakers and those who provide the opportunity to use the tools. Finally, the craftsman must respect himself, the craft and the tools.” Truer words could not have been written.
Indranil Banerjie
29 May 2022
Thank you for a wonderful write up. I am doing my best to give tools at a very reasonable price. All the tools were first ordered as samples in Jan 22 and tested before extensively before ordering the first consignment in April.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck.
DeleteThis is just a reminder to you good Sir that this site is an invaluable trove of knowledge when it comes to woodworking in India. Keep up the good work. Highly appreciate your posts.
ReplyDeleteThank you, my anonymous friend!
DeleteHello there
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for these resources Indranil. I am looking to start using hand tools. So far I have had access to power tools from a community makerspace in the US, but I am looking to try out slow-crafting at home in India. As I begin to gather tools, do you have an opinion on whether Anant tools (planes and chisels) be a good starting point?
What features of working with the tools improves with more expensive tools? Is it easier to setup and calibrate? Is it more ergonomic? Do the tools remain sharper longer?
Sampath
Good question, Sampath. I too had the same questions at one time. Are more expensive tools necessarily better? Not in all cases. In some cases they are a total waste of money. But in the following cases they are worth it: a) when it comes to accuracy a more expensive tool will be worth its weight in gold, such as calipers, squares etc which must be highly accurate to be of use; b) when the quality of a sharp edge needs to be enduring and very sharp such as Japanese chisels; and c) when a good design is required to make a task easier such as parallel clamps. And yes, Anant is a good starting point; if properly tuned they are as good as anything in the market. Best of luck.
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