My Life as a Japanese Swordsmith | Vlog01

My Life as a Japanese Swordsmith | Vlog01

no answer no answer some while ago I injured my back and elbow because of too much polishing then at the same time I crashed my motorcycle and injured my thumb that slowed down my production significantly then this weird disease spread across the globe restricting the shipping of any goods so I couldn’t deliver my orders it even affected the production of charcoal so you couldn’t get any fuel they say adversity never comes alone but it fosters a man to rise to the occasion anyways eventually these circumstances pushed me into exploring new ways also I still had um some bunch of bags of broken pieces of charcoal good enough for forging knives and after an agreement with an old trustworthy customer who is also a knife polisher I could sell them to him unpolished during this long challenging period I took the opportunity to get some physical rest and initiated several projects introducing the beauty of swords to people and in this historical environment they could learn how to handle and appreciate swords from the perspective of a swordsmith thankfully I was able to complete the sword for the annual exhibition in Tokyo this sword was registered yesterday and now I’m going to send it to the polisher and it’s going to get the habaki and shira-zaya now all these endeavors especially the new ones required a lot of time but was not so uh fruitful economically but I still had this reliable knife order or did I by the time the knives were ready for delivery the customer was gone no answer whatsoever for several months I knew he was going through some personal issues but faced with these challenges I decided to do something radical the registration please could you tighten it a bit for me please so it doesn’t move around as it is a Japanese sword thank you very much nice box zoom in here it is yes thank you ah this is interesting this is great since it’s made with all skill of a swordsmith yes right it’s (shinogi) high unless it’s forged by hand held hammer you can’t make it like this ah right this one is good this one is so interesting this one will go yes this one will go this is so good these are also tamahagne are these tamahagne these three and all of these are tamahagane tamahagane these are antique tamahagane nails from Kokubunji temple right the nails so I’m back home and I have a lot of polishing ahead of me but my work was interrupted by New Year’s celebrations in my neighborhood we have a big shrine where people visit to pray and offer their gratitude to the divine commit to New Year’s resolutions or resolutions and receive talismans as a swordsmith I make my New Year’s visit to the goddess of steel she’s enshrined in the remote mountains of Shimane prefecture but happened to have a small branch shrine in the neighboring area that I wanted to show you but first behind this shrine there’s a beautiful sacred hill I wanted to climb get exposed to some some beauty and get some perspective whoa there’s a nice rock to take a break on we already got some nice view from here but we’re not even halfway so continue don’t need to care about anything up here just keeping your balance so fresh look at this look at this deep path deep trodden so many footsteps we’re reaching tip the top the top let’s get up on the top Hofu City from this perspective or maybe maybe this size this is the size of our problems from this perspective or maybe this size this size this is the size of my problems it’s nothing just need to zoom out a little bit or zoom in what we got was that my problem yeah somewhere there I can’t see it anymore it’s gone behind this mountain Mount Fuji of Hofu we have the smithy this area is called the Hofu no Tibet the Tibet of Hofu let go down down is easy it’s a lot of gravel better be careful gravity so fun huh let’s get off the beaten track what’s this can you see this dot there there it’s some kind of stone creature such an interesting creature you can see he’s got some kind of spine looks like something from the ocean there’s some arrows here we’re not lost just we’re going against the arrows it’s pretty steep oh look at this look at this rock so beautiful ah it’s so beautiful you can hear the music from the shrine they made the Tatara here in Ube Murage came and made this Kera this tamahagane block big block they hono sacrifice sacrifice to kanayago sama and here we have the Talisman can I see what’s that it’s the it’s the talisman we need to unleash the dragon from this so I’m back at the polishing room and now there’s a lot to do how arrogant of me to think I could avoid pain it’s too thick (Swedish) too thick the edge is too thick shit (Japanese) ah damn I cracked the tip (old-fashioned Swedish profanities) too violent too stressed out the tip got broken off so this is so bad I have to reshape it sorry for that theatrical self-pity I got uh entangled in the web of The Misery Demon you’re not supposed to do this you’re not supposed to be here I had to be reminded of the difference between a 1.1 carbon brittle hard knife steel made for slicing in the kitchen and uh 0.7% carbon tough sword steel designed for slashing through bones on the battlefield the knife was reshaped just fine but I had to put these blades on the side for a while as I had to fulfill many other duties and I finally received the charcoal so I could fulfill many delayed orders for my very patient customers so now he’s suddenly answering and even sent part of the payment just like nothing ever happened and uh I’m almost done through the pain of polishing soon about to deliver the blades I will have to ask the shop in Tokyo if I can keep a couple and then I got another great idea to sell a few knives by myself here on YouTube so I’m going to connect a shop or something so if you’re interested you can check it out and then yet another fork in the road appeared this may become a very interesting content but I shouldn’t disclose this yet as I just keep piling up more and more in this video and it’s becoming long and late thank you so much for watching until the end and you can support my existence on this platform by pushing a button and if you want to see more content you can subscribe to my channel so until next time

Moments of unusual, as well as usual life as a Japanese swordsmith. I expose some adversities and solutions one may encounter, while navigating through the unpredictable career as a traditional craftsman. Making Katana and kitchen knives in Japan.

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