Tools for Satoyama

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Traditionally crafted knives for folks who wish they could take things home from museums.

Island Blacksmith - Spring 2016

In this issue: the long-awaited Tools for Satoyama project debuts, a modern style kotanto in reclaimed Tigerwood, and a new way to design your own custom knife or tanto. If you've not seen it yet, the process page has been given a fresh new layout and plenty of new photo and video resources to study.

Please visit the website at islandblacksmith.ca and follow us over on Instagram to see photos of work in progress, life on the island, and things that inspire.

Tools for Satoyama

Satoyama are the managed forest areas that border the cultivated fields and the mountain wilds in Japan. Historically they provided fertilizer, firewood, edible plants, mushrooms, fish, and game, and supported local industries such as farming, construction, and charcoal making.

The Tools for Satoyama project is inspired by this mutually beneficial interaction between humans and the natural world, a robust way of life that sustained both for centuries.

Scroll down or read more about the inspiration for the project here: islandblacksmith.ca/2016/03/tools-for-satoyama/

ToraSaya Kotanto

Mounted in stunning Tigerwood, this is the result of a collaborative project with James Oliver. James did all the woodwork on this piece and created the matching stand and Nootka Cypress storage box.

The Tigerwood came from some scraps of hardwood flooring, and beautifully compliments the African Blackwood accents. The storage box holds both the stand and the knife, has a floating bottom, is fastened together with bamboo nails, and has a fit and finish as crisp as the knife.

See the finished work here: islandblacksmith.ca/available-work/torasaya-tigerwood-kotanto/

Design your own: charcoal forged blade, water quenched with clay, sharpened with waterstones, and finished simply and humbly in the age-old style of farm and foresting tools used in managing satoyama, the borderlands between village and wilds.

Design Your Own Custom Knife

An exciting component of the Tools for Satoyama project is the ability to design and customize a knife online right at the time of ordering. Choose a blade style and size, then select materials, textures, and colours to create your own.

These custom knives have hand forged classical tanto style blades, nihonto style peg-mounted handles, the humble appearance of faceted hammer marked steel and hand carved wood, and a natural urushi lacquer finish.

Design a knife online: Tools for Satoyama

Tools for Satoyama Project
from $700

Design a Knife

Custom Classical Tanto
from $2500

Design a Tanto

In the shadow of Mt. Arrowsmith,
deep in a forest clearing,
away from the things of man,
there is a place where blades are born
of earth, and air, and fire, and water.

Island Blacksmith - Spring 2016

Tools for Satoyama

ToraSaya Kotanto

Design Your Own Custom Knife

In the shadow of Mt. Arrowsmith, deep in a forest clearing, away from the things of man, there is a place where blades are born of earth, and air, and fire, and water.

In the shadow of Mt. Arrowsmith,
deep in a forest clearing,
away from the things of man,
there is a place where blades are born
of earth, and air, and fire, and water.