A visit to Tashiro Hardware in Seattle

[Randy Clements]

I have been in Seattle for business the last four or five days, and was looking for something to do. I did a search on the forum for Seattle, and found an archived thread about a Japanese shop that sells saws, etc. I gave a phone call and chatted with who I now know is Frank. I had imagined in my mind some little storefront, but he said he just runs the business from home. He invited me to stop by, even though it was already 6pm on a Sunday. He told me I wouldn't miss it, there would be bamboo growin up front.

I spent over two hours with this humble, yet amazing man. He is 90 years old, and oh so sharp, with such a great sense of humor. I laughed, almost cried (lost my own grandfather last week) and just had the time of my life with him tonight. I helped him with a couple of minor problems he was having with his computer (he learned I was a computer guy and brought me right over to his iMac).

I sat on his steel floor and listened to stories about WW2, about his thoughts and beliefs. He even waxed a little spiritual with me, and I got to hear some neat things he has experienced in his life. I felt like a little grasshopper learning from a great teacher.

He then asked me how I sharpen things. I told him I dunno, just use some ceramic stones (Spyderco was a fancy word for him...). He asked me if I would like to learn how to sharpen, then spent an hour teaching me about sharpening. I just ate it up. He's a wonderful teacher -- challenging me while he goes. Making sure I really understood what he meant at every step.

I wish I could have recorded it to share. I actually asked if it would be appropriate, but he said, "You don't need that to remember, because once you have been taught you will know it forever.". Showed me how to use a combination square (not the way I EVER thought to use it) but so much faster and mor effective than scribing. Checking something for square. Want to square a table saw blade? Drill into something by hand completely square? Cut square to a line? Way way cool stuff. We spend so much money on little gizmos to do this stuff but the answers are so simple and already in front of us.

Next time I come to Seattle I will visit again. Purchased a queen and king saw blade holder and a queen dovetail blade.

[Randy Clements]

If you ever get the chance, you need to go and meet this guy. What an honor to have spent time with him. I have so much to say about it, I need to get all my thoughts down in a journal.

[John Coloccia]

I wish I could have recorded it to share. I actually asked if it would be appropriate, but he said, "You don't need that to remember, because once you have been taught you will know it forever.".

This is a great bit of insight, and why it's a shame that apprenticeships have all but disappeared. It's one thing to read about it or watch it on a video. It's an entirely different thing to do it together with a master craftsman. Once you do it with the guidance of a real craftsman, it sticks in a way that videos and books can't really convey.

It's like reading about a good meal vs. eating a good meal.

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for sharing Randy.

Surely it isn't just me that is green with envy.

jtk

[Jeff Schmidt]

Thanks for those insights, Randy. I have purchased a good number of saws from Mr. Tashiro over the years and always enjoy our little chats when I call.

Jeff

[Randy Clements]

One thing I picked up on, he's quite hard of hearing -- so I had to speak VERY loudly in order for him to hear me directly. The phone call also seemed to be that way a little bit as I called before stopping in to find out "store hours". Little did I know it was his own home that I was invited into. He uses a large magnifying glass with his computer screen, which is one of those 30" size iMac computers. I could also see two older generations of computers hanging around that it seemed he likely used in the past.

He is quite sharp. He showed me how he keeps track of stock and costs, even tracking the weight of shipping/combining items in a spreadsheet on the computer. Very clever little setup.

I was so honored to sit there in a wooden chair in front of his workbench, while he patiently asked me questions, teaching me about sharpening. From the first question, "What is cutting?" And when I didn't answer to his satisfaction what _I_ thought it was, I knew I was in for a real treat. He challenged me, and my thinking, and made me see a whole different way. He pulled out his little green chalkboard (about 2x3' size), laid on the bench, and got chalk and started drawing a series of tiny circles in a line. He then took a wooden wedge and pushed it through the circles. "Think on a molecular level -- what is happening when we say we cut something?" "We are entering and parting the material, no?" "Entering and parting, enter and part, as he pushes the wedge through the line of circles/bubbles." "Whether it's oil, or water, or wood, or steel, at the moment in time we have our blade in the material, we have parted it. Oil and water may flow back, but at that moment in time, it is parted, no?"

He drew edge of a tool. Basically as a mountain with a flat top. "You cannot sharpen a tool to a point. Because at a molecular level, there is no point or line. You cannot create a line in 3 dimensions. There is always a blunt part at the edge of a tool. So imagine this hill with its top flat."

Then changed angles/slopes of the edge. "Maybe this is 20 degrees." Made a much wider "mountain", "Maybe this be 45 degrees, very strong, but does not part as good. Durable, but harder to part the material." "Thinner wedge obviously will part the material much better, but the steel we have is not able to withstand very long and will bend over or crumble off."

He then showed me his methods for sharpening, which are so simple, I had never thought of them. I'll have to draw the jigs he came up with for doing plane irons. For pocket knives. For chisels. And he personally showed me how he does each one. He said, "You can't do it ANY better than this. Because it's based on a principle of physics/geometry, and not on what some guy believes is right." "It is right, because that's the way our world is -- this principle." "Too many guys think they know how to sharpen, but they all just copy what each other is doing, and nobody knows how to do it right." "The best jig you can use has NO MOVING PARTS. And if you do this, nobody can sharpen it better." Talked about how at a steel's optimum, it may be at three-ten-thousandths, if a person could even measure that. He said we can't really measure that, only look at it through an electron microscope.

I can draw up or make my own jigs and show you what he does. His plane blade sharpening jig is genius, and can do a fantastic curved bevel if you want a jack plane blade, or straight if you want a straight across blade. And cost only pennies to make your own.

We talked about planes, I told him I use iron planes -- "Don't use those Japanese planes. They have to be maintained all the time, not worth it. Iron plane is the way you need to go. Stays better where you need it to be, stays in adjustment, and can be easily adjusted. I don't like the Japanese planes. You just need a good Stanley plane."

(more to follow)

[Randy Clements]

He wanted to demonstrate cutting with a piece of cardboard and a knife. He held the cardboard, while I cut at a perpendicular 90 degree angle. "Just saw through it and I will hold." So I did, cut about 3 or 4 inches down in the cardboard. "Now, hold your blade at an angle to the cardboard, rather than straight into it." I did about a 45 degree angle to the cardboard, and then sawed another line. "So much easier, no? Why was that so much easier?" "Material is not trying to come back together against the edges on the blade, as we are parting it at an angle." "See how an angle is so important?"

He asked me if I knew how to drill a hole perfectly square by hand. I said I did not, but would love to learn. He got out a small mirror and laid it on his workbench. He took a dowel about a foot long, and set it on the mirror so I could see it and its reflection. "You can see square, right? You can tell with your own eye better than any machine can tell you. Want to make your table saw blade straight up? You just set a mirror on the bed of the table and look at it! No need for fancy things to stick on blade, use protractor, or things people do. You eye will tell you better and more perfect than anything machine."

Same with sawing, cutting (we've heard of using the reflection of the sawplate blade to do this). He then demonstrated both 90 and 45 degree perfect angles just using the mirror or sawplate reflection. And he repeated, "Your eye can see this better and more perfect than any machine. Because it's a PRINCIPLE."

"Do you know how to use one of these?" (Shows me a combination square.) I told him I thought I knew how to used it, but wanted to know how HE did. "I show you how _I_ think the combination square needs to be used. MUCH faster, no pencil, cut better and straighter." "No marks. Don't need a pencil. Too much error. There is an error in the square -- not noticible enough to matter much, but some irregularity. But now you make a mark with a pencil against the square. There is another error in that added upon top. Now maybe you put a block on your line to help you cut square, put your saw to the line and cut, there is an error there, too, and now we are moving our line from where we originally wanted to mark." (I gathered he was talking about margin of error, and tolerance stacking). "Just put your wood block against your combination square, remove the square, then cut against the block. Close to perfect you can make it, no?" *light bulb* "Nobody can make it better than that, or faster than that."

(more soon)

[Randy Clements]

Each section of the instruction was complete when he asked, "Do you now understand this?" followed by "Do you have any questions?" Then would move on to the next topic. If I answered in the affirmative, "See now you will know this forever, because you have been taught."

"Do you know that you can read people's minds?" I answered I did not. "Think about this. If you are teaching someone, how is it you can tell if they understand what you are teaching? There are messages coming from them, to let you know they understand. It's not verbal, it's not visual, but on a subconscious level. You need to learn to listen to those messages from others. You can learn so much from what comes from others this way."

As I was leaving, I commented on his bamboo growing in the front yard, he said "It's like a weed. I can't stop it now. If you get bamboo, make sure you get the stuff that grows in clumps. This stuff is a grass and spreads like weeds. Look there, way across the sidewalk, it's coming up over there now, made its way over under the concrete!" The bamboo was almost as tall as his home.

His front porch is humble and nondescript. You'd walk by it without even noticing. There is a small standard mailbox on a post outside the front door, with a "Frank Tashiro" on the side. And his house number, was simply nailed up next to the door frame. I took my z saw blade and hardware, and stepped out -- and realized it was almost 10:00 PM! The time had flown by.

[seth lowden]

Great stuff! I wondered what happened to him.

I stopped by his shop probably 15 years ago when visiting my brother in Seattle. My brother bought me a saw for Christmas there the following year. My kids have all used that saw to cut things in the shop, and I use it for a cut or two on about every project. I should have him stop by for another replacement blade for this year's Christmas.

I seem to remember some kind of sharpening aid that was basically a single point guide to train someone to hold an angle properly, among other stuff he tried to teach me. Wish I had more time for it back then...

[Jim Koepke]

He uses a large magnifying glass with his computer screen, which is one of those 30" size iMac computers.

If you see him again, you may want to teach him a trick for his iMac.

Hold down the Command & Option key and press + to magnify the screen image. Many Mac programs will enlarge the text on the frontmost document by holding the Command and = (lower case +) key. To reverse, hold the - key instead.

To navigate the screen, move the curser to the edges to reposition the image.

The Universal Access may be turned off. In that case it is easy to turn it on in the Keyboard & Mouse control panel found in the System Preferences.

241327

To translate, turn Zoom On or Off is holding down the Option, Command and 8 together.

jtk

[jamie shard]

I loved reading this, thanks for taking the time to share!!

[Jeff Schmidt]

Randy, I really appreciate you telling us more about your visit. Thank you!

[Jon Toebbe]

The Z-Saws that he sold me a few years ago are all going strong. Simple, effective, unpretentious tools. It seems that a little bit of the seller rubbed off on them. Thanks so much for sharing your story. I hope Mr. Tashiro is ready for the flood of Sawmill Creek pilgrims he's sure to be hearing from... :-)

[Angie Orfanedes]

Thank you, Randy, for sharing with us your experience with Mr. Tashiro. Sounds like you were blessed to sit at the feet of a master.

Angie

[David Weaver]

I like his comment about iron planes. Not that I don't have a piggish amount of upper-mid range japanese planes (which would accurately be defined as anything up to the super limited and super rare types of planes in the stratospheric 4 digit price range), but I do recognize that they don't improve my work and I work faster with an iron plane, a little wax, and a good quality iron.

Good accurately sawn japanese plane bodies don't move too much, though, not as much as some of the poorly selected vintage bodies that I have and have seen. For the quality of wood we have over here, a western plane makes more sense, especially with how much faster it is to set a cap iron.

[Jack Curtis]

There are plenty of 90 year old western woodworkers who proselytize using wooden planes, so there. However, they were raised during Stanley's reign. It's a much tighter argument given LN and LV; but there's no wood reason for not using wooden planes, perhaps wood for Japanese planes is in short supply.

Great story, Randy, sounds like Tashiro knows the basics and, more importantly, how to explain them. Thanks.

[Phil Thien]

Interesting. But I'm lost on using the mirror to square a saw blade, or a drill bit. How does that work?

[Randy Clements]

Phil, lay a flat mirror in front of the table saw blade, flat on the table. Stand in front of the table saw look into the mirror. You will see a reflection of the blade in the mirror, if not, adjust your point of view until you can see the blade and its reflection. If the blade is skewed, you will be able to see it, as the mirror image will not be aligned with the real blade.

Same with a drill bit. You can check your drill press table for squareness to the bit by laying a mirror on the table. Put a bit in the press and bring it down to the surface of the mirror (at the mirror edge just like you did with a table saw blade). Look into the mirror and you can see if the bit is square by making sure its reflection is square/straight with the real bit. Then go to the side and check the same thing.

If I could demonstrate the way he did it would make sense much easier. He just used a dowel and dropped the point of it down to the edge of the mirror. He then tipped the dowel back and forth, so that I could see the way the mirror image behaved.

[Topher Ngo]

Great story! Im glad you posted it.

I need to figure out the mirror trick. I wish there was a youtube video on it.

[Randy Clements]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy9fP9e2IwU

Just made one. :)

[Steve Elliott]

I've kept a small mirror in my toolbox ever since I had a couple of lessons from Mr. Tashiro over 30 years ago. I'm glad to hear he's still passing along his knowledge.

Today I was installing kitchen cabinets and used the mirror a couple of times to ensure squareness. When I sharpen plane blades and chisels I use a mirror to check edge squareness. It's better than using a square because often the edges of a chisel aren't parallel. Using a mirror makes it possible to tell if the cutting edge is at right angles to the centerline.

[Jeff Rivas]

I'm headed to Seattle next Monday on the train.I'm gonna try and see this man.

[Phil Thien]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy9fP9e2IwU

Just made one. :)

Thanks for going through the trouble, Randy. Very helpful.

[jamie shard]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy9fP9e2IwU

Just made one. :)

Thanks again!

[Scott Vanzo]

Thanks for the good read Randy. There is a craftsman in Los Angeles (originally from Dutch Indonesia) that I met recently (also of 90 years) whom has taken me under his wing. Much like Mr. Tashiro, he is quite the teacher and loves to talk wood and tools. His whole house is filled with expertly crafted furniture and cabinetry of his own making. He stores all his tools in drawers with camphor inside perforated pill bottles. Whenever I stop to chat the hours fly by...