Thanks.
My first name is Jay but an epic struggle registering for the site led to using my middle name.
Thanks.
My first name is Jay but an epic struggle registering for the site led to using my middle name.
Here is a sincere question, not intended to offend, for those most familiar with Japanese tools - how much of this is marketing B.S.?
I've always wondered, as the descriptions are beautifully written. Japanese culture has a lot of ceremony/ritual incorporated in it and Shinto traditions that give inanimate objects attributes that probably don't have an equivalent in Western culture.
I appreciate true craftsmanship and don't want to discount the skill involved. But these are businesses all selling essentially the same widgets. Do these product features actually make a difference in performance? Perhaps whoever wrote this took some creative license with the copy? Is this just ritual for the sake of marketing?
I recall a blind test of professional violinists playing both modern violins and Stradivarius violins. When asked to choose the best sounding violins, most unknowingly choose the modern versions. But most were still convinced that the Strats were better.
Is my skepticism unwarranted here?
I think a gennou is actually better, but perhaps the best feature of a well crafted head is that it inspires you to create a well crafted handle. I have never gone out of my way to make a good handle for a random hammer head, but I have spent the time to make a handle for my gennou that fits my hand and arm. It is so much easier to use than any other hammer I have ever had.
I think there is marketing, tradition, and like high-end things generally, at the top the performance difference is vanishingly small.
The best is not always the best, however- for example high end saws have brittle teeth that are easily broken. Your Ferrari is not ideal as a grocery getter.
I have generally mid and upper-mid quality tools, and quite a few used ones that were clearly good enough to have been used professionally for many years, and sharpened hundreds of times. So much depends on the set up and tools kind of have their individual personalities so one learns how to get the best from them. Compared to normal western tools, 'tho, one chisel is used for precise joinery, and the other is mostly used for scraping glue. The metal planes have their good points but rarely get used, & the only western saw that gets used is a hacksaw.
Ed, go here for a pictorial I wrote:
http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...oraGennou.html
Regards from Perth
Derek
Nice work.
I agree about the handle. Here is mine with the handle I made and the discarded handle it came with.
E7A73D2C-772D-4F05-B1C1-92151690DA84.jpg
The difference in use is like night and day.
You can do a lot with very little! You can do a little more with a lot!
I was watching a Korean clip about masters of different skills on You Tube and saw an older guy up in the woods who was carving pine faces onto logs. One of the hammers he used had the main part of the trunk, about 4 inch diameter for the mallet, and a branch about 1 inch diameter for the handle.... That seems so good, I may have to try to find a piece like it.
robo hippy