Tsuki-Nomi Japanese Custom Made Slick Chisel Set By Osahiro - 36&48mm

Smith name:Tanaka Ichiro(田中一郎, The 2nd Generation Osahiro)

Steel: White Steel

Blade width: 36mm & 49mm

Blade thickness(Blade Bottom/The blade near the bevel):

36mm: about( 11.50mm/6.50mm）

49mm: about( 12.50mm/ 6.90mm）

Manufacture Era: before 1990 

Weight(49mm/36mm): 800g; 647g

Blade Angles(49mm/36mm): 30°; 26°

Total length: 495mm

Neck length(49mm/36mm):  122mm; 122mm

Blade length(49mm/36mm): 133mm; 133mm

Types of wooden handles：Ebony

Accessories：—

Additional Information: This is a custom pair of tsuki-nomi (slick / paring chisels) from the blacksmith's early career. Used only a few times, I have performed a restorative sharpening exclusively on the ura, fully re-establishing the reference flat.

The most distinctive feature of this pair is the unique multi-groove urasuki (multiple hollows): the central urasuki is deep and slender, flanked by shallower hollows on both sides. This extremely demanding, purely hand-worked urasuki was originally conceived by Chiyotsuru Korehide; later, at the request of Ichiro Tsuchida, Ichihiro also crafted chisels featuring this specialized configuration. Due to a price point 5 to 10 times that of standard chisels, surviving examples are exceedingly rare.

As for why this intricate urasuki was crafted: the vast majority of multiple hollows are ground using a bench grinder. However, because the grinding wheel has a fixed radius, the resulting hollows end up with an almost uniform depth across the blade. As the ura is repeatedly sharpened and maintained over time, this conventional type of multiple hollow wears away much faster than a standard single ura. For further details and visual breakdown, please refer to my Instagram post: [Link]

Furthermore, these chisels are slightly more compact than standard o-tsuki-nomi, making them noticeably more nimble and agile in use.