Tool of the Month January 2018

Welcome to the first Tool of the Month blog post of 2018! This month I’ll have a quick look at Usu Nomi (Japanese paring chisels).

Usu Nomi are long slim chisels designed for removing small amounts of waste, they are only to be pushed by hand, never hit with a mallet or hammer!!

Japanese paring chisels are made like most other Japanese chisels, the cutting edge is made of an exceptionally hard brittle steel which is forge welded to a softer iron section. This softer area absorbs shocks and supports the steel, without it the brittle steel could crack!


The back of the chisel is hollow ground to make sharpening easier, even with this hollow the back still took a lot of time to flatten as the steel is ridiculously hard!


The following photos show the blade in more detail.

Here you can clearly see the lamination of the soft and hard sections of the blade.

The hollow ground back of the blade.

Here you can see that the handle is cranked at a slight angle which allows the blade to sit flat.

The long handle and shaft gives you maximum control of the cutting edge which makes this tool perfect for fine tuning joints. One hand on the handle pushes the chisel forward while the other hand guides the blade.


That’s all for January, look out for next months post in a few weeks!