A selection from my Higonokami knife collection. I love these simple little Japanese knives. Like all patterns, these can vary from the very basic budget examples through to the truly exotic. Mine relatively basic!
Holly smokes Eric wow you have a lot of knives!!!!!! You don’t mess around I didn’t know you liked them so much!!!!! I always looked at them….. thanks buddy I’ll see you soon
My wife says, “too many!” Im nothing like Tobias, I’ve only around 300 or so! I do limit myself to British, Japanese and European knives, plus a few example statement pieces (Chris Reeve, Medford, Benchmade, Buck, ADV, etc.), but only a couple or so of each brand. I don’t buy American or Chinese knives as a rule, as there are just too many, and I’d run out of space and money in no time. But I’ve still accumulated a few by accident!
Ohta knives are made by one man Mr Ohta always with a wooden handle and D2 blade.Higanokami knives are beautiful friction folders too.Messing or copper handle and carbon or stainless steel ( also Damascus) Great collection i have only six ( in Europe knives are more expensive than in the US)It says : Lord of Higonokami
I’ve always felt the show side of a fixed blade handle should show when the knife is in the sheath. I’ve read that the writing on the knives covers the maker of the knife and numerous aspects of the knife such as the steel used for the blade. I really enjoy these kinds of video that go into great detail about lesser known knives of different cultures. I’ve learned quite a bit. Thanks, Eric.
It’s difficult to do these videos without coming over as a goal geek! I do enjoy it. I’ve another Japanese video coming up on 18th. The question inf the mei on a Japanese sword is interesting to me. There’s a lot goes in to it, but it’s normally hidden. That it ‘needs’ to be facing outwards, but can’t be seen, amuses me. It does help to distinguish between a short tachi and and o-katana though.
Sorry to be so late in responding, I seem to have missed your comment. Sadly I couldn’t pop over to Japan, maybe one day, but I did buy them from reputable dealers so the provenance is fairly sound for all but a couple.
What a treat for a fan of friction folders. I thoroughly enjoyed that, Slick. According to Tod Cutler, the pattern was common in the U.K too, up to the 16th century. I have one of his reproductions. Interestingly, and just from what I've seen, in Britain we tended to curve the tang up on friction folders. This allows the thumb to be released for reverse grips and such. Do you know if the Higonokami's were originally designed to be razors, eschewing other utilities?
I don’t believe they were, but I don’t know what Japanese people of old used. I use a Japanese Feather razor today, but the double-edged safety razor wasn’t invented till 1904, by Gillette, some 8 years after the Higonokami! The main characteristic of the Higonokami blade is that it’s a convex, apple seed, shape. Most open razors are very fine hollow grinds, but that doesn’t really prove anything!
I appreciate their simple design and useful purpose. It is an interesting part of the history of Japan. Thank you for showing and explaining about this style of knife. I like the wooden handle one's looks the best. I have noticed some models have two blades that one blade opens from each end of the handle. 🏮🙂 It must have been hard to find all the models you discovered.
My word Eric, what a collection! I don't have any of those, but , without being disrespectful about them, I can see their naive beauty. What I like about your videos is I very often learn something I did'nt know, for example the origin of the city of Tokyo.Where does your fascination with Japan come from? ATB Tony.🐴🏴
In August 1976, when I was 9 years old, I found a katana in my grandad’s attic. I didn’t see it again for almost 40 years, but I could describe it perfectly. I’d handled it for two or three minutes, but it made a huge impact. I now own it, and know a hell of a lot more about it, but it gave me two questions. It was in a shirasaya, but had a tsuba, and it had a deep sori, too deep! I spent ages in the library trying to understand these two things (no internet back then), and that meant libraries and books. I started researching aged 10.
I increased the contrast of a photo on my brass 120mm Higo. Google Translate recognized all the characters. It was interpreted as the following: 藤肥後守必剛登録商標 or "Fuji Higonokami Registered Trademark" The one thing that sticks out to me is Fuji. Why Fuji? But the rest makes sense.
That’s part of it, but I think there’s more. The chap who did the translation before told me some extra stuff. I do know a few other experts on kanji related to nihonto, but I never seem to find the time! I’m a member of the To-Ken Society of Great Britain, but I rarely manage to get to meetings these days.
The tiny, and ridiculously expensive one was from Moonrakerknives.co.uk and the rest were all from Heinnie.com Oh, the one second from the right came from Ali Express, I think, but I can’t be sure!
White paper is a very pure carbon blue paper is the same as white paper just with tungsten. And they actually do have a micro bevel from the factory if you watch them being made on RU-vid they actually do put a micro bevel on them.
I don’t know it, but Gerber and Moki in Japan did a lot of work together, so a crossover isn’t surprising. I think that there’s a good deal of commonality between the Higonokami and the one piece plastic handled folders, originally from Paul Gerber, and later from Spyderco and Fallkniven.
Thank you! I made them myself. I bought some 3mm flat leather cord from eBay and then tied the knots. If you search for “lanyard knot” on RU-vid, there are lots of videos to show you how.
