More Q & A with Yoshida san

I asked Yoshida san about his family line, who else is working in his workshop, about relation to other famous blacksmiths and what he thinks make him special.

"My family line is sword smith with several generations." Then he added with a humbling gesture "But my family is not main family, my family is a branch family."

"Two nephews are helping me"
Their names are Kaozumi Yamamoto and Masashi Yamamoto. I will introduce them later when I write about heat treatment.

About relationship with Iwasaki san:
"He gives advice to blacksmiths including me"
I felt from his gesture that he respect Iwasaki san but on the other side he has pride that his family line is sword smith.

About relationship with Heiji（V) and Heiji (VI).
"Heiji (V) was new to the Kitchen Knife Smith Assosiation of Sanjyo(包丁組合 It may be not the official translation of the Assosiation). After the meeting we had Sake (rice-wine).  He asked me to teach Heiji (VI) his son. I was in good mood with Sake and said yes. Heiji (VI) came to our worshop as apprentice. He had a room for living upstairs in the workshop."

I asked Yoshida san why Heiji use similar steel.
"Heiji comes often to Sanjyo to buy some stuff. If he comes to Sanjyo he will visit my workshop too and he find some stuff here too."
I think the relationship is Senpai and Kohai (one's senior and junior relationship).

About Heiji's workshop tsunami.
"He and his family are OK. He can begin producing cutlery soon; maybe end of April"

I did not ask him directly what makes him so special because the supposed answer is "Nothing Special"
Instead I asked him to show me his famous very long maguro hocho.

I asked him why he is able to make so many variety of knives.
"I like challenging. I made variety of special order knives. I want to keep one sample of them in my workshop but if some of the visitors want it so bad they take it home. So I do not have them all here."

I asked him abouit his KU SLD sekisou finish.
"I wanted more contrast to the stainless(SS) sekisou (Damascus) finish. So I tried to oxidize the SS in the furnace. I got a condition where layers of one special SS oxidize more and got deeper black color. To make KU sekisou is not easy. You must forge the knife very flat because you cannot take so much at the polish step."

I hope you have got some interesting information from Yoshida san.