There is something about the simplicity of a true Kiridashi that really appeals to me. I look at them and can’t help thinking that they were probably first made simply because the smith needed a sharp edge so ground a piece of scrap into a simple knife.
In all honesty why would you really need anything else?
I find I always have need of a small skew edged Knife/chisel when I’m working around the house. So much so that I’ve made a whole series of them out of files etc. I recently did all of the scraping/smoothing and filling in our bedroom with one basic little Kiridashi made from a car leaf spring.
This little beauty is my latest and simplest.
As you might notice it’s ground from a half round file which means it’s really, really thick in the middle. It has a flat chisel grind with a very shallow convex curved secondary bevel and is so sharp I was able to do those awkward little bits of shaving in my beard today.
I’ve often been able to shave arms and legs before and I’ve sharpened straight razors but I’ve never before been able to get the edge geometry good enough to be able to accurately shave my face.
It’s pretty wicked at carving too, a future post on the way.
My original intention was to taper the handle back from the edge quite a bit but I’ve decided to use it as it is for a while to get an idea of what shape would work best.
