{"id":1918,"date":"2012-01-08T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-08T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2012-01-08\/1918"},"modified":"2012-01-08T20:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-08T11:00:00","slug":"charcoal-preparation-monochromatic-work-of-a-japanese-swordsmith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2012-01-08\/1918","title":{"rendered":"Charcoal Preparation: Monochromatic Work of a Japanese Swordsmith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\nNOTE<\/b>: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nChopping Block<\/span>\nat Pierre Nadeau's Japanese Sword Smithy in Wakayama, Japan\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>40 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nCharcoal<\/span>\nin all its full-color glory\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

This year has gotten off slowly for me, having woken up January 1st with\na cold<\/span> and all, but with “Inspired Artistic Temple Shot<\/a>”\nand its followup, “Simple Temple Sliding Wall<\/a>”, I seem to<\/span> have a\nblack<\/span>-and-white theme going, so I'll continue that today with a post<\/span> about\ncharcoal, from last year's visit to Japanese swordsmith Pierre\nNadaeu<\/a> (the swords are Japanese; Pierre is Canadian).<\/p>\n\n

All the photos on today's post are shown in full color, but the subject\nmatter's lack of chromatic variety makes them feel more monochrome than\nnot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A swordsmith can use various things to heat the forge — such as\ngas, coke, and coal — but the most predictable (and hence “best”)\nresults are when using charcoal. Charcoal is much safer than coal\n(breathing its dust doesn't cause cancer, for example), but it's a lot<\/span> of\nwork to prepare, so when I\ngave<\/span> it a try<\/span><\/a>, Pierre opted to have me use coke (a product<\/span> of burning\ncoal) rather than deplete his stock of carefully-prepared charcoal.<\/p>\n\n

Visiting his smithy, you couldn't imagine that there could be a place<\/span> even more dirty, but he prepares the charcoal in an attached shed that vies for that honor. <\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFruits of One's Labors<\/span>\nbig pile of black messiness\n
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n\n\n1050×<\/span>1680<\/a>  ·  1200×<\/span>1920<\/a>  ·  1600×<\/span>2560<\/a><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

On his blog he has a whole<\/span> post\nabout the preparation of charcoal<\/a>, at first citing the phrase “sumi-kiri\nsan'nen<\/i>” which means “cutting charcoal, three years”, apparently\nimplying that it takes three years of experience to get good at it. Pierre,\nin his characteristic self deprecation says that he's still really bad at\nit after five years of practice.<\/p>\n\n

You can see the various stages of preparation in a video<\/span><\/a> at the end of\nhis post, replete with impressive clouds of billowing charcoal dust towards\nthe end.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nLove, Friend, Cute Teddy Bears<\/span>\nPierre Nadeau summarized in a stool cushion\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 5600 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nRaw Materials<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f\/2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1250 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nView from Outside<\/span>\nhandheld, with my Nikkor 300mm f\/2<\/a> on my second outing with it\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nMore Charcoal Detail<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFurther Back in the Shed<\/span>\nCharcoal, Straw, Sifting Pans\n<\/div>\n\n

The charcoal and sifting pans are seen in Pierre's video, but he has a\ndifferent<\/span> blog post about the straw, which is used to make small\nwhisk brooms<\/a> that he uses while forging swords. The photo<\/span> above is a\nmild<\/span> transition from the black-n-white vibe, so let me continue adding\ncolor in showing the straw in use, as a bundled<\/span> whisk broom just behind his hand in\nthis photo:<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 40mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>40 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

He uses it to clean carbon(?) buildup from the steel, as seen in this photo from my original post about him:<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 42mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>80 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

After so much color at the end of last year (such as last year's final post<\/a> or\nany of the bazillion fall-foliage posts like this<\/a>), it was\nperhaps nice to have a few<\/span> B&W posts, but I think<\/span> I'm ready to get back\nto color again...<\/p>\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year has gotten off slowly for me, having woken up January 1st with a cold and all, but with \"Inspired Artistic Temple Shot\" and its followup, \"Simple Temple Sliding Wall\", I seem to have a black-and-white theme going, so I'll continue that today with a post about charcoal, from last year's visit to Japanese swordsmith Pierre Nadaeu (the swords are Japanese; Pierre is Canadian).<\/p>

All the photos on today's post are shown in full color, but the subject matter's lack of chromatic variety makes them feel more monochrome than not.<\/p>

A swordsmith can use various things to heat the [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1,2,26,6,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}