Every implement documented — chisels, planes, saws, and the specialist tools of timber framing.
Bench Chisel
The standard Japanese bench chisel, featuring a short, stout blade and a hooped handle designed to be struck with a hammer (genno). The back face is hollow-ground (ura) to require only light lapping on a flat stone. Ideal for general joinery, mortising, and paring. The most fundamental of all Japanese chisels.
Mortise Chisel
Thick, sturdy chisels specifically designed for chopping deep mortises. The blade cross-section is thicker than Oire Nomi, providing the mass to resist twisting while being levered to clear chips. Often forged from tougher steels like Aogami #2 that resist chipping under heavy hammer blows.
Paring Chisel
Long, slender chisels intended for hand-pushing (paring) rather than striking. The thin blade and swept-back bevel allow the craftsman's body weight to drive the cut. Never to be struck with a hammer — the long tang and thin blade would break. Takes incredibly fine shavings and excels at fitting joints.
Heavy Striking Chisel
Robust, thick chisels intended for the heaviest structural timber framing work. Used aggressively with a large carpenter's hammer (genno) to carve out massive mortises in structural beams. The extra mass of the blade and thick handle hoop allow sustained heavy striking that would destroy lighter chisels.
Chamfer Chisel
A chisel featuring an angled cutting edge designed specifically for creating decorative bevels and chamfers along the edges of timber. The angled tip removes material cleanly from a corner in a single pass, creating the precisely angled chamfers that define traditional Japanese architectural joinery and furniture.
Corner Chisel
An L-shaped chisel with the cutting edges on two faces meeting at an inside corner. Used to clean and square the interior corners of mortises and housings where a flat-bladed chisel cannot reach. Indispensable for precision joinery where the corner must be crisp and square.
Thin-Bladed Chisel / Skew Chisel
An extremely thin-bladed chisel with a skewed cutting edge. Used to undercut dovetail joints and reach into confined angles where a standard chisel cannot fit. The skewed tip allows the craftsman to slice cleanly along a grain line at an angle, achieving a fit that a straight chisel would tear.
Smoothing Plane
The quintessential Japanese hand plane. Pulled towards the user, featuring a thick tapered blade set in a wooden block (dai) without a chip breaker in traditional form. Capable of shavings so thin they are translucent — the standard for fine finishing in Japanese carpentry. The blade is set at a high angle (37–40°) for quiet, chatter-free cutting.
Rabbet Plane
A specialized plane where the blade extends flush to the very edge of the wooden block, allowing the user to shave inside tight L-shaped corners and step-joints. Comes in left-handed and right-handed versions. Essential for fitting shoji frames and cleaning the rabbets in sliding door construction.
Compass Plane
A uniquely shaped plane with a curved wooden body (dai), designed specifically for hollowing out or smoothing curved architectural elements such as pillar bases, curved beams, and the curved undersides of staircase stringers. Both convex and concave body versions exist for different applications.
Spokeshave
A small plane with handles on both sides of the blade, used for shaping concave and complex curved surfaces, such as chair legs, tool handles, and formed furniture components. The short sole allows it to follow tight curves that a standard plane body would bridge over. An essential tool for anyone crafting curved wooden forms.
Hollow-and-Round Plane Set
Paired planes — one with a convex sole, one with a concave — used to create mating profiles on wooden mouldings and architectural details. The convex plane cuts a hollow; the concave plane cuts a round. Japanese architectural joinery features extraordinary decorative moulding work, and these planes are how that work is achieved.
Spear Plane
One of the most ancient Japanese wood-working implements — a spear-shaped blade lashed to a handle, used for scraping and planing timber before the rectangular dai plane was developed. Still used by temple and shrine carpenters (miyadaiku) to apply a distinctive diagonal stroke texture to structural members. The marks left by a Yariganna are considered a mark of quality and tradition in sacred architecture.
Double-Edged Saw
A versatile pull saw with two sets of teeth: rip teeth (along the grain) on one edge and crosscut teeth on the other. A single saw performs both fundamental cuts. The blade is tensioned by the curved handle, keeping it rigid under cutting force. The standard saw in Japanese woodworking.
Back Saw
An extremely fine-toothed saw with a rigid back spine (haryugo) that prevents the thin blade from buckling. Used for precise crosscuts and fine joinery such as dovetails and tenon shoulders. The back restricts the depth of cut, making it a precision instrument rather than a general-purpose saw.
Blind Cut Saw
A highly specialized saw featuring short, dramatically curved blades. Designed to start cuts directly in the middle of a panel without needing a pilot hole. Both edges are toothed, with the convex edge used to begin the cut and the inner edge to follow it. Used in complex joinery and for cutting grooves for shoji track rails.
Flush Cut Saw
A saw featuring an incredibly thin, highly flexible blade with absolutely no 'set' to the teeth. Used to cut wooden dowels completely flush to a surface without leaving a proud witness mark or marring the surrounding wood. The flexible blade flexes flat against the surface, guiding the cut. An irreplaceable finishing tool.
Single-Edge Saw
A single-edged pull saw, simpler than the Ryoba, allowing the spine of the saw to flex without the constraint of a second set of teeth. Kataba saws can be sharpened on one edge only, making dedicated crosscut or rip teeth easier to maintain. The most common format for modern Japanese saws sold internationally.
Large Rip Saw
The large Japanese rip saw used for breaking down timber along the grain. Historically, the Oga was the saw of Japan's professional timber-sawyers (ogashi), who could produce perfectly flat boards from a log with a two-man pull saw. The modern Oga is smaller but follows the same principle: wide, aggressive rip teeth designed for fast, efficient stock removal along the grain.
Ink Pot / Chalk Line
Traditional Japanese ink line tool used for marking straight lines on long timbers. Features a beautifully carved wooden body — often a prized craft object itself — a fine silk or cotton line reel, and a bowl filled with ink-soaked cotton. The line is pulled out, snapped against the timber to leave a crisp ink mark. Some master carpenters are as particular about their Sumitsubo as their plane blades.
Marking Gauge
A marking gauge featuring a sharp scribing pin (or blade) on an adjustable post, used to score a line parallel to a reference edge. The scored line guides chisel and saw cuts for joinery. Japanese Kebiki typically feature a small knife blade rather than a pin, producing a cleaner scribed line that severs grain cleanly rather than tearing it.
Carpenter's Square
The Japanese carpenter's square — an L-shaped tool traditionally made from two different width arms. The back of the Sashigane is engraved with conversion tables for rafter calculations, timber-frame roof geometry, and traditional measurement system conversions. A master carpenter's Sashigane contains the entire geometric knowledge of traditional Japanese architecture. Using it correctly to lay out a hip roof is itself a mastered skill.
Marking Knife
A dedicated marking knife with a thin, acutely angled blade, used for scribing precise layout lines for joinery. Unlike a western marking knife, the Japanese version typically has a single bevel to allow one face to register flat against a square or guide. A correctly scribed line provides the reference that determines whether a joint is crisp or sloppy.
Gimlet / Awl
Hand-drilling tool. Types like Mitsume-kiri (three-point) and Yotsume-kiri (four-point) are used to cleanly bore starter holes for nails (kugi) without splitting the wood. The twisted body of a Mitsume-kiri cuts and clears chips simultaneously. Indispensable in Japanese woodworking where pre-boring for nails and screws prevents splitting in delicate joinery.
Timber Boring Chisel
A heavy-duty boring chisel for removing large amounts of material from deep mortises. Features a flanged collar (tsuba) that limits penetration depth and provides a striking platform. Used alongside regular chisels for the initial rough-out of deep housing joints in structural timber framing.
Japanese Hammer
The traditional Japanese carpenter's hammer. Features two striking faces: one flat for driving chisels and setting nails, and one slightly convex (mushroom-faced) for driving finishing nails below the surface without marring the wood. The head is typically forged from a soft iron body with a hardened steel striking face — the same laminate principle as the blades they drive. Handle geometry and weight are matters of intense personal preference.
Splitting Hammer
A specialized hammer with a wedge-shaped cross-peen face, used for splitting kindling or driving wooden wedges in timber framing. The cross-peen concentrates force along a single line, making it ideal for cleaving wood along the grain or for setting splitting wedges when breaking down large timber.
Tenon Saw
A specialized saw with a thick back spine and fine crosscut teeth, designed specifically for cutting the shoulders and cheeks of tenon joints. Narrower than a full Dozuki and optimized for this single task, it produces the flat-bottomed, square-shouldered tenon faces that define precision Japanese joinery.
Back Iron Plane
A wooden or metal block with a very precise flat sole, used for flattening the hollow back (ura) of plane blades and chisels on a flat stone. Not a shaping tool but a maintenance and preparation tool — the flat back of a Japanese blade is what allows the bevel to be honed so precisely. Maintaining the ura is as important as sharpening the bevel.
Groove Chisel / Drawer Bottom Chisel
A chisel with a curved or hooked blade, used for cleaning and cutting the bottom of grooves — particularly the grooves that receive drawer bottoms, sliding panels, and shoji screen rails. The curved profile allows it to reach the bottom of a narrow groove and pare cleanly without the handle fouling on the sides.
Round Chisel / Gouge
A curved or semicircular chisel — the Japanese equivalent of a western gouge. Used for carving relief patterns, cleaning curved recesses, and hollowing. Available in a wide range of sweep profiles. Marudai versions have a circular cross-section; Sōkōnomi are more deeply curved for hollow work. Essential for traditional Japanese decorative carving.
Craft/Marking Knife
A single-bevel utility and marking knife — perhaps Japan's most ubiquitous cutting tool. The wedge-shaped profile allows the single flat face to be guided against a reference edge for scribing. Carried by carpenters, sculptors, and schoolchildren alike. The simplest expression of the Japanese blade: a single carbon steel body, fully hardened, honed to a surgical edge.
Hatchet / Woodcutting Hatchet
A large single-bevel cutting tool used for splitting kindling, rough-shaping timber, and clearing brush. The Nata occupies the boundary between knife and hatchet — wide enough to split but sharp enough to craft. Timber-frame carpenters use it for rough-shaping large tenons and cleaning up green timber. Regional variants include the Eda-uchi Nata (branch-cutting), Kawa-hagi Nata (bark-removing), and Kirizuki Nata (piercing).
Butt Plane
A very short-bodied plane — typically 40–60mm in sole length — used for flattening the bottom surfaces of joinery and for planing in confined spaces where a full-length plane cannot be maneuvered. Excels at fitting mortise and tenon work, cleaning up door lips, and making fine final adjustments on assembled components.
Trying Plane / Jointer
A long-bodied plane (typically 80–100mm sole) used to flatten and straighten the faces and edges of boards before joinery. The long sole bridges low spots and only cuts the high areas, gradually referencing the entire surface to a true flat. Producing a dead-flat, glue-ready edge for a perfect joint is the defining skill test of Japanese woodworking — and this plane is the instrument of that test.
Shoulder Plane
A specialist plane for trimming tenon shoulders — the flat faces that seat against the mortise housing. The blade extends to the very edge of the plane body on the sides as well as the bottom, allowing it to trim right into the corner of a shoulder without leaving a step. Precision-fitting tenons is its sole purpose.