Japanese Woodworking Marking Knife

Hi - Can anyone explain to me what is a Japanese Woodworking Marking Knife? Their seems to be lots of different types of knifes. I know that temple builders use the ink pot, but what do someone like a sashimono makers use.

剣先 (Kensaki) (Sword Point)
The first type looks like my notion of a marking knife but it seems rather heavy and thick from the photos.

Attachment 407921

小刀 (Kodachi) (Small Knife)
The second type looks finer but sometimes they come in left hand only sometimes they come in pairs.

Attachment 407922

The last seem to be more of a stanley knife then a marking knife. I have seen the Japanese use it to carve wood with it.

Attachment 407924

Can anyone illuminate me on the differences?

for me the main characteristic of a Japanese marking knife is the hollow back.
a secondary characteristic is a single bevel.

your first type is double (left and right) handed

the second type is single handed -- either left or right. I've not seen them sold as pairs, but most western woodworkers would need to buy left and right versions to mark on the left or right side of a rule, square, etc. It's a bit of a pain having to change marking knives when you change from aligning with the right side to aligning with the left side of a rule, etc.

your third type seems to be specialised for reaching well into a joint to transfer a mark.

As Ian described, the V bevelled knife is for use on either left-or right faces.

I have a few Japanese knives or "kiridashi". What I like most about them is that they are heavy duty and easy to sharpen owing to the broad bevels ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...psva1v73vb.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...ps66tceusn.jpg

The broad, thick bevels, however, have pros and cons.

On the pro side, one only needs a single sided knife since it can run on the bevel (when you need to change hands) as easily as the back of the blade.

On the con side, the blades do not score as deeply as a thin blade or get into tight spaces, such as the one below, which I designed for dovetails (now made by Chris Vesper) ...

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...ing/Knife7.jpg

Both types have a place in a workshop.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I have been digging around on this subject and found out what these tools actually are

The 剣先 (Kensaki) (Sword Point) is not a marking knife at all its rather a kind of like skew knife.

This is from a google translate

Quote:

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Point of a sword is not a (for) scoring work .... used in such as shrines and temples building belongs to the class of knife ....... It can also be cut to move in the transverse direction like (a) chisel.

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Found this video: In which you can see that the Kensaki is massive and could never be used to as a marking knife.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G3EG_B4c0s

The middle styles these marking knifes if you get them in left and right version sets.

The last one is more akin to a general purpose carving shaping knife the Japanese equivalent of a sloyd knife:

This is from a google translate:

Quote:

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Scalpel RepetitiveIt is suitable for cutting the tight Radius part of, such as not shaving in the warp plane and Nanjing Kanna (SPOKESHAVE).
The processing of the thin portion of the tip is steep curves and delicate part, and the base portion is also suitable for such time as cut put the force.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-4klHY7qzU