Ryuichi Kawamura Knives

I still want to sit on Ryu until he coughs up where he gets all that amazing stag - suitable for slipjoints no less.
 
I still want to sit on Ryu until he coughs up where he gets all that amazing stag - suitable for slipjoints no less.

Could you wait until he completes my two knives? He's probably a lot tougher than he looks but I'm not taking any chances...;)
 
Yeah, well that and fork over a little 'scarole...

Yeah you are right, what was I thinking. I shoulda waited for you or Gig to buy 'em and then pull my standard bop 'em over the head and run. :D.
 
Yeah you are right, what was I thinking. I shoulda waited for you or Gig to buy 'em and then pull my standard bop 'em over the head and run. :D.

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You'd think we'd learn by now...
 
That teardrop is beautiful. Actually both in this thread are stunnning. What is the recurved non-Wharnie blade?
 
The Blades on this one were the same way... But it's a nice one!
Very nice Stag..

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Jason

As much as I like Gus', this one screams perfection to me. For some reason that secondary blade starts me drooling big time.
 
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Sowbelly Whittler
3 blade slip joint folder
Blade material : ATS-34
Handle material : Stainless steel / stag
Blade length : main blade 2 3/8" (60mm), sub blade 1 1/2" (38mm) each
Closed length : 3 3/8" (86mm)

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two additional photos borrowed from Richard
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Congrats again, Jake. Ryu's definitely one of the best as well as one of my favorite makers. I'll certainly be looking forward to hearing from him about a couple of projects in the coming months...
 
Thank you, Elliot. I've admired Ryuichi's work for several years. Ryuichi is one of the makers that first peaked my interest in custom knives... in addition to Tony Bose, of course, and several of the makers that I've had the pleasure of meeting on this forum more recently. I look forward to seeing the knives you ordered!
 
Jake,

One of the nicest sowbelly's I have seen, and in a whittler configuration to boot! Sometime if you ever have the chance I would love to see a few pictures of the spine, and a shot from the top looking into the well with the blades closed?
 
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Thank you, Ken. That means a lot coming from you. Is the spin the springs? Here are a couple photos of the Sowbelly Whittler. I also put a custom 6383 pattern from a well known maker in the photo with the Sowbelly -- two of my favorite custom knives. ;)


Well: Ryuichi Kawamura "Sowbelly Whittler", Ken Erickson "Whittler"
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I accidentally orientated them in opposite directions in this photo. :eek:

Split Backspring: Ryuichi Kawamura "Sowbelly Whittler", Ken Erickson "Whittler"
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Some extraordinary knives shown on this thread, great to see.. Ryu clearly knows how to produce 'traditional' knives, his work looks very clean and crisp..top quality.

Ryu's building method, sitting the blade spines lower than the springs (under-blading), could be said to be in the 'Sheffield style', over here in England the vast majority of the better/best knives were made that way...in fact Stan Shaw still makes all his knives using that method.

Mick
 
Okay, after a false start the other day I'm back to post a couple of images of a new cattle knife that Ryu will be sending to me from Japan early next week.

There was a little confusion as the knife I originally requested that Ryu build for me was supposed to be 3.75" closed and his email indicated that the completed knife was 3.5".
Happily, when I wrote back to him he reported that it actually split the difference at 3 5/8" closed.
Since I have some nice cattle knives in that size (custom and production), I'm betting that it will fit the bill. 3 5/8" is a traditional / standard cattle knife size.

This cattle knife is somewhat different from those that Ryu ordinarily builds as I requested that he replace the pen blade with a small clip. For me that's just a more elegant and useful combination of blades. Also, this bolster treatment is a bit different from those I've seen posted on his website.

The knife is constructed with Ryu's fabulous stag and the steel is ATS-34.

I hope you enjoy looking at a couple of blown up images taken from Ryu's email to me earlier this week. No doubt the knife in hand will put these images to shame as I have learned to expect from both my own as well as Ryu's knives owned by others which I have been fortunate enough to examine.

Title : Cattle Knife
Type : 3 blade slip joint folder
Blade : ATS-34
Bolster/Handle : Stainless steel / stag
Blade Length : 2 3/4" (70mm), 2 1/8" (54mm)each


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