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Joe Samalin
info@nihonsantools.com

The official grand opening of Nihonsan last Saturday was amazing. Thank you so much to everyone who came out or supported in any way. I personally came away from the day (exhausted and) feeling so confident in this seemingly unhinged idea of creating a retail space in NYC for the sale of Japanese woodworking hand tools. It is an incredible feeling.

But more than that, I met so many people who really showed me that what I had counted on was right, that Nihonsan is more than a store, but can become a true resource for this community we all belong to, whether you're a newbie hobbyist or a high-ranking shokunin with years of experience. A few quick highlights below, which do not begin to capture how great the day was:

• Actually got to meet Julie Fuchs IRL as she joined the festivities with her incredible partner. She is an incredible Japanese woodworker and timber framer, and we spoke for a long time about the shop and about all the ways we might collaborate. There might even be some exciting surprises in the works, so stay tuned!
• We got our first ever custom class request - a kumiko class for a group of friends for September!
• The highly talented and newest member of the Nihonsan crew, Reonda, showed up with the first three of Nihonsan's brand new chisel rolls! She is a luthier, musician, designer, and all around ass-kicker, and we are thrilled to be able to work together. We sold to chisel rolls immediately and will increase our stock and get them online shortly! Check out her work here!
• On a personal note, got to see my main man and brother-from-another-mother Joe Page (AKA Little Joe) for the first time in forever, and with his soon-to-be better half no less! Meant a lot.

A huge shout-out and thanks to Shuya Iida, owner of Hachi Collections furniture in Brooklyn and my partner in crime for showing up with another builder from his crew to completely renovate our space the day before the opening, including installing a 13-foot-long live-edge Hinoki slab counter and building a display for a just-arrived-from-Japan kanashiage Hinoki Japanese bathtub, both courtesy of Greg from Hinoki Supply. Could not have asked for better partners in this endeavor, so stop by and see us soon, hopefully this Thursday for the next meetup!

-Joe

Even the Nihonsan shop dog got a lot of love at our grand opening!

Will O'Connor
will@makegoodwood.com

A little over a week ago, I was driving home from the Maine Japanese Woodworking Festival, hosted annually by Jason Fox of Never Stop Building. I had hours and hours to drive, and I intentionally set aside some of that time to reflect on, and attempt to compile, the lessons of the weekend.

Some lessons were obvious, and at least to some extent, planned. Yann Giguere demonstrated that scribing a post to a stone is more method than magic. Jon Billing showed us that hand-planing difficult woods can be made easier by moving more quickly, and then he and the others in the expert circle made that even more clear at the competition. Wilbur Pan unlocked for us the mystery of what makes Japanese blades so good (hint: no mystery... it's metallurgy!). 

Yann Giguere demonstrates how to scribe a post to a rock using his magic thumb (and a few other tools).

Other lessons were more subtle. For instance, I did not know before this weekend that people in Maine put ranch dressing on pizza. I also didn't know before this weekend that Wilbur rocks it on guitar, or that coffee knowledge seems to go hand-in-hand with Japanese woodworking.

One of my favorite takeaways was something many of us started to mimic from Carving the Divine, the documentary we watched on Friday night. 

Watching Carving The Divine in the recently erected "Saw Mill Shrine" on the Never Stop Building grounds.

In one scene, the master woodcarver parts with his son at bedtime—saying "E.T." and touching fingers like the characters in the 80s Spielberg film. 

Some of us started using the gesture in lieu of a handshake, high-five or fist bump. We also learned that it's a little tricky... it takes intention, focus, and precision to touch fingertips, to make this person-to-person connection happen.

Add to it that it also looks a lot like God and Adam reaching to each other on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and, well, then you've got a metaphor. I mean, that's art... that's creation itself. That's bringing something into being that wasn't there before. Something made of ideas. Something made of people. 

Maybe even something made of wood.

-Will