Zenlogic's Place

Higonokami knife

(Videos at the bottom of the page)

Couple of years ago had seen a a knife on one of the blade forums I frequently lurk at. It was a Higonokami knife; a small Japanese traditional pocket knife. Just a simple knife, slip joint, folded brass scales and a laminated steel blade. The blade is the best part of the knife, extremely sharp, easy to sharpen and of a design to do most everything a person could ask it to do, from cutting sausage to skinning small game. Apparently it was carried by everybody, up until the knife troubles of the sixties in Japan.

I quote from the japan blades website.

“Higonokami is the name of Japanese traditional pocket knives that has been produced since late 19th century. Its construction is very simple and by mid 1950’s many of them were used by elementary school students as one of their stationary goods. But as time advances this “useful tool” were removed from their stationary products because of the movement of knife control.
Sometimes Higonokami is called Japanese version of Opinel because of its popularity and price. In Japan it used to be a lot of factories that had been produced Higonokami knives, but there’re only a few existing these days.”

And from the Japan woodworkers website.

” Our 3¾” Traditional Pocket Knife Higo no Kami is carried by every school boy and young man in Japan. Its traditional use is for sharpening pencils and other whittling. It has a laminated blue steel blade in a brass case. Blade length is 3? and overall length is 4¾” It is a simple, traditional cultural item.
History
Sadakoma Higo no Kami are made by Mr. Motosuke Nagao who lives in Miki City. His great-grandfather, Komataro, made knives and his grandfather, Shigeji, as well.
In 1894 a distributor brought two knives from Kumamoto prefecture to Mr. Shigeji Nagao and another blacksmith. They changed their style to a folding knife and named them Higo no Kami. Higo no Kami became very popular because they were sharp, easy to use and cheap.
There were many Higo no Kami makers in Miki and other prefectures. Some of the makers made inferior products. So in 1907, the Miki knife makers association registered a trademark of Higo no Kami and permitted only members of the association to call their knives Higo no Kami. At present the only member of the association is Mr. Nagao. “

Yep, for some reason I just had to have one, but alas, it would be awhile before I could get it, then just recently, I ran across a website that had them for a nice price and I had extra money on a gift card, sooooo; man I couldn’t wait till it got here, It was just like I was a kid again, waiting for the mail man.

I got mine from lee valley tools in Canada.

With shipping it cost $26.00’s American. There are some caveats;

It is a low priced knife (Do not read as cheap), rough looking and not polished to a high standard, there are small scratches all over it and the blade has no polish at all. There is no blade lock, which makes this a very dangerous knife for the user, but once you get used to it, that becomes a non-problem. Also remember, it is steel, not stainless steel, that means rust, always clean before you put it away and keep some fine steel wool and oil around to buff it up and oil it frequently. However, it is beautiful to me, I like how it feels and man do I like the blade, sharp as hell, and designed to be a great all purpose knife. It is not a stabber; it is not a fighting knife, although, someone could use it for that, reminds me of a straight razor. What ever you do, do not stab with it, your hand will run up the blade, you will end up slicing your hand to the bone. Do no try to use the point to put a hole in anything; it will fold back on your hand. The other thing I have found; is that it is really not a pocket knife at all. If you put it in your pocket, everyday jingles and movement will open the blade with disastrous results to your pocket and maybe your leg. My advice is to make or get a small leather pouch for it (like the one I made for it, see picture further down.), yes that makes it a chore to dig out, but if you need a knife quick, this isn’t the knife to use.

Well, lets start with the pictures, first this is how it came to me:

This is the box, it indicates that it is a blue paper steel, there are apparently two kinds of these, blue and white paper, now i am not sure of this, but i think that it means it is an Aogami steel core. I am sure – it is a laminated blade, hard steel core – soft steel out sides, three layers total. Further down you can see this in a picture of the blade.

Again, i quote from somebody else;

“White steel is a common shorthand name for white paper steel (”shirogami
hagane”) which can be any of several fairly simple high carbon, water
hardening steel grades. The carbon content varies by grade, and runs from
0.8 to 1.4%. The range of carbon content within a grade is a tight 0.1%.
For example, the carbon content of Shirogami Hagani No1A is specified to
be between 1.3 and 1.4%. Each grade also contains 0.1-0.2% silicon and
0.2-0.3% manganese, and only trace amounts of the impurities sulfur and
phosphorus.

Blue paper steel (”aogami hagane”) is also offered in several grades,
with carbon content ranging similarly to the “white” grades. However,
blue steel contains the additional alloying elements chromium and
tungsten, and one grade (”aogami super”) also contains molybdenum and
vanadium. The blue steels can be quenched in water or oil, whereas most
of the white grades need a faster quench and require water. ”

Here it is open.

Other side.

Here you can see the lamination in the blade.

Now, as to the inscriptions on the handle, one side is some writing and the other is a stamping of a samurai. I understand that this is traditional, the picture is of Miyamoto Musashi, and the inscription has some thing to say about him. Again I am not sure about this, anybody who can read this; let me know, please?

Here you can see what I mean by it being rough, the brass has not been polished to it’s final stages and there are many scratches and dings.

This is, i believe is the makers mark, again, anybody who can read this, let me know what is says, thank you. You can again see the lamination in the blade.

Here it is in my hand, folded it is just under 5 inches in length, open – it is 8 and 3/4 long. The blade is, from the end of the thumb flipper to the point, 4 and 3/4 inches long. The cutting portion of the blade is 3 and 3/4 very sharp inches.

Here it is folded and laying across the small leather pouch I made for it, to make it pocket safe.

and this is the warning/instruction paper that came with the knife

I ran across the below picture on the net looking for any info about this knife way back when, (If the owner of this picture ever runs across my page, just leave a comment if you have a problem with this or not, please and leave your name so i can credit it properly). It looks like a small sharps shop and from where the knife is placed, they seem to think of it as a household tool, something to have in the drawer or on the bench. Which is pretty much what i planned to do with mine, buy a new smaller version for the pocket, and put this one on my work bench as a shop knife.

I also found this short video on the web. Here you can see a blade smith making the knives, as you can see in the film, there are a few different versions and better quality ones. Also you can see him using it to sharpen a pencil, and how it opens. So far i have not been able to find a place to buy the better ones. Watching this at the 35 sec mark, you will see a fixed blade version of this, man, talk about a nice all round EDC knife. Small and flat, weighs nothing and capable of super sharpness.

Higonokami Folder (Japan) from Jonny Liao on Vimeo.

My reviews of the knife from my You tube:

Well that’s all for this post, any questions, just ask, i love the knife, and plan on getting more, in fact; this one knife may have gotten me started on collecting cultural and traditional knives, all by it self. Like the douk – douk, the okapi, and the french bee Aka; the Laguiole knife.

I here Mora makes a nice inexpensive laminated steel blade knife, and looking around the net, the puukko and leuku look good too. Hell, when will it stop.

( I am not endorsing the sites mentioned or linked to on this page, i only used them to show examples of the knives i am talking about. Except one, Lee valley tools, i have ordered from them before and am extremely satisfied with them. As with everything on the net, think long and hard and do some searching before ordering or buying from anybody on the web)

Have a great day, Later Zenlogic.

(Full size versions of the pictures of this knife will be in my albums, under the heading, you guessed it, Higonokami.)

The last Maker:

The last member of the guild in Miki who can put the trademark Higonokami
on his knives are Motosuke Nagao. He is around 70 years old now.
The amazing thing is that he still makes everthing alone him self. link below:

http://www.ehamono.com/master/repo/nagao.html