Japanese scissor manufacture shares its heritage with sword making dating back from 700AD. Due to the lack of natural iron ore reserves, high grade steel used for cutting has always been crafted from iron sand which it has in abundance in the Sanin region of Japan.
There is a scene in the popular animation "Princess Mononoke" (Dir. Hayao Miyazaki 1997) where the women are singing to the time of their foot bellows to push air into the "tatara" a huge clay furnace which melts the iron sand. The physically strenuous work needed to be carried out for 3 days and 3 nights until the colour of flames turned purple. The consistent production of the highest quality steel and perfecting "hazuke" the art of creating fine blade edges was paramount to the warriors that were constantly engaged in brutal battle.
To this day Japanese steel production is renowned over the world, particularly in its partnership with fine cutting tools. At Dowa we proudly select only the best suited steels for our scissors, but that's only the starting point. We are passionate about every step of production from the temperature at which the scissors are forged to the grain of the stone used to sharpen the blades. We've even smuggled the tightly controlled "tamahagane" steel, used to make nihonto (samurai swords), out of Japan to exhibit at trade fairs. For most people it must have just looked like just a shiny lump of rock. For us at least, it was very exciting.
There is a scene in the popular animation "Princess Mononoke" (Dir. Hayao Miyazaki 1997) where the women are singing to the time of their foot bellows to push air into the "tatara" a huge clay furnace which melts the iron sand. The physically strenuous work needed to be carried out for 3 days and 3 nights until the colour of flames turned purple. The consistent production of the highest quality steel and perfecting "hazuke" the art of creating fine blade edges was paramount to the warriors that were constantly engaged in brutal battle.
To this day Japanese steel production is renowned over the world, particularly in its partnership with fine cutting tools. At Dowa we proudly select only the best suited steels for our scissors, but that's only the starting point. We are passionate about every step of production from the temperature at which the scissors are forged to the grain of the stone used to sharpen the blades. We've even smuggled the tightly controlled "tamahagane" steel, used to make nihonto (samurai swords), out of Japan to exhibit at trade fairs. For most people it must have just looked like just a shiny lump of rock. For us at least, it was very exciting.
