Edo handmade tweezers: gourd [Kurata Works]

Edo handmade tweezers that fit your fingers, draw a beautiful gourd-shaped curve.

It is said that even hair of 5 thousandths of a millimeter is tweezed easily.
It fits your fingers and you can tweeze a hair easily without putting extra power because of its unique shape.
In addition, these are carefully handmade one by one and a pair of tips fits perfectly.
The width between each tips are 2millimeters and the inner side of the tips are polished with a grind stone and it can　surely tweeze soft downy hair normal tweezers can't tweeze.
This is made by a craftsman Yoshiyuki Kurata, who won the "Traditional craft skills Achievement Award"in Japan and please realize his craftsmanship.

Three conditions to distinguish good "tweezers".

1. When the pair of tips is closed and held against the light, the light is not leaked from the gap between tips.
2. When it is seen from a side face, the pair of tips is fit .
3. When a hair is picked with tweezers, there is a spring in both sides of the tips.
If there is not even any one among the three conditions, you may feel pain when tweezing a hair or the hair may be cut accidentaly.
The "Edo handmade tweezers"have these three conditions.
If you have one, it will be usable for a long time.

What are "Edo handmade tweezers"?

These are tweezers which are based on the tweezers made out of bivalve which were supposed to be used between the common people in Japan and are handmade with hammering technology in Edo era.

Kurata works is founded in 1875(Meiji era).The third generation Yoshiyuki Kurata is the only craftsman in Japan who inherits the traditional way of tweezers producing in Edo era.
The 18-8 stainless steel plate of 3mm thickness is hammered 500 times or more and these are produced by hand one by one. His craftsmanship that went beyond the limits of the mechanical press and in fiscal Heisei 9 year his skills were esteemed and he won the "traditional craft skills Achievement Award" from Arakawa Word in Tokyo. Currently his tweezers are used as medical devices of ophthalmology or makeup equipment by many experts.

The crafting process of Edo handmade tweezers

Even Mr. Kurata who is skilled meister can make about ten pairs of tweezers per day at most. While adjusting the thickness with sense of his eyes and fingers, he finishes a work called "Edo handmade tweezers" through 30 or more steps.
He also inherits skillful way of fingerwork.

(1) Selection of material, hammering

The 18-8 stainless steel bar of 3 milimeters thick that has rust resistant is used for the material.
both ends of the bar are hammered at the beginning.
Then it is hammered carefully while it is turned upside down front and back to have spring in the middle. The process is to "eliminate the core of the material". This requires power adjustment skill.
It is hammered further and becomes to smooth surface.

(2)Punching, sanding, deburring, polishing.

The material that has been beaten-out is die-cut and a cross section and edge are sanded carefully and remove rough part called burr. This work makes smooth texture. Then it is polished with sand,cloth or rinen.

(3) Warpage adjusting, inscription, readjusting, nipping parts making, bending
The warpage of the material is adjusted with his original machine.
Then a registered trademark "Yoshiyuki Kurata"is inscribed on it.
After the warpage readjusting, a pair of nipping parts is made.
Finally it is bent at the center and the form is adjusted.

(4)Surface shining, teeth(nipping parts)sanding, teeth adjustment, grinding

Using buff of 4 types (sand, linen, yarn, cloth)makes smooth surface.
Then the teeth parts catching a hair are sanded with files of three kinds of roughness (rough, medium, fine).
After confirming the resilience of the spring and shape, and a pair of teeth is adjusted to fit close.
The nipping faces of teeth parts are ground with a grind stone and finally a pair of tweezers is completed.