Partner Profile: Mizuno Seisakusho Hatchets
Mizuno Seisakusho was founded in 1937 as a blacksmith factory that specialized in the forging of plane blades for woodworking. As decades passed, traditional woodworking waned, the blacksmiths started forging more axes and hatchets, experimenting with different shapes and handles. This allowed them to keep forging plane-blades but also keep their factory operating into a new era by making tools that were more relevant to the times.Today, the current owner Isao Mizuno is a certified traditional craftsman in the region and crafts a wide array of hatchets and metal-working tools.
Our hatchets from Mizuno Seisakusho are forged from S45C carbon steel (0.45% carbon content) which means they'll be much more durable than our Swedish axes and easier to sharpen, due to the softer nature of the steel. While they won't keep their edge as long, they are incredibly robust. The handles are made with strong oak wood that is burned on the surface, and are nicely contoured like European hatchet handles. The burning of the oak's surface makes them more moisture resistant and less likely to shrink. They are presented in a beautiful leather sheath, while the head is secured with both wood and metal wedges to keep it firmly on the handle.
To date, we carry four styles of hatchet from Mizuno-san.
The "Axe Hatchet"
This hatchet has a thinned-out bevel, with a chisel style grind. In plain english this hatchet is a jack of all trades, perfect for limbing, light chopping, kindling and even some carving.
Bakin Bearded Hatchet
The Bakin hatchet is a very unique blade. While the edge is sharpened like a carpenter's axe, the cheeks taper inwards behind the bevel. This keeps the axe very thin, making it an incredible bushcrafting and carving tool, as well as a small felling hatchet.
Jigata Masakari
The Jigata Masakari is an incredibly robust, heavy duty hatchet. This blade has one of the thickest bevels we've ever seen, making it ideal for hatchet splitting. The straight bevel also means you could do some wood-working or even bushcrafting with it, as you can slip your hand behind the beard for more control but this blade us anything but precise.
Ko-Ono
The Ko-Ono has a thicker bevel, with a chisel style grind. This hatchet is quite versatile, great for limbing, but biased towards chopping, and decent for making kindling.
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At the end of the day, these are all stellar axes, and Kent of Inglewood is thrilled to by carrying products made by Mizuno-san. I personally tend to favour thinner axe blades like those on Hultafors axes, so I'll likely be taking home the "Axe Hatchet" or the Bakin to take to cookouts this summer. Whichever one you end up with, I'm confident you'll love it.
