Grafting knife by Takeshi Saji

I never thought of any of my bonsai tools as elegant. Well-designed and well-made perhaps, but not elegant. Last week, I was window shopping in a Japanese kitchen knife shop and stumbled across a handmade grafting knife by Takeshi Saji (see images below). The shape of the blade and the Damascus pattern on it make it an elegant tool. Apparently, the steel is quite hard and durable too.

Takeshi Saji is a third generation master forge-smith from Takefu, a city in Fukui Prefecture famous for its traditional hammer forged knives. Master Saji is 65 years old and in recent years he has been devoting his time to making custom made knives (such as mine I hope).