Japanese Marking Knives (Kiridashi)?

[Danketch]

I got a catalog of Japanese woodworking tools the other day. I found the aforementioned knives in there. They look pretty neat, some are affordable. I am digging the chisel grind.

Does anybody use these? For carpentry? I can see having a precise thin line, but usually I just use a pencil.

I may have to order one "for science".

 

[Mahoney]

They make good marking knives, if you are doing woodworking where a knife line is useful (i.e., dovetails) They are right or left handed, and yes it matters which side of the ruler you mark on. You can get a version with a chisel grind v-point that can be used right or left handed, but it is harder to mark into a corner with that version. They are also very useful for general woodworking tasks like trimming, whittling, sharpening pencils, etc. Much Japanese woodworking is done in fairly soft woods, the steel the knives are made from may be quite hard so if you hit a knot in pine or try to whittle in oak it may be possible to chip the edge.

 

[Danketch]

Thanks. Lefty here, so was going to go with a lefty chisel grind. I figure the v-grind ones are compromises in the design, and not worth messing with.