In Search of Takumi Metal Work
The ancient Japanese concept of ‘Takumi’, meaning ‘artisan’, embodies a blend of skill and spirit. A Takumi master craftsman has a remarkable depth and breadth of knowledge, testament to years of dedicated learning.
It’s this journey, and indeed the journey taken by all craftspeople as they learn to ply their trade, that Will’s steel sculpture represents. From the bottom, it features Oxyacetylene scars and dents created by sledgehammers and hand tools, resulting in almost brutal markings in the metal; imperfections created by someone at the very beginning of learning their craft and alsoshowcasing the raw material that blacksmiths must work with.
In Search of Takumi Metal Work
The ancient Japanese concept of ‘Takumi’, meaning ‘artisan’, embodies a blend of skill and spirit. A Takumi master craftsman has a remarkable depth and breadth of knowledge, testament to years of dedicated learning.
It’s this journey, and indeed the journey taken by all craftspeople as they learn to ply their trade, that Will’s steel sculpture represents. From the bottom, it features Oxyacetylene scars and dents created by sledgehammers and hand tools, resulting in almost brutal markings in the metal; imperfections created by someone at the very beginning of learning their craft and alsoshowcasing the raw material that blacksmiths must work with.
Just like the metal Hadori door trim in the Lexus ES F Sport saloon emulates traditional Japanese sword-making techniques, the spindle grille-shaped pinnacle of this object was created using a process called Damascus steel, which is also used in Katana sword-making.
It involves forging two types of steel together to achieve an incredibly strong alloy. “I really, really thrived in just seeing how much I could push this”, said Barker, “by continuously folding it over I was able to get one hundred and sixty-two layers of steel in that small space. It’s probably the hardest technique that I have to hand.”
Watching Will work in the intense heat of his Colchester forge makes you realisejust how incredibly physical and visceral being a blacksmith is. “Whilst steel is a very forgiving material to work with it still requires a lot of brute strength to get it to do what you want it to do”, Will adds, “you need to heat it up to 1,750 degrees Celsius to get it to a malleable stage, and you have to create a huge amount of force to bend it and twist it to the shape you want. It’s a lot of hard work to achieve what you wanttodo.”
This piece conveys a passage through time; time spent learning the skills to be deserving of the title Takumi”, says The London Blacksmith Will Barker, as he stands proudly over his metal sculpture. It’s amazing to think that this was created from a solid block of steel.
