Hand-beaten Japanese steel candle holder (fits candles less than 10cm tall) with small handle, decorated with punched star pattern.

Size - 8.5cm diameter & 3cm high.

Offered with 2x traditional Japanese vegetable wax candles, 1x white & 1x red.

Fube, Shimane Prefecture

Artist/Workshop - Izumo ironware - "Kouji-Koubou Hiromitsu Blacksmith Workshop"

• Current workshop >100 years old. Tools are custom made for purpose by themselves – older tools are larger so they need to have to start from nodular “hagane” steel; today, hagane is provided in rods, requiring finer tools
• Handcrafting steel requires tremendous physical effort – up to 40 beats are required in a single session
• Alternation of heating and water cooling steel (eg for lamp bases) causes spalling off of the surface of steel – results in a smooth, even finish as impurities are removed