バサミ life's little pleasures - tenkara incidentals #1

I'm tying a lot of flies right now. I know you don't need me to tell you why. 

Perhaps it's because I'm tying a lot of flies that I'm thinking more about those little fly-bench incidentals that, while not essential, help to make life a little more enjoyable, and well.. elegant.   

Take these scissors. I don't need them to successfully finish a tie, it's just that I saw them and they spoke to me and I knew they would be right at home trimming the thread and hackles of my kebari. They are Japanese nigiri basami - incredibly precise and sharp tailor's scissors made from hand polished shirogami or 'white paper' steel. 

Shirogami is the closest steel to the famed traditional tamahagane steel, used for the Samurai's katana swords. Like tamahagane, shirogami steel is very pure, with very little impurity like phosphorus or sulphur. Shirogami does not rust easily and holds an edge few can rival.

My nigiri basami cut hackles wonderfully and feel delightfully balanced in the hand. I love to see them laying on my tying bench, waiting for me to pick them up. I love equally as much the little shearing noise they make in use. Tying flies is a happy place for me, so my basami are imbued with that happiness. In turn they make my time at the tying bench more enjoyable. It's a benevolent circle, and I commend to all the enjoyment of such simple pleasure.   

It feels to me that to use them in making kebari is to add little more authenticity to the fly, a little more magic perhaps, to each fly. And best of all, it's a kind of magic that's shared only between the tier, the kebari and the fish.