Fall of 1984. Iwama. Bruce Klickstein was only there for one week with Teja Bell. Jason Yim was staying for 6 months. Saito Sensei had received a small stack of “Japanese Red Oak” from a friend and asked if they wanted to learn how to make a Bokken in the traditional way. He had them construct a paneling stand with 2″ x 4″. They were just making regular bokkens, not “Heavy Bokken”. But due to the length of the wood they were able to make bokkens of 42″ length. Only the plane and sandpaper were used.
Photo: Bruce Klickstein