That last picture, with the cherry wood surfaced, shows it off nicely for what it is - a beautiful piece of hardwood. There would be a charm to having the handles of all of the knives and chisels match and you've certainly got enough material for that...

But, there are lots of beautiful hardwoods available and I believe that if each handle in the set were made of a different wood, they may prove to be more useful and more interesting to the carver. More useful because in an environment where you are continually changing tools, the visual difference in the handles of those tools lying on your work bench will make a desired tool easier to find. More interesting because your intended audience (wood carvers) will have an appreciation for the different species that you've chosen. As these tools are used, they will pick up oils from the hands of the craftsmen and each develop their own patina, ultimately becoming "old friends".

I think you should tool up to make the handles yourself and go for diversity.

I like Marc's idea of different timbers, but then I also like the idea of all cherry, so no help there. I am hoping that the handles will be a little bigger than the standard 105 mm of my set, not counting the protruding blade. At the same time there are probably some who want a smaller handle. Custom timbers, custom size range, what next? Gold plated steel.

if each handle in the set were made of a different wood

Interesting idea. My initial reaction is to run for the 'safe' approach, and keep them all the same. This is a 'set' after all. But there is no question that having them easily distinguishable as they lie on the table would be very advantageous. A couple of my own chisels are quite similar in appearance, and it's always cause for a kind of 'double take' when I reach out to pick one up.

Another factor that would come into play here is that I'm personally committed to using only domestic materials for these tools - no imported hardwoods. No logging in Indonesia because of me, thanks. But Japan has pretty varied temperate forests over most of the country, so it should be possible to find a selection ... We'll have to give this one some thought.

[Edit: I came across a page where a guy is making toasting forks with hardwood handles, and - down near the bottom of the long page - he shows a photo of a set of them, all made from different woods. Not so attractive I think, although what Marc has in mind is perhaps not quite so garish as this ...]

hoping that the handles will be a little bigger than the standard 105 mm of my set

This question is already causing us some real headaches. The easy way out is just to follow the standard pattern - handles of 10.5cm in length, and I think that is what we are going to do for a start.

But if we are producing the handles ourselves, then why not set it up so that people can order a custom length? When I am designing these jigs, I'm going to keep this idea in mind. If I can make jigs that are flexible enough in concept to allow such variation, this might be a very useful option to be able to offer.

I said 'headaches' because when it comes to the size of the handles, it's not trivial to figure out how to make a balanced set of chisels when all the blades are different sizes, shapes and lengths. For the completely traditional chisel sets - like the large set we saw in the photo of Asaka-san's kit a few days ago - it's not a problem, because those are all flat chisels ... the aisuki type. But modern workers are expecting us to include both U-gouge and V-gouge shapes, and those of course have much more depth than the flat ones.

Knowing the history and story behind the wood you are using in this post and the fact that you are doing it yourself, I find that a more attractive selling point but that is my own personal preference.

a more attractive selling point

You mean as in, "The handles of these tools are made from rare cherrywood, specially selected by Dave himself at the famous Kiba lumber markets, and stored for more than 12 years right in his own workshop, the planks being regularly inspected and re-stacked as necessary, in order to ensure that they be properly dried and cured."

I hadn't looked at it that way ... Perhaps we need to be putting the price up! Or perhaps we should be selling the handles at a good high price, and tossing in the blades for free! :-)

But modern workers are expecting us to include both U-gouge and V-gouge shapes...

Is that the plan for the set to include a U and a V? I've never used, or felt the need for, a V and only rarely use the U I have. Is their any flexibility in the set to opt out of the V in particular?

Signed, A modern worker who wasn't expecting that.

V and U

I've been waiting for this question, "What's in the set?" and very surprised that nobody has brought this up yet!

It's a big point, and rather than chat about it here at the bottom of a comment stream, I'll make a separate post about it. I don't think that can be tonight, because I'm in the middle of Mystique printing, but it will come within a couple of days ...

Will you be offering a tool re-sharpening service or perhaps a stone-kit as part of the product line ?

sharpening ...

We're looking around for some stones that will work best with these tools, although we can't really move forward on that until we have had plenty of chance to play with them.

But given that they are clearly going to be 'pro' level tools, should we assume that most of the purchasers have their sharpening routine pretty much worked out? Or should we assume nothing, and start from scratch - supplying everything?