New Hainan client, Nanhai Net, Nanguo Metropolis Daily December 21 news (reporter Zhang Ye) Wanning Hou'an has "three musts": mullet, powder soup and iron. As early as the 1960s, Wanning Hou'an's blacksmith street had a high reputation in Hainan, and "Hou'an Knife" was famous throughout the island, and even once exported overseas, and a blacksmith street supported the backbone of Hou'an's handicraft industry.
Nowadays, Hou'an mullet has been selected as one of the four famous dishes in Wanning and has become the finishing touch on the table; Hou'an powder soup has also spread throughout the streets and alleys of Hainan, and the former "three absolutes" only the blacksmith industry has lost its living space under the squeeze of the "assembly line" and gradually disappeared into the long river of history. At present, there are only two blacksmith shops (factories) in Hou'an, one has embarked on the road of mechanized production and strived to gain a place in the knife industry; one still adheres to the traditional handicraft workshop, guarding the last stubbornness of Hou'an Iron Street.
Workers are grinding knives at the Ogama Tool Factory. Photo by reporter Zhang Ye
Two blacksmith shops (factories) adhere to the "blood vein" of the "hou'an knife"
At noon on December 16, a van stopped in front of the Hou'an Xushan Knife Shop in Hou'an Town, and workers loaded several boxes of freshly shipped kitchen knives onto the car, which would be sent to cities and counties in Hainan for sale.
Xushan knife shop is a typical "front shop after factory" business model, the yard behind the store, more than a dozen workers according to the different processes of tool production division, can produce more than 700 knives per month.
The owner, Ji Xushan, became a blacksmith at the age of 16 and ran a blacksmith shop with his wife in the early years. After the reform and opening up, the traditional manual work could not meet the market demand, in 1992, Ji Xushan rented an 800 square meter courtyard, purchased lathes, hired workers, and began the transformation from manual workshops to factories. In 2015, Ji Xushan opened a second factory in Yangjiang, Guangdong, the "capital of China's knives and scissors", with the intention of carrying forward Hou'an knives.
A few hundred meters away from the Xushan knife shop, is the most famous and the only remaining blacksmith shop in Hou'an Town, the chief guan Guoyun has been 80 years old, still insist on using traditional crafts to beat knives, due to physical reasons, the output is naturally not high, but even if a kitchen knife is sold for more than 200 yuan, there are still many people who come to "ask for a knife".
Guan Guoyun demonstrates the forging process of "Hou'an Dao". Photo by reporter Zhang Ye
More than 250 years ago, Guan Guoyun's ancestors Shangguan Xinchang and Guan Xinqiao brothers moved from Shaozhou, Guangdong Province, and became the first generation of iron strikers in Hainan, and the blacksmithing craft of more than two hundred years has not been interrupted, and guan Guoyun's generation is already the eighth generation of the official family in Hainan.
With the inheritance, improvement and innovation of the knives of several generations of the official family, the "positive welfare" brand knives have not only become the brand of the official iron shop in the past three hundred years, but also the brand of the post-safety knife.
Guan Guoyun's kitchen knife in his hand. Photo by reporter Zhang Ye
Historically, Hou'an due to less farmland, many locals to the blacksmith industry for a living, gradually famous Hainan, Hou'an town government a person in charge told reporters, Hou'an town's iron industry is mainly concentrated in Hou'an Market, brilliant period a street there are forty or fifty blacksmith shops, but also formed a famous "blacksmith street", "at that time basically hainan island agricultural knives mostly from Hou'an, some knives are even exported to some countries and regions in Southeast Asia." ”
In the 1990s, knife production entered the factory, with the advantages of high output and cheap price, the living space of the handicraft workshop was gradually squeezed, losing market competitiveness, and the blacksmith shop gradually disappeared in Hou'an.
A "longevity knife" Forging technique is very elaborate
In June 2010, the handicraft of Hou'an knife forging was listed as the intangible cultural heritage of Hainan Province, and as the inheritor of this intangible cultural heritage, Guan Guoyun still burned with passion in the remnants of the wind and candle, and insisted on making every Hou'an knife in his hand to the extreme.
How do you forge an authentic rear knife? Guan Guoyun told reporters that after making the knife, it can be roughly divided into five steps, first of all, the iron plate is heated to mature iron, and then a groove is opened at the blade, the steel plate is stuffed into it, and then the wrought iron with the steel plate is sent into the furnace to dissolve the fire, and after the iron plate is burned red, it is taken out and placed on the anvil to be processed into a knife embryo, and then continuously sorted, modified, polished by pounding, and then fine-tuned after quenching until it is finally formed.
The knife embryo dissolves in the fire. Photo by reporter Zhang Ye
"Clamping steel is the most significant feature of the rear-mounted knife, and quenching is the key to the molding of a rear-mounted knife." Guan Guoyun told reporters that sandwiching steel plates at the blade can greatly improve the sharpness and durability of the knife, And Guan Guoyun said that the kitchen knife after the clamping of steel "can be used for at least more than 20 years." Ji Xushan also said that his inspection in Yangjiang found that the practice of sandwiching steel in kitchen knives is rare in knife production across the country.
The red-hot knife was constantly pounding in the machine. Photo by reporter Zhang Ye
Quenching is the key process to determine the quality of a knife, this process is not a simple "learning" can be mastered, more to rely on experience and understanding, "just like cooking, more salt, the dish is salty, on the contrary, it is not tasteful, the amount of the amount, all depends on the master's personal master." Guan Guoyun said.
Guan Guoyun wrote the forging process of "Hou'an Dao" on a small board. Photo by reporter Zhang Ye
Guan Guoyun said that the same piece of iron, in the hands of different blacksmiths, the kitchen knife may be one in the sky and one underground. The kitchen knife pays attention to the thickness of the back of the knife, the blade is thin, and the method of creating the front and back parts of the blade is also different, "The front part is basically used to cut meat and vegetables, and the rear part is used to cut bones, so there are different aspects in the pounding force and shape." ”
In addition, hook knives, sickles, large knives, scissors, glue knives and other knives for different purposes are not the same in the process, and if you want to be proficient in all knives, you must not do it for three years and five years.
Partially finished tool. Photo by reporter Zhang Ye
Traditional skills are facing "loss" and non-hereditary heirs are looking forward to someone inheriting the mantle
Now, although Guan Guoyun and his wife still revolve around the shop every day, they rarely take the initiative to make knives, "Old, can't move, someone places an order to fight, no rest." "For the inheritance of forging skills, it is a major event in Guan Guoyun's current heart.
Guan Guoyun has two sons and two daughters, four children are currently working in the city, he has not received apprentices, seeing that no one has inherited the blacksmith technique, which has become the biggest regret of Guan Guoyun's life.
"Striking iron is a chore, not only to withstand the smoke and fire, but also to have patience and perseverance, and now young people are not willing to do it." Guan Guoyun said that before, some young people came to him to learn the craft, but in the end they all gave up because they could not bear the pain. Now Guan Guoyun's greatest wish is to find a young man who is willing to inherit his mantle and pass on his craft, otherwise, he is worried that the skills that have been passed down from his ancestors for more than 200 years will be lost in his hands.
Guan Guoyun explained the division of labor among the workers in the tool factory. Photo by reporter Zhang Ye
The technology into a business, go south and north for more than ten years, for the future of the hou'an knife, Ji Xushan also has similar concerns, he told reporters, the original intention of opening a factory in Yangjiang is to promote the post-an knife, but after some investigation, he found that he thought it was simple, "Compared with other places, there is still a big gap between our post-an knife production technology and factory level, although I also try my best to push the post-an knife outward, but the market acceptance is not high." He said.
Now, Ji Xushan spends more time in the factory operating Yangjiang, mainly producing the mainstream stainless steel tools in the market, and although the Hou'an factory is also insisting on hand-hitting knives, it has become a vassal and it is difficult to form a market scale. On December 17, Ji Xushan returned to Hou'an with a batch of equipment, because labor costs were lower, and he transferred some of the processes of the Yangjiang factory to the Hou'an factory, and the Hou'an factory gradually became the "secondary processing place" and "market transfer station" of the Yangjiang factory.
In November this year, the Wanning Municipal Cultural Center organized a training course on the forging skills of the intangible cultural heritage knife in the blacksmith shop of GuanGuoyun, attracting local craftsmen, apprentices and amateurs of the forging technique of the post-knife knife. In the classroom, Guan Guoyun not only taught theoretical knowledge on the spot, but also personally carried out the demonstration operation of blacksmithing teaching by hand, hoping that through his "hard-working" teaching, some people could "stay" and also retain this precarious skill.