Oct 12, 2022 3 min read Posts

“Takumi No Waza” – Japan's famous Green Bell Nail Clippers

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Everyone has a nail clipper. You bought it years ago. It might not be sharp, might require force, might send clippings flying... But who cares? You use it once a month and it gets the job done.

If someone told me to spend 13 dollars on nail clippers, I would have laughed them out of the room. But people change... Today, I think that in life the small things matter a lot.

Some history first

Seki is a city in Central Japan.

In the 1400s, Japan went through a period of intense strife with warring factions vying for power. When these factions needed swords, Seki was where they went.

Over 300 of Japan's best swordsmiths and blacksmiths were in Seki, and built up incredible mastery in crafting swords and blades over the centuries.

But now that no one carries swords, all that expertise has been redirected to things we use every day – knives, scissors, nail clippers, and so on.

Green Bell's Takumi no Waza Line

Green Bell was founded in 1968 in Seki. They are well-known in Japan for their nail clippers, having won multiple awards.

Today, I would like to introduce their Takumi no Waza line.

Takumi no waza (匠の技) translates to "the expertise of master craftsmen", so this product clearly has high expectations to meet.

Takumi no Waza G-1205 Nail Clippers *Source: https://greenbell.ne.jp/products/g-1205/*

Each blade on the the Takumi no Waza series is made from stainless cutlery steel, and is hand polished twice by Green Bell's experts before going through rigorous quality checks.

A lot of thought has gone into this design. The handle of the clipper has a gentle curve, and doubles as the file. According to Green Bell, this curve was incorporated to match the natural curve of nails, making it easier to file.

(For the first time in life, I realized files are always flat. Why are files flat when our nails aren't?!)

The highly polished blades cut nails with minimal force, even on thick nails. A lot of people scratch their heads at spending more than a dollar for nail clippers, but I will leave you with this quote from an Amazon reviewer:

“ Is there a luxury line of nail clippers? If so, this is it ” - Amazon Reviewer

Where can I buy this?

Amazon, Walmart, and other retailers usually carry Green Bell products.

Amazon ASIN code: B0716XRCYN

(Edit: Removed Amazon links because it seems like our blogging platform adds referrer info to the links)

Footnotes:

Seki is a beautiful city and you should definitely visit if you get the chance. The official Seki tourism site has pictures and more.
Japan's period of internal strife is called the "Warring States period". See Wikipedia if this is interesting to you.
Doing the research for this post, I struggled to not get distracted by the array of well thought out products Green Bell manufactures. Extra-safe nail clippers for babies, anyone?