Our History

We call ourselves bladesmiths, because we choose to work like an old village blacksmith. 

Wakkibat is an unashamedly old-fashioned, hands-on, traditional craftsman's business -- such as used to be found in every town or village around the world for millennia. 

Craft-based businesses and creating wooden objects by hand, are considered obsolete ways to work - yet its a business model that steadfastly refuses to die out.  

We note this is how many of the world's most respected luthiers still choose to work every day. In the hands of a talented musician, these luthier's handiwork brings pleasure to millions, with every lovingly-crafted instance of their labours having the potential to become a valuable collectors item. Its a pretty noble example for us to aspire to frankly.

There's another similar parallel to our slow and steady approach, that exists in the slow-food movement.

In the slow-food movement, meals are prepared carefully by hand, then cooked slowly over a period of hours, or even days. Everything is done with extraordinary levels of care, and typically with a mug of something warming, or a glass of something festive sitting ready to hand. 

Not only that, the food preparation is also meant done with as much laughing, dancing, joke-telling, and having fun with friends as one can possibly manage along the way. To quote The Mandalorian, when it comes to living a happy desirable life for us, "This Is The Way!" 

We insist on taking our time and having fun while we work, because just like with slow-food, therein lies 'the magic'!

Slow food tastes better, looks better, is healthier, more flavoursome, and of consistently higher quality that can be achieved via other faster and more efficient construction methods.

 Furthermore, the process of making slow food also feeds the souls of its makers -- it is food created and presented as the result of a method of working, rather than merely an end in itself.  

In actuality - the slow food process is nothing more than a particularly joyous way of living and celebrating one's daily existence.

It is an inherently creative process with intrinsic value all of its own. The slow food process is not something geared solely towards creating culinary excellence -- yet magnificent food regularly emerges from it nonetheless. 

This is what we mean when we refer to "magic". All these factors inherent to slow food, are equally relevant to our business, our blades, and our manner of working. Its how we have chosen to live our lives, and it regularly results in the creation of magnificent blades.

But the creation of magnificent blades is still merely a side effect.  it's us living out lives mired in happiness, self-fulfilment and as much contented creativity as possible that remains the key driver of the process.

What this all means for our customers, is they will consistently get extremely high quality products from us... but through necessity, we can't be hugely specific over how long their order will take. 

We work steadily. diligently, and carefully, on every order we get, and every blade we craft, because doing so brings us enormous happiness every day.  

But we also do not work on weekends and holidays, we do not work to a deadline, and some days are more productive than others -- the work will be done, when it is done. 

We always do our very best to keep clients and customers informed of any delays during the construction process regardless, And for their part, they understand our unique way of working, and appreciate some things cannot be rushed, as it only makes the end result poorer.

Our entire philosophy is encapsulated in a single phrase we've committed to writing and permanently mounted on our workshop's walls:

~~  "To make a blade properly, it must be done in the proper spirit" ~~

This means production variables matter more to us than the passage of time, and no production variable is truly irrelevant -- they can all affect the final result for the better, no matter how small they may be, or how irrelevant they may seem. 

Even the type and amount of music we play in the background as we work, is an important production variable for us. Because honestly, how is anyone supposed to make a magnificent blade without dancing? 

Dancing is an immensely important input to making a blade.  No really -- we mean that.

How else can you consistently generate that much joy during your working day, and have the benefits of all that happiness flow over into your handiwork? 

In our book, If your work literally doesn't have you dancing for joy every day, then something is seriously wrong in your life, and you need to reassess your priorities.

In every respect, making Table Tennis blades at Wakkibat for us, is just like the process of playing the game itself:  -- feeling Is everything!