The knife I use is called a 'hangi to' or a 'kogatana'. They come in a number of sizes but you really only need one size. I use a 4.5 mm blade but I know of a carver that uses a 5.5mm or even a 6mm blade. My recommendation is 4.5 but chose your poison and stick with it.

Here is a link if you want to buy one (no affiliation) :

**They also sell left-handed and ebony handle kogatana**

Small clearing chisels:

you will need at the bare minimum one 'Aisuki" (bull nose) flat chisel but I recommend a beginner get 3 : a 1.0, 2.0 and a 3mm.

My full set contains a range of 7 aisuki from 0.8 (which I file down to a 0.3), 1.0 (which i file to a 0.5 tip), 1.2 (which i file to a 1.0), 1.5, 1.8, 2.0, 3.0mm. I also have one 'suikomi aisuki', this is a 8mm aisuki with a curved profile, which i use to clean splintered areas around the clearing i did with the large U gouges.

U gouges:

You will need 1 large U gouge 10mm is recommended for beginners. this you will use with a hammer. (the larger you go the quicker the clearing but its more dangerous.)

my set contains three U gouges 18mm, 10mm and a 7mm (but i only use the biggest and smallest now.)

You will also need a small hand U gouge, I suggest a 6mm

My set has 2 one 6mm and one 3.5mm.

large flat clearer:

you can make do without this in the begging, many people use their U gouges to clear the wood completely, but this is tough on your hands and i suggest you get one sooner rather than later try your first print without one and if you enjoy the process get one. These don't have to be specific 'Mokuhanga chisels', the sharpening is how they differ from ordinary woodworking chisels.

I suggest you get a flat backed if you are working with Cherry or any other hard wood, 24mm. If you are working on shina ply you should get one with a slightly curved profile 24mm. the flat chisel will tare up shina.

my set contains four. Two for cherry flat, a 24mm and a 12mm. Two for ply curved a 24mm and a 12mm24mm and a 12mm.

Other tools :

You may also need to purchase a mallet for your larger chisels and u gouges.

Kento nomi. Do you need one? absolutely not, you can and in my opinion for best results, should cut your registration with your kogatana. Why? because its cleaner, leaves a much more accurate registration and does not compress or stress the wood composing the kento. With a kento nomi you can bang, quickly make registration marks, if speed is you top priority or just arent that concerned about the benefits I mentioned, be my guest. Everybody has different priorities and I think you should make prints the way that makes you happy. But do you need one? Strictly speaking no, its a printers tool.

Predominantly I carve on Yamazakura (mountain cherry). This is the traditional wood used for Japanese woodblocks as it has the right balance of hardness without brittleness, absorbance and tight growth rings which allows for smooth printing. On occasion box wood will be used for delicate areas and shina ply for simple colour blocks on projects with a tight budget. There are a number of other woods that can be use to varying degrees of success such as Magnolia (too soft to print many hundreds) and American cherry (can be too hard although I don't have much first hand experience ).

Short answer is 4-6mm at the deepest point.

long answer:

Your lines should be cut with your kogatana to 1.2 mm ideally.

Next come your marunomi (u gouge). this should clear to about 2-3 mm depending on the size of you marunomi. smaller marunomi you want to be on she smaller end of that and larger marunomi you are making the deeped cut further from the line so a little deeper.

Next is your large cleares these should cut between 4-6 mm at their deepest. There is no need to go over this depth, in most cases 4 is pleanty. But if there is no support for the paper then you should go deeper (edge of the block for example). Naturally there should be no steps on your block as you move further from the cut line the cleared area should be always sloping down and away.

After that you take your smaller clearing chisel in hand a shave off (using your body weight not a hammer) and smooth over the ridge line between the u gouge and the wide cleared.

lastly your aisuki should clear next to that line 1mm down from the surface of the wood. The slight over lap is to secure that you wont snag the line when clearing with the aisuki and chip any lines.

The key is to Keep the cleared areas moving down and away from your carved areas like an exponential decay graph. In fact, heres a helpful graph I made to illustrate.

Different carvers have different preferences for how they sharpen their aisuki in my tradition we sharpen them mostly flat at the tip with slight rounding on the corners. You cant leave them them 90° as they will catch and make the wood catch and tare up your block, so they should be rounded slightly on the corners

others prefer a more rounded tip. Personally I'm not a fan of this as the cuts they leave tend to be a little concave. Now this dosn't matter much on the flat bottom of cleared valleys or even next the lines, but it can be frustrating when you are doing something like 'ita bokashi' (block gradations) where you want a smooth convex curve ramp from the printing area down to the valleys. It's not a big deal you can still do it but you cave to be more carful and make more cuts to achieve the same finish.

it also just leaves a much cleaner smooth block which I enjoy. I find I can run the edge of my aisuki right up to the cut I made with my hangi-to with more accuracy. I suppose the counter point made by round-tippers would be they are less prone to snagging the line past the cut. In any case its a small point and come down to personal preference.

Another point when sharpening your aisuki would be the extra attention you make to the non cutting edges. after you sharpen you will be left with sharp angles on the back of the aisuki running up from the cutting edge to the spine. You want to rub these corners off on your sharpening stone to round them out. When you are in a tight area and the back of the aisuki may touch already cleared lines you don't want them getting scratched up or damaged by the untreated edges.

Ita bokashi or block gradation is where you round over the edges of a coloured section. It begins before carving. Areas you want gradation should be carved wider than the intended section. It's advisable to maker out by marking the section you gradate while prepping yourt hanshita or transfer sheet. These gradations can be short around 1 mm or larger up to 1 cm. Any bigger than this and it wont really show up in the final print. Once cut and your waste wood cleared there are a few different ways to create the gradation. But it all starts by first using your aisuki and shave the edge the edge in a smooth gradual curve.

Sand paper - You will then further refine this curved edge with sand paper. course sand paper will live a more mottled effect and a finer sand paper will leave a softer edge. before the introduction of sandpaper this work was traditionally done with a bamboo sheath.

Soldering iron - for a very course edge on rare occasions you can use a soldering iron or wood burner to burn the edge. Be careful you go to hot or slip you can ruin a block easily.

It depends on your goals. If you just want to make a presentable print, dive in, give it a go, and you'll be able to create something.

If you want to create simple designs of your own, then for a clean result, it will take around 6 months to 2 years, depending on the level of detail you're aiming for, how much goma (speckling in the colors) you're willing to tolerate, and how much practice you put in.

To become a professional working at an industry standard, it will probably take 5-10 years if you work really hard and have an aptitude for it. And even then, you're not done—it's a constant battle with yourself to improve. If you can't look at your work objectively and identify your shortcomings to focus your practice on those areas, then you may never get there. You don't know what you don't know, and one of the biggest areas of improvement beyond basic skills is training your eye.

My general thought on this is, it's probably not a good question. If this is where your head is at, and all you care about is the timeline, then forget it. Make prints because they’re fun to create, they’re beautiful objects, and there's something incredibly satisfying about holding something knowing you made it. Don’t be discouraged by the lead time to 'getting good'. If you do your research, buy some nice materials, and put in the effort, your second print could be brilliant. Your first will probably be more of a 'learning experience' than a beautiful print.

JUST MAKE SOMETHING, MINDFUL PRACTICE, GOOD LUCK.