With a surface that has clearly been hammered by hand, the KOM Wapeg is a true expression of the craftsman that made it. Created one by one by hand, you can see every hit that the craftsman has done to make this peg.

With it also being heavy, long and thick, it has been made with careful design. You can feel safe in the fact that when you use the peg, it isn’t going anywhere!

You can feel the traditional culture and techniques that go into making it!

When it comes to setting up a tent or tarp, pegs are essential to keep them secured. Be it resin pegs, or metal stakes, they are a simple yet important item that can’t be forgotten. Just depending on the way you use the peg can actually have a change to the campsite, especially on days where the rain is strong or a particularly bad storm blows in. In these situations, a sturdy and durable peg is needed, and that’s what we plan to bring to you! Using traditional crafting methods, we want to bring these amazing pegs to all in the West!

Helping you get through any troubles that the world may bring!

For Kickstarter we have also changed up the design in order to etch in a special message to our Western Backers, making this a first for our original Wapeg.

The message is a simple one but one of hope, being only four characters, the Japanese Kanji 「雲外蒼天」which means roughly Blue Sky Above the Clouds, which is an idiom that roughly means that past the troubles of life, there is a calm and peaceful time waiting for you. We have two meanings behind this.

Our first which is aimed at the campers, that even if the skies get rough while you are camping, we hope to remind you that clear skies and peaceful weather is on the way!

Our second is more of a one of encouragement for the world. With the coronavirus still affecting the world a year and a half later, but with vaccines and the sacrifices of everyone leading to a slowing down in many areas, we are starting to see the beginnings a clear and beautiful sky ahead. We want to encourage people that if we keep pushing on, we can make it through.

In order to get the kanji to even appear and stand out, the top portion of the peg has changed. We have shaved against the face of the peg, and then polished it so that we can first put the etched kanji into the face of the peg. From there we polish and shave around the kanji in order for the characters to appear even more clearly. What at first seems like a simple piece of work, takes our craftsmen time to get the characters to appear correctly.

We hope that with this design, our backers can feel support by us, and that we can remind you to push on through the hardships.

When it comes to camping pegs, there are a multitude of pegs available for various situations and terrains. Normally, when you buy a tent, you’ll probably get some flimsy pegs included. But, let’s be honest, they are the bare minimum and aren’t designed to last. With the KOM Wapeg, we looked to create a peg that can deal with any condition or terrain, that is for not only for experienced adventurers and campers, but for those that are looking to get into the hobby!

A variety of pegs that you may find available

Be it solid dirt, stones or even just a green lawn, the KOM Wapeg can deal easily with them all!

As the Wapeg has been hammered, the bumps and grooves in the faces of the peg also makes it easy to catch as it’s hammered into the ground, meaning that it’s stable and doesn’t remove easily!

Let this Wapeg give you a sense of stability and ease of mind for your campsite!

▼grass

▼gravel

▼soil

How we make the Wapeg is different to how a mass produced peg would be made. Each one is made by hand, with an increasing intensity of blows.

We plan to bring an amazing peg to our backers, one that is above the general pegs available on the market, one that we can fully put our backing behind!

We have put the peg under stress tests, and with 300kg of weight applied there was only about 1mm of deformation. After adding another 500kg and bending it to 90°, the peg was only bent, and didn’t have any stress cracks or breaking.

Why is it so strong?

Forging has been a long held traditional craft in Japan from time immemorial, with our ability to forge metal ever improving.

With the Wapeg, we start by heating the iron to near 1000°C and directly hammering and shaping the metal, which helps the iron molecules to move into stronger alignment.

Each smith creates and forges one peg at a time to make the strongest metal possible.

Normally if Iron is bent in this process and then reshaped to be straight, it loses its strength. However, when we make the Wapeg, even if the peg is bent, our smiths are able to bring it back to its original shape without a loss of strength.

This is only possible due to the years of experience that our smiths have, meaning that we create the strongest possible peg to accompany on your adventures.

If the Wapeg is cared for like any other piece of camping gear, then we are happy to say that the peg will be there forever.

The Wapeg has been made in the image of pegs and stakes that have been traditionally created for temples and shrines, many many years ago. These types of pegs are a staple of traditional Japanese architecture.

However in recent years, the amount of available smithers has been decreasing. With that the amount of people that make these pegs are also decreasing.

1000 years from now, what will have happened to these traditional stakes? Will we be able to protect them?

With that in mind, we have chosen to take these traditional pegs and blend it with camping gear to make the Wapeg!

An impressive piece of Camping gear

Each part of the Wapeg, from the thickness, the weight, the length, as well as the feel of the Wapeg, has been planned and designed.

We feel like we have been able to create a peg that is unrivalled.

As well as this, as each one is made by hand, there are no two that are the same.

We hope that you can take one in your own hands and feel the weight and the simple but intricate shape for yourself, and use it as an essential piece of your camping gear!

There are two sizes available of the Wapeg, The 21cm (8 inches) and the 30cm (1 Foot) version. The thickness is the same, but obviously the weight is slightly lighter with the smaller version!

Each Wapeg is made by hand by one of our smiths, and made using traditional techniques. Because of this, each Wapeg is different, due to how the hammer hits the peg as the smith works the metal. You can enjoy the marks that smith leaves on the peg, and you enjoy finding each small difference in the peg.

KOM is originally a Household Electrical Appliance manufacturer located in Fukuoka City, Japan.

We focus mainly on making goods that are considered rare finds, instead of to make a mundane assortment of items. Our goal is to make items that we ourselves want and then share them with the world, hopefully creating a feeling of excitement for our goods!

Project Starts August 2nd

Project Ends September 16th

Surveys Sent Out Beginning of October

Manufacturing Process October- November

Delivery Starts December

Wapeg Begins Arriving to Backers March 2022