A few questions

T

thegeek574

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Sep 3, 2010
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I need a few pieces of advice for a rather large project that may or may not have stalled my entire knife making hobby for the past year because of the sheer quantity of work I realized I had it in front of me. I have finally grown a pair and gotten back to work. It's a sword. San Mai composed of Wrought iron clad W2, 21 inch blade. Don't worry, I have someone who actually knew what they were doing take care of the welding. However, I am working on the grinding, guard and handle. Grinding and sanding I am fully capable of doing, and I am actually deep into draw filing now. However, I have a couple minor questions. First, where should the balance point be? right now it resides about half way down the blade, but I'm not quite done draw filing yet. It will, with all honesty, be a show piece, but I have no interested in putting all this time into something that is basically unusable. Second, this follows the Japanese style of a slightly curved blade and no plunge, with the bevel continuing all the way through the handle. How should I go about fitting the guard? I had what could only be called an epic failure on my last attempt. Finally, I have about 21 inches of blade and 4-5 inches of tang. Should I just grind into the blade a bit and make a longer tang, or just extend the handle beyond the end of the tang? Thanks for the help.

Steven

Final note: For those of you who are inexperienced like myself, don't do what I did. It is really hard to just keep pushing and do a good job on something of this magnitude without working up to it. If you STILL do what I did, then at least have another project on the side that you can work on when you get frustrated to build confidence and show progress. Maybe more than one.
 
Well, Glad to see you are working on your project again. You need to find a copy of "The Craft of the Japanese Sword". If you are going to style it in a similar fashion. You will be making a Habaki then a Tsuba etc. Don't worry too much about the balance point but rather a nice sweeping and graceful grind on all sides. This will take care of the balance. Also when making the handle and fittings things can be adjusted to also help out getting the balance right. I really think you should make it a take down as done on a traditional piece. Give me a call if you want to talk it through, or better yet come on down and we can work on it some more.
 
Chuck pretty well covered it. A photo or sketch would be nice so we could knowingly discuss any issues. Right now any comments are blind.

The tang on any blade should always taper from the blade slightly. Measure it in all places to assure it is less than the thickness at the shoulders/machi. On a Japanese blade, it just carries the lines of the blade back, somewhat loosing the detail of the shinogi, but keeping the cross section shape. Whether Western or Japanese, the guard/tsuba is slotted to match the blade profile at the machi/shoulders. On a Japanese blade, a habaki takes care of the fit-up, so a snug fit isn't required. You can even make it a very loose fit and use small copper wedges at the spine and edge to make the tsuba sit snug. The handle/tsuka applies the forward pressure on the assembly to keep it tight. If there is a little rattle, using a thicker or additional seppa will take care of that. The simplicity and elegance of a one peg take down Japanese handle is often undervalued in knifemakers. Every part can be perfectly finished and assembled/disassembled with no problem until all is perfect. No scratched blades or guards when finishing the handle. The same technique works with tsuka-maki as well as a solid material handle.
 
Thanks for the help.
Bladsmth, I appreciate the technical details. I got AT LEAST one revelation out of that post.
Chuck, let me finish the filing first. It's almost there.
 
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