Aikuchi in 1075 and walnut

Matthew Gregory

Matthew Gregory

Chief Executive in charge of Entertainment
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Jan 12, 2005
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I recently finished this piece, and thought I'd share here. I wanted to make a knife that looked both modern and yet somehow ancient at the same time, and I think I've managed to accomplish that, to some extent.

The 6" blade is 1/4" thick 1075, and features hamon and a milled and hand polished fuller and beveled spine. I purchased the antique Edo Period fuchi after making the blade, and tried to design the rest of the knife around the pair. The guard is hammered copper with a coined edge, and I tried to age and blacken the finish to match the fuchi as best as I could. I made a small copper menuki the same way to complement the guard, after assembling everything and feeling that the handle would benefit from a design detail like that, to help tie it all together.

The handle is stabilized and figured Claro walnut, and is wrapped and soaked in an aerospace resin.

Overall length is 11-1/2", with a 5-1/4" handle. The handle tapers to the fuchi/guard, and swells at the butt.


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Thanks for looking!
 
Beauty! Wonderful hamon. Great idea to use a nice figured wood underneath the wrap. You don't see much of it, but it really makes a difference.
 
another watershed moment in the forward progression of M. Gregory
love the hamon, btw ;)
 
My favourite piece from you yet, and that says a lot. :thumbup:
 
That's wonderful my friend! [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
That's a special piece Matt. Your knives and photos just keep getting better.
 
Dang impressive! I love the copper fittings and overall styling
 
I am jealous of the photo, honestly. I like the knife a lot, but the picture is the thing that is out of my reach. I was talking about your stuff to a friend of mine named Ricky today, who also suffers from the knifemaking sickness. We were looking at the Arms and Armor at the Met in NYC and talking tantos. Then, I see this. Quite a cool piece, and the addition of the antique fitting rocks.

I have a die grinder that I put a bent bronze rod on the end of with hose clamps. You can set it to ride along the spine of a blade and cut small fullers with cutting discs. Then, turn the speed way down, and go back and do a lot to polish the same fullers. Easier than a mill in some ways, especially if you want to work on blades after heat treatment when they are curved. Variable speed, Makita. Just in case you want to do this on something and don't want to use the mill because it is curved.
 
Matt, very nice, actually extremely nice! Every detail captured by your excellent images!

Did you mortise your handle? And what is the adhesive you used?

Steve
--------
Member, W.F. Moran Jr. Foundation
ABS AP
 
That's really nice, M.Gregory. In a way it almost reminds me of a bonkers J-spec puukko.
 
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