DaQ, his meditations room, and a honking big sword!

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DaQo'tah Forge

Banned
Joined
Aug 26, 2002
Messages
1,333
http://daqotah.tripod.com/id13.html

Hey guys, I just now finished my very first Japanese Katana!

it was a lot of work,,,lots of new things to learn,,,lots of new toys to get for the shop.....and the sheath,,,,oh, the sheath was a lot of new things to learn!


The Katana was made by me useing the Wally Hayes KATANA video.

The steel is 1050

I heat treated with my gas forge, (But never again, was a lot of work to get an even heat on a sword this long)

spine of sword was clay-covered

The curve is a real effect of the heat-treatment,,,and was very cool to watch happen

Quenched in warm water

acid eteched to check Hamon.....

lots and lots of hand work on a Katana,,,,I didnt get to use the belt grinder for everything as I do when I make a knife....lots of hand flileing and hand sanding,,,

The Saya, (wooden sheath) was all new to me,,,it was tricky to make,,,,I used Poppler wood..

the whole project sword/heat treating/handle wraping/and Saya took 2 weeks....http://daqotah.tripod.com/id13.html
 
Dude!!!!!!!!! Is there nothing you won't try and suceed!

That is so cool. Can I have one?

Steve
 
Sando said:
Dude...Can I have one?
Click to expand...


oh,,,,not yet,,,,perhaps down the line ,,,one day,,,,

(But remember when I die, I plan to have one of my best katanas in my hands as they push my burning Viking ship out to sea, as weaping virgins throw themselves into the fire,...)
 
Very nice Man! I admire the dedication. I know that feeling when your trying like hell to evenly heat that steel and it just dont want to heat!
What did you use to heat with? The forge?
 
your wild about this stuff are'ntcha! And now for the $64 question... what does the cat think of it??


Oh, and on a serious note: why all the holes?? I've never seen that before. Did it need it that much for ballance??


:) mitch
 
That's awesome! You have to admired for forging a sword. That's got to be one tough cookie to do. :eek: Great job.
Scott
 
That turned out great. What do you think of the way it curves? did you feel it curve down and then back up, feels weird dont it? :D
 
blgoode said:
Very nice Man! I admire the dedication. I know that feeling when your trying like hell to evenly heat that steel and it just dont want to heat!
What did you use to heat with? The forge?
Click to expand...


Heres the story:

When I first got the Ed Fowler Knife making video all I had was a home-made coal forge that I built. I would sneek off to the city on Sunday night and "find" some real coal at the City steem plant near the railroad tracks...

Then for some reason,,,the cops got the wrong idea about what I was up to at 3:30 in the morning with 12 buckets of coal in the back of my truck that was running around the streets with the lights off...

SWITCH TO PLAN-B.....I got from a BLADE FORUM brother smith , a real gas forge. Im very happy with it,,,I get to work inside in the winter,,,not a single problem,,,until I wanted to make a Japanese long Katana sword.

I got the Wally Hayes KATANA video, and on it he shows how to make a coal forge thats 5 feet long ....

well.....I wanted to NOT go back to being outside in the North Dakota winter again, so I tried to do the heat treating with my gas forge....

It almost works......my forge is the Whisper 3-burner, and has openings at both ends so Im able to slide the blade in and out to heat it,,,but it's a LOT of work,,,,

I just think that next week when I start to get ready for the next Heat-treatments of my next Katana that I will be outside with the coal again...
 
anvilring said:
your wild about this stuff are'ntcha! And now for the $64 question... what does the cat think of it??
Click to expand...

My shop cat and I have made a tons of blades over the last few years,,,,however he seems to think the Katana is different, and did have a few questions about it at first,,,



anvilring said:
Oh, and on a serious note: why all the holes?? I've never seen that before. Did it need it that much for ballance?
Click to expand...

Ok, the Wally Hayes video shows how to make a Japanese Katana,,,"sorta"

The sword is not actually just like a real Katana....you end up with a sword that "looks" like a real Katana, but is very very easy to do by a beginner.

The design calls for a "Full Tang" handle, this is very different than what the Japanese used.

The full tang makes finishing the handle a snap,,,but the problem is the weight. The full tang handle is just way to heavy and when you hold the sword it seems slow to move around...

The many holes lighten the load and move the ballance to a better position.
 
DaQo'tah Forge said:
oh,,,,not yet,,,,perhaps down the line ,,,one day,,,,

(But remember when I die, I plan to have one of my best katanas in my hands as they push my burning Viking ship out to sea, as weaping virgins throw themselves into the fire,...)
Click to expand...


DaQo'tah, you're a nut case. I hope we meet one day. (Prefeably before the Viking ship episode.)

Steve
 
Terry_Dodson said:
What do you think of the way it curves? did you feel it curve down and then back up, feels weird dont it?
Click to expand...

In the Wally Hayes video (that is my only guide to make this weapon), he talks about the curve going into the blade during the water-quench.

In the video he also shows how he does an interupted quench . He dunks the sword under the water for a few seconds, pulls it out, then dunks it again.

The video shows the sword after the first dunk in the water, and it has a backwards (I mean a curve going the wrong way over the sharp edge) curve to the blade. Then after the 2nd dunking the blade has the correct curve to it.,

Well, I forgot this point when I did my blade.

I had the shop dark to help judge the color of the blade. useing my gas forge turned out to be very hard to do. The colors just would not stay even along the whole blade for long.

Then when I thought is was all just right (or close enough), I ran to the water tank and dunked it for 4 seconds and pulled it out.

The sword was all wrong!??.,,,the sight of the curve going the wrong way stunned me, and I lost the count I was counting to know when to dunk the sword again, so I just dunked the sword again.......

I next heard the sword pop off the clay along the back. I could actually feel stuff happening to the blade in my hands,,,I think it was the stress of the blade going into the right curve.

I waited, then pulled the sword out of the dark water...and I was very supprised, and very happy to see the correct curve...and to top thing off, the blade did not warp at all to the left or right,,,Infact it took out the little bend it had in it that I could not get out before....


Beginners luck?....perhaps...
 
Doc Hollywood said:
I haven;t seen a virgin over the age of 15 in years! Where do you think they will be found?

Doc
Click to expand...

Uh...Maybe you should leave kids alone before you end up getting arrested. I'm 19, christian, as are many of my similiarly aged female friends, and we're abstinate.
 
Bruce Bump said:
Nice job! I like that curve!
Click to expand...

Bruce it was like magic....The blade was straight as an arrow going into the water,,,,and I could feel the stress in the steel as I lowered it into the water,,,,and the clay popped off and it was curved just like in the movies....
 
Very cool. I'm impressed that you tackled a job of that size.

Now that you've done all that work on the saya please take some leather or cord and wrap the hooks that hold your katanas. I cringe when seeing them placed on the bare metal.
 
Heres the story with the metal hooks....LOL


I made them to look as close as I could to the hooks in Kill Bill....however I soon was warned, (and rightfully so) that I better find a way to protect the sheath from the metal,,,,,

What I did is find some rubber that comes with a stick-em backing,,,,I just cut the rubber to fit unseen on the metal rack and stick them in position,,,,thus I keep the look I was going for, (the Kill Bill rack) yet protects the Saya....

However............

However, very interesting idea.....as I type this,,,,,,I believe that in a very real way, the metal hooks, although they are what was in the movie,,,do seem a bit out of place given the all tree branch nature of the rest of the sword rack,,,,,,,,

wrap the metal in leather?.........this does give me reason to have 2nd thoughts.......

Let me think about it,,,,
The leather look might look more natural...
 
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