Photos Hamidashi Tanto

[KajiCustoms]

Hello, just wanted to introduce myself and show an example of my work. I am new to the forum. Been making seriously for about 3 years, informally for about 25 years... This one I call Oni Doshi. W2 steel, slight uchizori with iorimune, damascas hamidashi style tsuba, african padauk saya, water buffalo horn kurikata, fuchi, and koiguchi. Copper habaki, seppa and mekugi with DoHi patina, kangaroo leather tsukaito. Please let me know what you think!

 

[milesofalaska]

Very nice. I like how the heat treat pattern came out on the steel. Curious about the red guard, what is the material, (You may have said if it is the 'habaki') and it does not look pinned to steel so it is fastened to handle? I lost wax cast copper for knife parts but never seen this. Sheath is wood, but does not look two part as I would do, so how do you shape sheath to fit?

 

[KajiCustoms]

alaska, good questions and thank you for the kind words. As far as the guard, the small 'hamidashi' style tsuba(guard) is blackened damascus, while on either side of it are copper seppa or spacers. These act to squash the whole thing together which is all held in place with one mekugi(pin) that brings all of the pieces together. As far as the color goes, it's a patina called "DoHi" which basically means fire patina. Copper is converted to copper oxide on the surface by heating the copper to a red heat and cooling it rapidly in boric acid solution. You can get some really cool colors this way but it takes some messing with to get right. As far as the saya goes, it is padauk wood that is charred at one end with a torch and then laquered. The assembly is actually 3 pieces glued longitudinally, but the grain on this wood is such that it blends really well unless you look very closely. Anyway, hope this helps and thank you again for the comments!

 

[V-1]

Wicked cool work! Love the heat treated blade, amazing workmanship and historical detail. You should be proud of it. It would be an honor to own a piece like that one.

 

[KajiCustoms]

V1,

thank you so much for the kind words I am very proud of it, and though it has some flaws, I am improving with each pieces. More to come. Happy to share. Thank you.

Wicked cool work! Love the heat treated blade, amazing workmanship and historical detail. You should be proud of it. It would be an honor to own a piece like that one.

 

[wrankin]

I am very proud of it, and though it has some flaws, I am improving with each pieces.

Beautiful work. I'm willing to bet those "flaws" would not be evident to the rest of us.

Just a quick question - was the slight uchizori intentional or more a matter of "this is what came out of the quench, so I'm going to run with it"?

More to come. Happy to share. Thank you.

Look forward to seeing more.

-bill

 

[KajiCustoms]

Bill,

Thank you for the kind words. I just finished another that I will post soon. As for the slight uchizori, it was intentional and ground in prior to heat treat. The deep boshi and couple inches of hard mune helped maintain the uchizori during the quench. As this is a pseudo-yoroidoshi style tanto, a little uchuzori was called for. Thank you for noticing and asking! More soon...

 

[fishface5]

Ooh ahh very nice! Welcome and look forward to seeing more of your interesting work!

 

[KajiCustoms]

Thank you fishface! I will continue to show more. I appreciate the comments.