Katana

Kohai999 said:
Wanna know what I think, Bill, or you want me to let you know offline?

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
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Ok Steven lets have it. I'll bet you think the handle is too big. This piece won best sword at Blade Show West and there were a couple other practitioners there one of them thought the handle too fat the other had larger hands (like mine) and thought it was good.

Jose Reyes said:
Not at all, Bill. The wrap turned out nicely, I just meant the yellow color in the thread. Suede wrap is my favorite, though just a preference.The fittings and habaki are well done too. Some pics showing the tsuba and close ups of the full length of blade would be nice though. Maybe it's just my monitor but I can only see the hamon clearly in the close up pic, not the full length shots. I'm sure this is a traditional shape, my preference though if for the slant to be closer around a third of the way down from the tip. Like I said, fantastic job doing all the work yourself.
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Thanks Jose I was worried that you would take my post as me attacking you and I surely wasn't. The hamon is hard to get a picture of most likley because of my poor polishing job this is my first full waterstone polish too
 
Bill,

Where is the sheep horn? And that must have been a bear to heat treat with a torch!

Now, all kidding aside, that is awesome. I think it is super cool to see you doing your own thing, and doing it so well.

There will be some comments about tradition, but I think tradition is overestimated. Centuries ago there was no internet, and individual smiths did individual work. Yes, there were general styles according to country and region, but I think the degree of variation was much, much greater than modern scholars and smiths want to admit.

Keep on rockin,

John
 
tsuba shot for Jose.

87444_5_b.jpg
 
Bill Burke said:
Ok Steven lets have it. I'll bet you think the handle is too big. This piece won best sword at Blade Show West and there were a couple other practitioners there one of them thought the handle too fat the other had larger hands (like mine) and thought it was good.
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The handle IS a little too thick, length looks ok. When possible the tsuka ito(wrapping cord) should "flush up" against the fuchi/kashira(top and bottom "bolsters", lol). We just talked about this on the phone....also, a little more "wasp waisting" in the middle would add some elegance.

Stock thickness on the habaki looks a little "generous"...the one you showed me before on another project was too thin. 60 thou or so looks like the ticket...it that is where it is at, excuse the observation.

I personally like the ito, it is bold, BUT as we also spoke about, shibumi(elegant simplicity) is important, and this could have been reflected in the saya(scabbard)...gold flakes would have been a nice touch.

I prefer a long chu or o' kissaki, and it seems you went the other route to a ko kissaki....imo takes away from some of the blades inherent aesthetic.

Minor quibbles aside, it is a SUPERB first effort, and exceeds that of many more experienced swordmakers....the weight specs given make it sound like it would handle wonderfully.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Good observations, Steven. I agree that a little bit of gold flakes in the saya goes a long way. Have you seen ito like this used before?

Thanks, Bill, I'll use my good eye the next time. :D Nice fit on the habaki. You have a lot on your plate already but patterns in the filemarks can add another dimension. Nice looking same, too. What did you use for a mekugi?
 
Jose Reyes said:
Have you seen ito like this used before?
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Not in America, Jose, but have seen some wild stuff in Japan, also some closely matching sageo...NONE of which I had ever seen for sale in the US.

Check these out(bottom of the page):

http://www.swordstore.com/cgi-bin/htmlos.cgi/013655.1.1727482234514314850/apps/cart/docategory.html

(Hint to Bill, Hint to Bill....change the sageo to the turtle shell navy and gold, it will help a lot!, imo)

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Good find, it does look like it would match better. I've never seen any like that but I'm sure Bill didn't make it himself so it must be used. :)
 
The workmansip looks fantastic

love the bold ito

I agree the Tsuka could have a more hour glass shape
 
Very cool piece.

Just for the sake of discussion how did you decide to do the tip like you did?
 
Bill that is a beautiful piece of work, as is everything I have seen and handled from you. Congrats on that piece!
 
AfterTFD said:
Very cool piece.

Just for the sake of discussion how did you decide to do the tip like you did?
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I am not sure what you mean, it is a large chu kissaki but the yokote line is hard to see in the picture if that is what you are referring to. I had originally wanted an O kissaki but kinda lost it in the initial shaping before hardening. Thank you for your comments.
 
Thanks everyone with all this encouragement I may just try again. next blade is a 85,000 layer blade around soft core.
 
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