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- Dec 23, 2006
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A few weeks ago I mentioned this piece in another thread. The thread was about a Bagwell Bowie that featured Bills Satan's Lace which is cable Damascus .
Done right a lot of people believe that this type of composition leads to a very high level of performance.
One master Sword Smith (Michael Bell) has been a proponent for 20+ years of the forge welded cable blade
For those of you that know of Bell he is very good at what he does and his current wait time and prices show it. He is known for his master craftsmanship with an eye for what the true weapons where meant to be. Meaning his edge geometry, curvature, etc are spot on and echo the designs that were prevelent in the height of the Japanese blade as a weapon
The time period that was brought on by Shingen (1521-1573) and Kagetori (1552-1579) .
The 1500 to 1600 is when Japan's biggest business was war and business was booming. This is the period that brought on the time of Musashi etc. the birth of swordsmanship as we know it ......in many people's opinion certainly a great time for the blade.
Sorry to run on
I got to know Michael in my early 20's and although now I have a few of his pieces this was my first from him and to be honest it might of been my first high end commissioned piece period
This is a user piece from Michael but would still go for a pretty penny. I commissioned this piece like I said in my early 20's. I was big into Kendo and all things related to the Japanese warrior class.
At the time Michael was redoing a 400 year old Katana that I had snagged way upstate NY. It was a great time back than. I would grab a girl hop in my car and take off to Baltimore, NY etc in search of Nihonto.
With a bag of books and a fast car I saw a lot of blades and taught a few girls about swords
At the time I was heading to Africa I was emmersed in Japanese blades and there application so I decided I wanted a high performance Wakisashi to lash to my pack. Again I was 20 something and it seemed like a good idea lol...
Michael is truly is a wealth of knowledge on Japanese style blades and culture. We would always discuss the greatest time period of the Japanese style blades and we decided on this Style which is a design fom the period mentioned above.
A true performance oriented piece. A blade from a time period that I believe to be the pinnacle of the design.
You must remember that during the time of the Mongol invasions the blades where more robust to cut thru the heavy leather armor of the invading hordes.
The time period we are talking about here is when the smiths and swordsmen of that time period took what they had learned from the constant civil warfare and the birth of swordsmanship as an art form came to pass.
Blades where fast but powerful.......a perfect blend of the two worlds.
These blades where IMHO possible the greatest of all times.
It has has a 18 1/4 inch Differential heat treated forge welded cable blade
Shobu Zukuri style tip (Willow)
6 inch hour glass shaped Tsuka (critical)
Arrow head Menuki
Buffalo horn fittings
Iron Tsuka
Copper Habaki (cat scratch)
Saya black hand rubbed lacquer - Buffalo furniture
Lets get into the important things
The curvature (of blade and angle of handle to blade)
As you can see the handle is angled ever so slightly so that it does not arch perfectly with the blade
This combined with the fantastic edge geometry and wicked edge make this a very strong cutter
Balanced to perfection..... it feels light but powerful
This blade has not seen the light of day in many years
Way back when this wonderful piece went on the back of my pack lashed down it always made me feel very confident and after playing with it again I still feel the same.
I can remember cleaning up the blade many years ago after a lot of cutting and than giving it a light etch and putting it up. When I took it out today the first hing I noticed after its familiar balance was how scary sharp it still was and the only sharpening this blade has received in 20 plus years was a light pass on a jewel stix
Truly a remarkable blade from a true master echoing a remarkable time period
Thanks for looking
Btw
Something else that reminded me of this blade was David Mirables award winning Wak from this years blade
More to come
Done right a lot of people believe that this type of composition leads to a very high level of performance.
One master Sword Smith (Michael Bell) has been a proponent for 20+ years of the forge welded cable blade
For those of you that know of Bell he is very good at what he does and his current wait time and prices show it. He is known for his master craftsmanship with an eye for what the true weapons where meant to be. Meaning his edge geometry, curvature, etc are spot on and echo the designs that were prevelent in the height of the Japanese blade as a weapon
The time period that was brought on by Shingen (1521-1573) and Kagetori (1552-1579) .
The 1500 to 1600 is when Japan's biggest business was war and business was booming. This is the period that brought on the time of Musashi etc. the birth of swordsmanship as we know it ......in many people's opinion certainly a great time for the blade.
Sorry to run on
I got to know Michael in my early 20's and although now I have a few of his pieces this was my first from him and to be honest it might of been my first high end commissioned piece period
This is a user piece from Michael but would still go for a pretty penny. I commissioned this piece like I said in my early 20's. I was big into Kendo and all things related to the Japanese warrior class.
At the time Michael was redoing a 400 year old Katana that I had snagged way upstate NY. It was a great time back than. I would grab a girl hop in my car and take off to Baltimore, NY etc in search of Nihonto.
With a bag of books and a fast car I saw a lot of blades and taught a few girls about swords
At the time I was heading to Africa I was emmersed in Japanese blades and there application so I decided I wanted a high performance Wakisashi to lash to my pack. Again I was 20 something and it seemed like a good idea lol...
Michael is truly is a wealth of knowledge on Japanese style blades and culture. We would always discuss the greatest time period of the Japanese style blades and we decided on this Style which is a design fom the period mentioned above.
A true performance oriented piece. A blade from a time period that I believe to be the pinnacle of the design.
You must remember that during the time of the Mongol invasions the blades where more robust to cut thru the heavy leather armor of the invading hordes.
The time period we are talking about here is when the smiths and swordsmen of that time period took what they had learned from the constant civil warfare and the birth of swordsmanship as an art form came to pass.
Blades where fast but powerful.......a perfect blend of the two worlds.
These blades where IMHO possible the greatest of all times.
It has has a 18 1/4 inch Differential heat treated forge welded cable blade
Shobu Zukuri style tip (Willow)
6 inch hour glass shaped Tsuka (critical)
Arrow head Menuki
Buffalo horn fittings
Iron Tsuka
Copper Habaki (cat scratch)
Saya black hand rubbed lacquer - Buffalo furniture
Lets get into the important things
The curvature (of blade and angle of handle to blade)
As you can see the handle is angled ever so slightly so that it does not arch perfectly with the blade
This combined with the fantastic edge geometry and wicked edge make this a very strong cutter
Balanced to perfection..... it feels light but powerful
This blade has not seen the light of day in many years
Way back when this wonderful piece went on the back of my pack lashed down it always made me feel very confident and after playing with it again I still feel the same.
I can remember cleaning up the blade many years ago after a lot of cutting and than giving it a light etch and putting it up. When I took it out today the first hing I noticed after its familiar balance was how scary sharp it still was and the only sharpening this blade has received in 20 plus years was a light pass on a jewel stix
Truly a remarkable blade from a true master echoing a remarkable time period
Thanks for looking
Btw
Something else that reminded me of this blade was David Mirables award winning Wak from this years blade
More to come
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