Moroha Zukuri - Japanese dagger

Oh my ---. That is a very nice rendition of this style of tanto and the inspirational piece could be a copy of yours. Being a big fan of hamon I understand the complexeties of getting it right. As others have stated, good balance to it and a great flow . Fantastic work all over.
Cheers Keith
 
Thanks so much everyone.

Brion...Sorry about that, I missed the question. I did not water quench this time. The asymmetry of the dagger grind and that I did not want to induce any sori either way I went with a parks50 quench. The blade did not move a mm in any direction so maybe a water quench would've been fine.

Coop... Neat you can see that. I remember when you mentioned using masks to bring out the hamon and keep light on the rest with the little mirrors. Thanks for sharing your tips. I just wish I could find some nice backgrounds.

Again, thanks for all the comments. It looks like my desire for understatement and refinement came through. It's what I admire so much about the Japanese oeuvre. In so many of my books, there are pieces that look so effortless but from trying capture that in my own work, I can see more and more how every nuance of line and texture is conscious. Their mastery of their craft is so complete that you can almost miss it... if that makes sense.
 
SBranson said:
Thanks so much everyone.

Brion...Sorry about that, I missed the question. I did not water quench this time. The asymmetry of the dagger grind and that I did not want to induce any sori either way I went with a parks50 quench. The blade did not move a mm in any direction so maybe a water quench would've been fine.

Coop... Neat you can see that. I remember when you mentioned using masks to bring out the hamon and keep light on the rest with the little mirrors. Thanks for sharing your tips. I just wish I could find some nice backgrounds.

Again, thanks for all the comments. It looks like my desire for understatement and refinement came through. It's what I admire so much about the Japanese oeuvre. In so many of my books, there are pieces that look so effortless but from trying capture that in my own work, I can see more and more how every nuance of line and texture is conscious. Their mastery of their craft is so complete that you can almost miss it... if that makes sense.
Click to expand...


Makes perfect sense.


Doug
 
Stuart.. It's wonderful. I think the trick to these kinds of knives are the proportions of blade profile to grip shape/length and you nailed it. And all the other details are icing on the cake...
 
Thanks Scott... I think what makes these difficult, well at least for me, is that you need to figure this all out before hand. The carved out saya has very little room for matching the lines with the tsuka. You can't just make a blade willy nilly without knowing how it will interact with the fittings later and more importantly, you can't plan out the tsuka separate from the saya and how either will be finished.
 
My God what a handsome display of talent, Stuart...

Congratulations on braving such a successful flight at such extreme altitude.
 
Moroha are my favorite tantos. I really like them. I have a nice one from Howard Clark.
 
I did a little more work on the hamon and put together this video to show it, as well as to show how the disassembly works.

[youtube]Iqn1O7rLD_M[/youtube]
 
'step one- insert blade into saya to avoid cutting off your hand'

I would've claimed this one if I could've. It's a beauty!
 
Stuart,

First of all, congratualtions. That is a beautiful knife and well, just a superb overall package. Now, for a question if you don't mind, since it's a double edged blade, is the top sharpened all the way from tip to tang? If's hard to see from the photo's that its even a dagger. Does the "sharpened" top extend to the end of the tang? The reason I ask is when I've tried to do double edged Japanese style blades I've always had a hard time dealing with the grind towards and into the tang? Yeah, haha, I know, all shoptalk type questions.
 
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Thanks again!

Lorien, I put it back in the saya to show what side I was unscrewing the mekugi pin from as this was also a disassembly video for the new owner.

David.. Both edges are sharpened all the way. Not sure how I could help.
 
Very nice work, Stuart. Watching the video, I kept thinking 'there's no way he got those fittings to work either way', but I saw how you'd indexed them when putting back together. I've done one habaki for dagger shape, and it was a PITA. Kudos for that too. You rocked that one.

Dan
 
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