Jim March
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Oct 7, 1998
- Messages
- 3,018
Ohhhh ya.
This is going to be one very interesting finished piece. As is it's a fully ground but unsharpened blade plus square Titanium Tsuba (guard).
It's a "Japanese-oid" critter with a 24.5" dead-straight blade, 5" tang in 1/4" stock ATS34. It has a slight vertical taper; it's 1.5" tall just ahead of the Tsuba tapering to 1.25" at the point where the geometric tip starts, 1.5" behind the tip. Most of the spine is ground to a gentle peak shallower than a true false edge, they meet at 90 degrees and form a "breaking peak" for maximum strength when defending with the spine in Japanese fashion. The main edge grind is an interesting double grind whereby at the tip area it could be described as flat ground but as it comes back, the taper construction becomes clear as the flats grow to 1/4". The Tsuba is hand-fitted to the blade but is otherwise unpolished; I'll round the edges with a Dremel and like the sword, do the initial polish with a "metal eraser", basically rubbing compound impregnated into rubber. My roommate John Bell of "Renegade" infamy turned me onto these things, they're a "poor man's waterstone" and do a fantastic job.
The grinds are clean and smooth, with just enough variation to show it's handmade nature. There are two tiny magnifying-glass-level wavers in the grind that in no way detract from the piece. Given the enormous relative size and the fact that he went dead slow and ground without gloves so as to avoid heating it and causing heat-treat failures later it's a marvel. This "cold grinding" is critical with a high-tech stainless to avoid "wasting" your "one shot" at heat-treating it.
From Alan's shop in North Carolina it went to Ernie Mayer in Arizona for cryo and heat treating with his low-temp-cycle process. The total length of just under 30 inches was chosen to allow it to fit in Ernie's oven, as I knew his biggest piece is his 20" shortsword with a 10" full tang.
It's going to be a bit heavier than a similar size Japanese classical piece. Alan suggested the taper and he was 100% on target; given my somewhat large size and that I'll be running a 15" grip on it, it won't be any sort of problem. It's not a "claymore heft" issue at all, and could reasonably be set up one hand with a basket hilt, not that I'd do that.
It's going to be a *devastating* weapon. One of the first things I did was, believe it or not, throw it over my knee and bend it 10 degrees. Snapped right back to true, did it the other way, no problem. You CANNOT do that with a real Japanese blade, there's no "spring" properties there at all. The upshot is, for a practice blade that can be beat around, that can practice blocks with the spine against a good Bokken (or baseball bat!) and can cut well, this is one way to get a *very* good piece.
Prices: I paid Alan $275 for blade, Tsuba and shipping (to Ernie), I paid Ernie $45 for heat/cryo and shipping to me. There's nothing "proprietary" to me about the blade; if anything Alan had a lot more to do with it's design, this isn't like The Outsider. If anyone wants another, Alan, go for it. Note that these prices are only a bit higher than the late Bob Engnath's 1084 carbon pieces were, and I suspect it'll be a hair tougher. ATS34 might not be as good, but this heat treat is per a lot of people pretty much the ultimate and there's more metal here. NOTE: there's no guarantee Alan will do another at this price, you'll have to talk to him. It may have been more complex than he anticipated but he still honored his quote, that sort of thing happens in the custom world and isn't the result of "unfairness".
One question? Is anybody out there any good at scribing drawings into soft steel (or rather, the Ti Tsuba)? I'd love to have a custom drawing scribed onto the side facing the enemy...a picture of a pair of sheep one holding a Tommy Gun with a cigar stub and an evil grin, the other with a bazooka would be *perfect*.
Jim March
This is going to be one very interesting finished piece. As is it's a fully ground but unsharpened blade plus square Titanium Tsuba (guard).
It's a "Japanese-oid" critter with a 24.5" dead-straight blade, 5" tang in 1/4" stock ATS34. It has a slight vertical taper; it's 1.5" tall just ahead of the Tsuba tapering to 1.25" at the point where the geometric tip starts, 1.5" behind the tip. Most of the spine is ground to a gentle peak shallower than a true false edge, they meet at 90 degrees and form a "breaking peak" for maximum strength when defending with the spine in Japanese fashion. The main edge grind is an interesting double grind whereby at the tip area it could be described as flat ground but as it comes back, the taper construction becomes clear as the flats grow to 1/4". The Tsuba is hand-fitted to the blade but is otherwise unpolished; I'll round the edges with a Dremel and like the sword, do the initial polish with a "metal eraser", basically rubbing compound impregnated into rubber. My roommate John Bell of "Renegade" infamy turned me onto these things, they're a "poor man's waterstone" and do a fantastic job.
The grinds are clean and smooth, with just enough variation to show it's handmade nature. There are two tiny magnifying-glass-level wavers in the grind that in no way detract from the piece. Given the enormous relative size and the fact that he went dead slow and ground without gloves so as to avoid heating it and causing heat-treat failures later it's a marvel. This "cold grinding" is critical with a high-tech stainless to avoid "wasting" your "one shot" at heat-treating it.
From Alan's shop in North Carolina it went to Ernie Mayer in Arizona for cryo and heat treating with his low-temp-cycle process. The total length of just under 30 inches was chosen to allow it to fit in Ernie's oven, as I knew his biggest piece is his 20" shortsword with a 10" full tang.
It's going to be a bit heavier than a similar size Japanese classical piece. Alan suggested the taper and he was 100% on target; given my somewhat large size and that I'll be running a 15" grip on it, it won't be any sort of problem. It's not a "claymore heft" issue at all, and could reasonably be set up one hand with a basket hilt, not that I'd do that.
It's going to be a *devastating* weapon. One of the first things I did was, believe it or not, throw it over my knee and bend it 10 degrees. Snapped right back to true, did it the other way, no problem. You CANNOT do that with a real Japanese blade, there's no "spring" properties there at all. The upshot is, for a practice blade that can be beat around, that can practice blocks with the spine against a good Bokken (or baseball bat!) and can cut well, this is one way to get a *very* good piece.
Prices: I paid Alan $275 for blade, Tsuba and shipping (to Ernie), I paid Ernie $45 for heat/cryo and shipping to me. There's nothing "proprietary" to me about the blade; if anything Alan had a lot more to do with it's design, this isn't like The Outsider. If anyone wants another, Alan, go for it. Note that these prices are only a bit higher than the late Bob Engnath's 1084 carbon pieces were, and I suspect it'll be a hair tougher. ATS34 might not be as good, but this heat treat is per a lot of people pretty much the ultimate and there's more metal here. NOTE: there's no guarantee Alan will do another at this price, you'll have to talk to him. It may have been more complex than he anticipated but he still honored his quote, that sort of thing happens in the custom world and isn't the result of "unfairness".
One question? Is anybody out there any good at scribing drawings into soft steel (or rather, the Ti Tsuba)? I'd love to have a custom drawing scribed onto the side facing the enemy...a picture of a pair of sheep one holding a Tommy Gun with a cigar stub and an evil grin, the other with a bazooka would be *perfect*.
Jim March
