new guy signature question

rain custom knives sounds good, those knives on there are awesome I've decided that I'll just decide on a name for my forge and figure the kanji word into a logo that i can make with a dremel tool but i gotta figure a name out I could just make it hatcher blades
ハッチヤー 刃

and to answer the other guy's response, i want to put japanese words on my blades because I make japanese style blades and by that I dont just mean curved, i mean clay quenched , traditionally polished and sharpened and stuff, accept using tamahagane (Its translated "jewel steel" for a reason).

Happy blade making
 
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It's a tough thing to work out, because you want to put a Japanese style name on a Japanese piece, I know. If you want to go that route, I would simply use katakana and also sign a date on it or something like Spring 08, etc. This way you can incorporate kanji into your signature without straying too far from tradition. I don't know that many smiths sign their school on their blades, so it might be kind of odd to have your forge name on the tang of a "traditional" Japanese-style blade.

I also think that you should go ahead and chisel it in if you're going to go through the effort of dremeling. Honestly though, since the signature is going to be hidden, I would be more likely to write it in my native tongue, it's there so people can identify you later, so I'd rather have correct, accurate and useful information on it. Just a personal preference though.
 
You could always simply choose and assume a Japanese name for your Japanese-style blades. The well known swordsmith Louis Mills from Ann Arbor has used Yasutomo in kanji for his mark for a long time. I believe there is some precedent for assumed names in traditional Japanese swordsmithing anyway, isn't there?
 
just as an aside .....how do you chisel kanji into the balde....i have seen people do this on japanese kitchen knives after they were done...isn't the steel too hard to use a chisel?.....ryan
 
you know know that i think of it....most japanese kitchen knives have a softer outside layer laminated to a harder core so i guess the steel is softer....most aren't clay quenched though....thanks for sparking my memory....ryan
 
AcridSaint said:
It's a tough thing to work out, because you want to put a Japanese style name on a Japanese piece, I know. If you want to go that route, I would simply use katakana and also sign a date on it or something like Spring 08, etc. This way you can incorporate kanji into your signature without straying too far from tradition. I don't know that many smiths sign their school on their blades, so it might be kind of odd to have your forge name on the tang of a "traditional" Japanese-style blade.

I also think that you should go ahead and chisel it in if you're going to go through the effort of dremeling. Honestly though, since the signature is going to be hidden, I would be more likely to write it in my native tongue, it's there so people can identify you later, so I'd rather have correct, accurate and useful information on it. Just a personal preference though.
Click to expand...

Great idea, I never thought to use a date, sounds great!
 
I'v decided to make my TM a simplified version of my english coat of arms like this
hatcher-coat-arms.htm
 
Acridsaint thank you very much, and tell your wife thank you as well, it was very helpful. I have decided on katakana, it is more respectable. I thank you all infinitely
 
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