Pair o' 'dashis

[bluejaunte]

Made these in a day with Tai Goo towards the end of January. Forged from flat 1095 bar. I needed a "refresher" from last year's class so we took the first day working on these.

Simple forged bevels and texturing, filed and sanded, edge quenched in oil, tempered, and sharpened on stones. These are screaming sharp. Which is good, because I plan to use one to cut the umbilical when my 2nd kid is born in late July.

I'm thinking a simple magnetic leather neck sheath would work for these. I'm debating on some sort of wrap; the texturing helps a lot with the grip, but I'd hate for those lovely thong holes to go to waste.

 

[Will52100]

Cool, love the texture, how did you forge that in?

 

[bluejaunte]

Tai has a couple hammers with various textures on them. The one for this texture is just a few holes drilled in the face of the hammer. Get it up to a low forging temp, smack each side a few times, and bingo.

I love the "lunar surface" we got with these.

 

[Will Leavitt]

If you wrap the one you plan on cutting the umbilical cord with it'll be very difficult to sterilize. I'm just saying this as a former Army medic.

I like the idea of making your own umbilical cord knife. My teacher made one for his son's birth and I think he makes them for other people.

Lovely knives.

 

[bluejaunte]

If you wrap the one you plan on cutting the umbilical cord with it'll be very difficult to sterilize.

Thanks for the tip, that didn't even occur to me. Of course I have to clear this with my wife's OB before anything is certain.

This time around we're using a real hospital and an OB. Our first kid was handled by a midwife at a birthing center and from their perspective I could have brought in a katana to cut the cord if had thought of it. Now I'm sure there are all sorts of security implications etc. we'll have to deal with at the hospital.