pointless sword

wnease

wnease

Joined
Apr 22, 2004
Messages
878
When a Japanese style sword loses its tip and is reshaped, is there a word for the new tip that has no hardening (other than "crap")? Were other tip shapes used in this case?

No I didn't break anything, just designing a straight sword with a straight hardened edge and wanted to do some research.

Thanks,

William
 
wnease said:
When a Japanese style sword loses its tip and is reshaped, is there a word for the new tip that has no hardening (other than "crap")? Were other tip shapes used in this case?

No I didn't break anything, just designing a straight sword with a straight hardened edge and wanted to do some research.

Thanks,

William
Click to expand...

they were pretty much just retired.
 
That's interesting.
I wonder why the blade couldn't be heat treated again?
 
it can be, but I can see many reasons not to do so... I hold my breath just thinking about water-quenching!

PING!
 
Hesparus said:
'Satsuma-age' refers to a method of regrinding a blade that had the tip broken off. In this method, you grind away the back of the tip, leaving a more or less straight edge. (see http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/suriage.html at the bottom). This method did leave a hardened tip, though.

- Chris
Click to expand...

Thanks Chris, that's exactly what I was looking for. I have made 3 Satsuma-age (on purpose, not from broken swords) that I call "Harvesters" because they make me think of farm implements... imagine a farmer finding a broken piece of sword blade in a field, well, he would find a use for it I think...
 
come to think of it, that's also how I removed the bend in my test blade at the ABS Intro to Bladesmithing... gosh that was a long time ago!
 
We're getting old!
I'm looking forward to some pix of your newly completed swords, William. :)
 
@ Lycosa: redoing a heat treat is a big deal for a variety of reasons. As William mentioned, there's the very good chance (something like one in three) that it will crack during the yaki-ire (water hardening). Second, the curvature of the blade occurs during hardening, so either the curvature will increase significantly or the blade must be forged straight before hardening again.
There's also the fact that there may be no high carbon steel left in the area. If the tip is badly damaged, the steel that is exposed after regrinding the tip will be the low carbon steel (shingane) that makes up the spine portion (and other parts, depending on the construction) of the blade. This cannot be hardened.
Thus, it is usually best for a broken or badly damaged sword either to be retired or shortened using the satsuma-age method.

- Chris

p.s. For more information on blade construction: http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/construction.html
 
Last edited:
I'd also love to see a picture of your blade, as well as any you've done in the past like this.

- Chris
 
Here is a knife made in this style, from back when I made a lot of stuff from chipper and planer blades, this one turned out to be edge hardened (only chipper blade I have found like this) so the satsume-age style presented itself. Bevels run all the way to the tang extension. Turns out this is a very practical profile.

037.jpg
 
they also had a shorter specialty sword/knife that they used to "harvest" trophys off their dead opponents. That one had a squared off end, but I think it also had a sslight reverse curve
 
aaargh my brain! Those links are getting all kinds of creative juices flowing! Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top