Sun-nobi Tanto, Stuart Branson - WIP - Coop pics added!

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You'll get a much better look at the coulour, grain and yes, chatoyancy, in video:

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And here's a look at the entire package:

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One final look, and partial disassembly of the stand:

[youtube]qPgcuZsT8RM[/youtube]

I am really quite excited about this piece - and really appreciate the time Stuart has taken to keep me posted in pics and videos along the way.

This one will head down to Coop once he has cleared his backlog from this weekend's New York show - so there will be one more update down the road that I'm sure will be worth waiting for.

Thanka for tuning in, guys. Big thanks to Stuart for his work and for his true passion for the craft. One final nod to Mark for picking out a sweet piece of wood for the saya.

I'm heading down to the States now for my annual hunting trip with the Farr brothers and Matt Gregory, so I'll be somewhat out of touch - but I hope you've enjoyed seeing this one through.

All the best,

Roger
 
I've thoroughly enjoyed watching this come to fruition Roger.

I will be anxious to see Coops images.

CONGRATS! and good luck on the hunting trip. No doubt it will be a GREAT time!

Thanks,
Peter
 
What a treat this morning to see the finished product. It's easy to understand that both Stuart and Roger have a passion for this craft.

Stuart's drive to create is an example for us makers.

Great job, Stuart,

John
 
WOW Stuart thank you for all the Time you put into shearing this process it is a real joy to watch you make such wonderful works of art like John said you are an inspiration to the rest of us makers that want to make very high knife art
 
Clearly a Masterwork! I'm pretty much knocked out by this...:eek: The fox is a sweet touch. I love the color you chose for the wrap. The finished blade is ridiculous... There's some serious magic going on here. Roger/Stuart thanks for taking the time to post up this WIP ...:thumbup::thumbup:
 
What a great package. I had no doubt that Stuart would make a great blade. I'm surprised as all get out though that what looked like a very plain piece of walnut came out with such pattern and chatoyance. The tip of that saya is especially crazy. A testament to Mark's and Stuart's eyes that can recognize its potential.
 
FANTASTIC! 'The Total Package'.........and I'm not talking Pro-Wrestling. :D

Congrats on an heirloom... :)
 
Thanks for posting the photos and videos.
It was a lot of fun watching this project.
Fantastic blade and great woodworking.
It's not too often you see a knife maker excel at both.
 
Thanks Roger for the piece and this thread. I sent the videos and photos as updates and in some way to excuse the 2 months I was working on this :p:p but to see it put together in a WIP is fun for me too.

I really enjoy working on these pieces and learning about them by doing so. I expanded my resource library for this one and tried new, for me, methods. The tsukamaki was from Thomas Buck's book and really helped with the hishigame issue. I recommend it.

Here are some specs:
Steel is W2 (DHIII's). The tsuka core is alder with full same wrap (with the seam on the ura side) and the ito is brown Silk from Japan.
The fuchi and kashira are modern reproductions as are the menuki. The tsuba is an Edo period antique with original patina. Saya is walnut as noted.
Koiguchi and kurikata are horn.

Nagasa (length from machi to tip) 13 1/6" or 33.2cm
Sori 1/8" 0.35cm
Motohaba 1.157" 2.94cm
Motokasane 0.24" 6.1mm
Sakikasane (1" back from tip) 0.145" 3.7mm
Nakago 5 1/16" 12.9cm

The hamon I would call gunome with ashi but that's certainly open to debate.

Thanks for all the comments.
 
Holy moly batman! What a piece. Excellent work Stuart. I love the whole package, but that hamon is fantastic. Roger, big congratulations on your new piece of art. Thank you both for the work in progress.
Brion
 
Thanks again everyone. One other photo to show is this messy little shot.
IMG_5353.jpg

It's a bunch of nugui powders and choji oil. Nugui's effect on W2 is very subtle and I'm not sure if it was noticed but in a couple of the videos, the later ones you can see how much of a colour difference there is between the ha and ji steel. Without it the contrast tends to be more grey over shiny but this casts a blue tint. Apparently there is a way to do a hadori polish with W2 using the right stone and nagura slurry. Any time I've tried it just scratches the steel and not attractively.
 
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very jealous Roger! great knife by a maker who is on my must have list!

regards jeff
 
Stuart this is some amazing job.

From the blade to the stand there has clearly been an awful lot of attention paid to detail.

And I am pretty sure the videos can't really show what the piece actually looks like IRL.

Awsome.
 
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