The Bone Dagger (Nihonto Fusion)

islandblacksmith

islandblacksmith

Joined
Jan 2, 2014
Messages
297
finished this piece recently after a long hiatus while i worked on other things...the blade design is based on mirroring a sunnobi tanto on itself, has a western short sword look but preserves the Japanese mounting geometry.

charcoal forged by hand and clay tempered, mounted with some interesting techniques and materials: hand-tanned unsmoked buckskin, deer rawhide, hornet paper, bone, yellow cedar, copper, kusune, sokui (no epoxy)...guard is from wrought iron chain and habaki is from copper fuse bar...more photos and process here: islandblacksmith.ca/2013/12/the-bone-dagger/

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"There is a keyhole opening in the bone perpendicular to the tang that the wood slides into. The bone has interior channels carved down the sides to hold the tang as well as small wooden plugs to lock the tip of the tang in place. The plugs fit tightly into the bone and are kept from sliding with kusune (pine resin glue). Once the tang is in place, the wood can no longer slide out of the bone, and once the bamboo peg is in place, the tang can no longer slide out of the handle. The joint is visually hidden by a layer of hornet paper and to strengthen the whole construction in order to support the weight of such a large blade, one and a half wraps rawhide covers the keyways, glued on with sokui (rice paste glue). Normally the rawhide would be ray skin, but for this fusion piece it is deer skin. The final wrapping is four strands of hand tanned unsmoked buckskin and uses a Celtic weave as well as a form of kumiage-maki to create a soft and strong handle grip." Read more...

Thanks for checkin' it out!
 
Not really a fan of the European style but this fusion truly is fantastic. I never actually checked out this piece in detail until you posted it here. The handle is nothing short of amazing in regard to both design and execution.

How long does something like this take you to complete? I was actually wondering the same for the smaller kotantos as well.
 
@evanPGH thanks! yes, i rarely go that direction on these pieces, but this was a chance to break boundaries and experiment with the fusion concept both in terms of construction and style...

i forged the blade about a year and a half ago and made the habaki and guard soon after, but it wasn't until some of the techniques i tried on the mikazuki kotanto that i was confident to tackle this crazy tsuka construction...then it sat for several more months until i decided on a wrap and was psyched up enough to commit to cutting into my chunk of hand tanned buckskin (made it in the traditional plains way almost 20 years ago!) and trying the kumiage-maki with it...glad i did!

so its hard to do a total day count for this piece, but i usually plan a month or more solid (strung out between other projects) for a full koshirae mount...not much difference in sizes if all the steps are the same, more depends on the number of parts and their materials...
 
I gotta say, my "Island" friend i really like this piece. Unique, well proportioned, and some old school thrown in. Experimenting is good and this was a great success. BRAVO!
 
@unwise, alicia, phil yes! ...old school, wabisabi, and slightly primitive is pretty much where i live ^_^

@severtecher thanks! i think the knowledge, technique, and aesthetic of long standing traditions and cultures is a good foundation for my work...lots to learn yet!
(i know i'm gonna call you severeteacher one of these days by accident!)
 
are you up in Parksville?
I'm really diggin the look of your work!
 
@Lorien thanks! pretty close...the workshop is in the forest out errington way...small but it works!

[video=vimeo;81585710]https://vimeo.com/81585710[/video]
 
haha, Errington...thought so! My wife's family is located all around you.
We're in Sooke. Almost positive we have common friends. In fact, I know someone who you definitely should meet if you haven't already, he's not far.

I noticed a bicycle in your video...I own a bike shop... ;)
 
@Lorien we are pretty new to the area, moved from j^pan a couple years ago, but maybe...its a small rock! send me an email sometime.
its a good machine, bike shop owner imported it to nihon and used it in a demo then sold it to me for a great deal, got me to work and beyond for many years...and brought it back to the continent it came from.
 
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