Wow, well, I'm more than a little intimidated posting my camp sword up here, especially after seeing all the advanced works by you guys. I really wanted to try a wakizashi, but I'm just bot advanced enough yet, so I decided to take the blade shape, bastardize it, and make the handle different. So, actually, nothing like a wakizashi really. Lol.
Mine started as a piece of Aldo's 3/16" x 1 1/4" x 18" O1. Originally I flat ground it, but decided to push my personal envelope a bit on this blade and do some things I'd never done before.
1. Huge blade. Longest prior to this was 4" blade and 9" OAL.
2. Distal taper. Loved doing it and will try it again on a blade soon. I don't really know what I'm doing though, so I should probably do some research and learning before trying it again.
3. Rounded spine. I just felt like this blade needed it. Don't ask me why. Maybe it was a mistake, but I like it.
4. Hemp wrap. The handle is going to be hemp wrapped over leather then epoxy over it. I need to look up a good tutorial on this as well.
5. Plungeless blade. It originally was supposed to be a high flat grind with a nice plunge, but then I really liked the looks of a couple forged plungeless blades I saw online and decided to try it. You can see the remnants of the plunge on the one side. It is actually a file mark that was an inch ahead of the plunge that I couldn't get out.
6. Semi convex blade. I did a flat grind, but when I rounded the spine I didn't like what it looked like, so I took the platen off and made 'er kinda convex. Like everything else, I need to look up how to actually do it, because I'm not sure I got it right.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the "hilt/guard" yet. I though about braided 5-10 stands of copper wire wrapped around the front of the scales then epoxied to the hemp, but like everything else, I haven't tried it before and I want to play with it and see how it looks before messing this sword up. Otherwise, I had thought about a heavy braid of hemp worked into the handle wrap as a guard.
Pictures:
Distal taper.
A couple in hand.
I need to run some sandpaper on a leather backed board over it before sending to heat treat, but other than that, it's ready I hope.
Comments, suggestions, advice solicited and appreciated.