- Joined
- Oct 29, 2006
- Messages
- 2,912
This has been the most difficult project of mine to date. After the few tantos I tried, I decided it was time to try a sword. As I have mentioned in the tanto threads, I have a love of Japanese style blade ever since I was a boy. In fact my actual first sword was made when I was a young teen grinding a Ninja sword from an old machete, making a guard with sheet metal and using an old hockey stick for a handle and scabbard, the handle wrapped in a black boot lace. Unfortunately that's gone.
Back to this however.. Over in the Sword discussion forum I posted this as a work in progress thread.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/871406
In the end, I could never have guessed how long this was going to take. Each stage is a project and a challenge in itself.
I learned so much from this and I know the next one will be better.
The steel is DHIII's W2
Blade: 22 1/4"
Sori: 0.7cm
Tsuka : 8 1/4"
Guard is a piece of wrought iron from the 18th century given to me by Mike Turner.. thanks! I think this is my favourite part of the whole sword.
Saya is poplar with walnut koiguchi, kojiri and kurikata.
The fuchi and kashira were purchased from ebay along with the ray skin and ito.
Here's a diagram
So onto the final pics and a few from the WIP thread
Here's the tang signed with my last name in Katakana Japanese "BURANSON"
Here's a few of the hamon.
The habaki
The Kurikata
And the wrought iron that became the Tsuba.
Some mistakes were made. There are a few details, such as the hamon at the tip, that are errors of tradition and there are others that were errors from inexperience and of misunderstanding. In making the tsuka, the handle, I was concerned I was going to plane into the cut out so I stopped too soon. Not knowing how much the ray skin and ito were going to add in bulk to the handle, the handle ended up a little too fat. It's a huge disappointment to me... but lesson learned.
But there were real successes for me too. The yaki-ire, the quenching process went really well. I did a full water quench this time. The Tsuba turned out really nicely and overall I think most things went pretty well. Certainly I developed a foundation in the skills needed to do this again and better.
Thanks for looking.
ps.. the piece of paper is the score for Tamuke. One of my favourite shakuhachi pieces. You can hear Yoshikazu Iwamoto playing it here:
http://www.we7.com/song/Yoshikazu-Iwamoto/Tamuke?m=0
Back to this however.. Over in the Sword discussion forum I posted this as a work in progress thread.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/871406
In the end, I could never have guessed how long this was going to take. Each stage is a project and a challenge in itself.
I learned so much from this and I know the next one will be better.
The steel is DHIII's W2
Blade: 22 1/4"
Sori: 0.7cm
Tsuka : 8 1/4"
Guard is a piece of wrought iron from the 18th century given to me by Mike Turner.. thanks! I think this is my favourite part of the whole sword.
Saya is poplar with walnut koiguchi, kojiri and kurikata.
The fuchi and kashira were purchased from ebay along with the ray skin and ito.
Here's a diagram
So onto the final pics and a few from the WIP thread
Here's the tang signed with my last name in Katakana Japanese "BURANSON"
Here's a few of the hamon.
The habaki
The Kurikata
And the wrought iron that became the Tsuba.
Some mistakes were made. There are a few details, such as the hamon at the tip, that are errors of tradition and there are others that were errors from inexperience and of misunderstanding. In making the tsuka, the handle, I was concerned I was going to plane into the cut out so I stopped too soon. Not knowing how much the ray skin and ito were going to add in bulk to the handle, the handle ended up a little too fat. It's a huge disappointment to me... but lesson learned.
But there were real successes for me too. The yaki-ire, the quenching process went really well. I did a full water quench this time. The Tsuba turned out really nicely and overall I think most things went pretty well. Certainly I developed a foundation in the skills needed to do this again and better.
Thanks for looking.
ps.. the piece of paper is the score for Tamuke. One of my favourite shakuhachi pieces. You can hear Yoshikazu Iwamoto playing it here:
http://www.we7.com/song/Yoshikazu-Iwamoto/Tamuke?m=0
Last edited:
Blade, hamon, furniture, saya--pretty much everything. I do see the hamon on the tip, which I've not seen before, so if that's a mistake...okay, if you say so.
