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I Forge Iron

Curved Japanese Saya Chisel with Mokume Gane bolster.


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Almost finished with this. I havent done any forging for over 2 months due to some tendonitis and bursitis in my shoulder due to work related injury. So this is the first thing I have forged since. Wanted to do something that would assist me in my progress with the japanese blade. In this case easier chiseling for saya.

 

This is my first wood chisel I have made, along with the Mokume Gane is the first I have ever attempted and made. The steel is 5/8" round W1, and it was water quenched in 120F water and switched to warm oil after 4 seconds in the water. This was normalized 3 times prior to quench, and it was tempered at 250F for 2 hours.

 

There is a very slow taper in thickness and width to make it rather stout. Blade is a little over 6" long and 1/2" wide at the tip. Tip to tang is a hair over 11".

 

The hamon was created by the effects of the water only, no clay was applied. The Mokume is Copper/Nickel, and it was a lot of fun to make. I may make habaki in the future doing the same. The handle is probably going to be made from Walnut. Will post more as I progress.

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  • 1 month later...

And it is finished. Finally got around to finishing up the handle, and getting everything drilled and together. Handle is 3 pieces of the heartwood of American Walnut and the sapwood of American Black Cherry. I liked the color contrast of both, maintaining the theme, plus the cherry had good figure. The chisel end is ground down to 22 degrees, and sharpened to the point of shaving my arm on my Japanese stones, ending with a loaded leather strop. I originally said it was for Saya, which this type of chisel typically is, but it is actually a gift for my brother. He makes acoustic guitars as a hobby, and needed a curved chisel to carve out the braces.

 

This was my first of its kind and there are a few things I will change when I make more in the future. One of the main things was stabilize my wood in my stabilizing system. I was in such a rush with the handle from excitement, that I forgot to stabilize before I glued it all together. Since cactus juice takes a 200F cure for an hour, I didn't think the TItebond III would take the heat, so I instead natural stained the wood, and polyurethaned with a buff. Also the transition from handle to bolster will match up. Again, already had the handle varnished prior to fitting like a numb skull, and I really don't want to sand it to the width of the bolster and risk screwing it up. Next time for sure.

 

Had to throw my name on every pic because there has been known entities on facebook stealing photos and claiming it as their own.

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First i have seen Jesus Hernendez carve out his saya with these, along with a few other videos if Japanese craftsmen using similar to make their saya. This is ultimately for my brother and guitar making, needing a curved chisel. On one of his supplier websites they sell a curved chisel and it resembles pretty much identically with the saya chisels i have seen.

I have also ran it through my own test and have carved out a few pieces of wood to make sure it worked properly, and sure enough it works like a charm.

I can hunt around for the videos and a few pics when i am infront of a computer.

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