Steve Shimanek

Incredibly nice work!

Yard sales....

Cool story!

Owwwww!

I used some C channel and clamped both blades to it and ran a 450 degree temper cycle on it; the short one came out pretty straight and the longer one needed a bit more tweaking, but survived. No pics yet but will post later. Aloha, Steve

This blade was water quenched and was done w/o clay as an experiment. The grain size could have been a little smaller but I don't think that was the main problem. I had it in the vice when it broke; it appears from the visible structure that it through hardened which would make the blade more likely to snap when trying to flex out the bend. The grinds were very even; I am thinking that maybe the fact that the blade lies on its side in the muffle while heating may cause a slight temp imbalance that promotes bending. I will work on a fix for that. I will try the straight edge/tempering fix to deal with the bend in the wakizashi (formerly a katana Thanks for the replies.... PS: Grant, evidently not hot enough ;)

My second katana project just turned into a wakazashi and possible kaiken....I am having a lot of issues with bends and have broken them trying to straighten. Grain looks ok, i have been normalizing 3 times after forging and cleanup. I have not tried to straighten after tempering; i have just heated the area and attempted straightening by gentle hammering and/or hand pressure. Any ideas how i can avoid these problems? Steel is new W1 from Enco forged down from 1 1/2 round. Thanks, Steve

the Nihonto Message Board is also frequented by knowledgeable collectors who can probably help identify the tsuba.

For decorative parallel lines; I have made a couple of these in different sizes. Good find!

Very nice! When can we expect book IV? Put me down for a copy!

I am saddened by your loss; you have my sincere condolences.

I like them both!

My prayers and condolences for your loss.

Not bad at all! Steve

That is pretty cool, but all their music has the same time signature and the diesel fuel is eating up all their tip money......:)

you can use a gel type superglue and sandpaper to fill minor defects, also colored epoxy can be effective in filling voids.

You can use heat from the forge indirectly to temper but it is pretty tricky; using a plumber's torch on the spine and running the colors is another way, or you could make some tempering tongs. Do some web searching on these techniques....youtube has some videos. Buy JPH's books; he explains tempering in detail.

Awesome work!

I don't remember the name of the store, but it was between the OCCC prison and the Burger King on the ocean side of the street.

It is fairly typical to overheat as a beginning bladesmith; your grain coarseness is a good indication it was overheated as said in the other replies.

Thanks for the comments and welcome to Iforgeiron. As for an anvil on Oahu, that is a bit tricky. There used to be a discount import tool store on Dillingham that had "decent" starter anvils for around $100, that is where i bought my first one in 2006. If you have the ability to scrounge a bit you may find something useable as an anvil, like my second one which was an old excavator hammer bit used as a post anvil. Some people use rail sections but there are better solutions. Shipping is what will hit hard trying to order an anvil from the mainland. Be creative and realize for bladesmithing you do not "need" a traditional London pattern anvil. Good luck!

Scrap to art....nice work!

Close one, glad you are OK.