Noah M Legel

Here's my first official starter anvil:

I'm actually really interested to hear how this goes for you, since I'm hoping to have my purchase of a short sale home approved in the next few months so I can move out of my apartment and set up a shop, and while I know paint can forges work fine with propane weed burners I would much rather have a smaller burner to save space in the garage . Try not to blow yourself up!

Since this manji sai is going to be mounted to a bo staff for use as a nunti, the hand size isn't too critical for me. As for the temper--I was hoping to get a springy temper out of it so it doesn't get bent up from hitting other weapons (sai and bo) Thanks for that, Allen--now that you mention it I think I vaguely remember him mentioning something about that, either at Tai Goo's Hammer-in or on the KD forums

After handling a traditional nunte bo at my dojo again last night, it would seem that I was wrong--modern tournament nunte bo are that wide, but the traditional design is narrower. I didn't get the opportunity to measure it but it seemed to be 4" wide at the elbows of the tines, and possibly slightly narrower than that. Looks like I may be able to heat treat it in that forge without as much difficulty as expected!

Ray Richard has had a lot of good luck using rebar for spears and even knives, so I was still considering it if the coil spring is too thin. The dimensions vary, but a manji sai is roughly 1/2" thick at the junction of the tines and main shaft and tapers down to about a quarter inch at the ends which is then filed to a point. It would be about 5" wide and 16" to 22" long, depending on the measurement of my forearm which I haven't measured yet :P

I suppose that's true--I hadn't really thought of that! I'll either be using rebar or coil spring, depending on how thick the spring is

The reason that will not work is because I will be using this in my martial arts training and it will actually be coming into hard contact with other weapons, so the steel will need to have a spring temper. I don't think I could do one heat to bend the tines into their final position AND heat treat it As far as the thickness goes, the junction of the tines and main shaft is about 1/2" and tapers down from there.

Thanks for the advice! I just discovered that my friend's forge only has a 4" opening, which will hamper this project if I were to try splitting it, but that is what I had originally thought we could do. We will probably end up welding the tines on, either MIG weld or forge weld, as he can do either, although I would certainly prefer it to be forge welded. I was just wanting to see if anyone had any other options that we hadn't thought of, or if there were any suggestions on how to go about forging it

Hello everyone, I live in Phoenix, AZ and have done a little bit of forging, but not much. I've forged a knife with Tai Goo's help, and started forging a tanto with the help of Cris Anderson (C. Anderson if you've seen him on other forums), but that's pretty much it. I will be doing some forging at a friend's place (I live in an apartment, so that's really the only way I can get to forge is when I'm invited) at the end of the month and I was hoping to try and forge a manji sai like the iron one below: I'm not entirely certain how to go about doing it because of the tines. He thinks forge welding a crosspiece onto the main body of the sai would work best, but I've heard other suggestions of splitting a wide 1/2" bar and bending the tines out that way, and another suggestion of drifting an eye in the crosspiece and sliding it onto the shaft of the sai, then upsetting the shaft to hold it in place. Has anyone here forged sai before? Any suggestions? Thanks! ~Noah