JPH

Hello: I use to use horse urine until my neighbors moved and took their horses with them..drats..that resulted ina very "tawny" brown finish..very pleasing to the eye when done... Well then I started to use my own and the colour changed from a tawny brown to a dark, almost chocolate brown..I spoke with a chemist friend of mine and he said it's the fact that I am a human (yes,,it is true) and my urine reflects the fact that I eat a far different diet as the horse...Makes sense to me... JPH

I see ya made it...these guys are a bit passionate so... Anyway I'll help ya all I can... JPH

Hello: This is the longest sword I have finished. Done in my own "Jim-agane" steel made out back. 42 1/2" nagasa, Uno-Kobe Shobu Zukuri style with Nahinata Hi. If you look close you can see the fine pin point Hada in the blade. The first pic is of the sword next to my Yoroi I wear for my cutting demos. The Kanji reads "This is the armour of the swordsmith Hage Bokatsu". Blade is Kobuse with a wrough iron core. This is a Big sword. 5 feet OAL. Cuts tatami and goza like a scythe through wheat. You can't feel any drag due to blade length and the length of the tsuka. I will say I won't be doing anything this size ever again. The polish alone took almost three times as long as a regular sword... Tsuka is white samegawa under Nando silk Ito. Dragon theme kashirae. Turned out quite nice overall I think.. Hope the photos work.. JPH

Hello: I have never used that "instant browning" solution from Laurel Mountain so I really can not say how well it works..I do however use my own old formula using boiled down urine, smells to all get out at first when you are cooking it (I suggest you do that OUTSIDE) but once you get in reduced by 80% it does make for a very rich chocolate brown finish that is very durable. (Please see photo) I use 5160 as well as 1060/70 for the bits and mild steel for the axe body and I get some very nice results...then again I am not one to mind doing things the "old way" either so.... JPH

Well this was done waaaay back when and we were just starting to understand how to induce sori during yaki-ire. I wanted about 1" to 1 1/4" sori so I went ahead and forged about 3/4" or so before we hardened..it picked up almost another inch during yaki-ire so this is what I got... I will say it takes a little getting use to as far as Kata and form, but it cuts like a laser..even and smooth cutting on goza or tatami..That curve just lets it all flow... JPH

Hello: I am still battling this thing with my hand but here is something that took me close to 25 years to finally finish up. As some of you know I was very close friends with the late Mr Robert Engnath..as close if not closer than brothers. He and I back in the day were working on ways to produce "finish it yourself" sword blades with a real hamon for his business "Blades -N- Stuff"..We must of destroyed two tons of steel and hundreds of blades figuring this out..but we did. Bob went on to become one of the most sought after "japanese blade" makers in the world. Well while we were mucking about with this I forged this blade out of 1076, in the shinogi-zukuri shape, and I not knowing better at the time forged in a bit of sori prior to heat treating.. Well Bob and I were trying a new quenchant mixture, a mix of lye, salt and dish soap.. It worked great but it put even more sori in the blade...almost 1 5/8" of an inch..(This mix worked so well that Bob used it from that day on...) Anyway I finished it up using wet/dry paper and put it into shira siya where it stayed from that day on..I was mostly burned out from doing all the Japanese stuff so I didn't really think about going all the way with this one, I did however take it with me to the various shows that the Engnaths and I were doing so Bob could take orders for similiar sword blades... This is where it gets "interesting" Bob and I were at the Pasadena Knife show...our tables were next to each other as we usually were..I had this blade with me when this geeky fellow comes by my table and without warning grabs and pulls out the sword...Now I am trying to get this guy calmed down and Bob is rapidly coming to my aid, when the fellow says "Don't worry I am a trained Ninja" (what ever that means I do not know...) and then proceeds to raise the sword up, over and down his back from his right shoulder.. He shouldn't of done that. All that sori in this blade means the point isn't "where it should be" and about 3" or so of the kissaki burried itself neatly in the idiot's right but cheek.. Now things get worse (for him..funnier for us..) Instead of thinking and reassessing his situation and pulling the sword straight up and out, the idiot simply pulled down on the tsuka and opened up his behind like a canoe. Copious amounts of blood followed. Needless to say I finally got my sword back and he was off to the ER via ambulance..never to be seen again. I spent the rest of that afternoon cleaning the numbskull's blood off the blade. Of copurse what happened spread like wildfire throughout the show..with more than ample help of Bob and his lovely wife Stevie. Several other makers dropped by with suggestions as to what I should "name" this sword... Well I just put it away and more or less forgot about it...and when Bob passed away so suddenly..it just didn't see the light of day for a good long while. I was heartbroken at his passing as he was very much "family" and I couldn't bring myself to do anything with it until now. Seeing that this was the last blade we made together as a team..I figured I should mount it up and finish it as a cover sword for book IV, which I did. So here it is..the infamous sword named "Xxxx Biter"... It is in Tachi mounts with a 29 1/4" long shinogi-zukuri blade, the tsuka and saya are covered in tiger rayskin and my favorite black and gold chevron pattern Ito. The saya has hammered copper fittings and the rest is done in a mix of silver and gold leaf under black cracked lac. It is sealed with 10 coats of clear hard lacquer. I feel this give a very nice visual effect. The mounts are bronze, with gold and silver details done in a dragon motif. Tsuka length is 12 1/2" or so. I think that Bob would be pleased with the way it all turned out. Given the fact that is is one of the few pieces I have that he worked on..it is a very special sword to me. It is only fair that it be used for the cover of book IV as I will be including all he notes and other information that he and I came up with on Hamons back in the day. Hope the photos turn out.. JPH

Hello: Since my name was mentioned...I hope that whoever you find has the adequate insurance coverage if something does go wrong and someone gets hurt. My insurance almost dropped me when they found out I was holding "open workshops" in my local area for folks to come in with projects and work on them. I had to stop that or loose my coverage. I stopped the workshops. It's hard enough to find a company to cover just what I do let alone another handfull of people and be affordable... Good luck it is a noble endeavour indeed...It is very sad that it has come down tro worrying whether or not one will get sued into the poor house in someone gets hurt by their own actions but in today's so called "society" that threat is ever looming over the horizon. Very sad that a hands on craft such as this is taken down by possible litagation... JPH

Hello: This is a companion piece to the Chisa Katana I did a while back..(see the swordsmithing forum for that one).... Blade is welded L-6/1060, Kobuse construction with a mild steel core. Blade length is 15 1/2" in the Unokobe-Shobu Zukuri shape with 1/3 blade length Naginata Hi and 4/5 blade length Bo-Hi running down the Gi. Hamon is quite visible but doesn't show as well in the photos as it does "in the flesh"..Still has a bit of polishing to get done to enhance the contrast. Eagle and Pine theme kashirae and the black and gold chevron silk over natural Tiger Ray Samegawa on he tsuka...Tsuka length is 7 1/8". OAL: 24". Siya is red gold leaf under the black cracked lac. All in all I think that it turned out quite well and I consider this still a work in progress.. JPH

Hello: This is something I am currently finishing up for book IV..a Chisa Katana in laminate Kobuse construction using 1060/L-6 around a mild steel core (1018 I do believe) Nagasa is 25" with Naginata-Hi and Bo-Hi on each side, scraped in by hand...sounds like a lot of work but it goes pretty quick once you get use to doing it. Uno Kobe Shobe Zukuri blade style (my personal favourite cause it cuts so smooth for my cutting techniques..my students all say I cut like a peasant swinging a hammer...I just nod and agree cause I know I do......) Tsuka is in Tiger Ray skin that I got from a friend in out in Guam. These skins are HUGE... On the Omote side I have three large nodes on the skin that after about 6 hours' or so worth of tweaking and a LOT of T&E I fially got to show in the diamonds in the center of the tsuka. That was a real tense time figuring that positioning out for certain... I left the Tiger Ray natural..un-bleached to show the colour variations in the samegawa. I think the effect came through pretty well overall... Tsukaito is wrapped in my "Modified Battle Wrap" style in black and gold silk chevron ito..(I just love that pattern..very attractive) Tsuka length is a little long (cause I like it that way for my cutting swords) at 14" mounted in a Eagle and Pine Tree theme kashirae with gold and silver leaf accents. Still have a good deal of polishing to do on this one to bring out the Hamon and that will be the next step. It is already showing pretty well and I already have a very frosty hamon line that will, hopefully, really start to come out once I get "into" the polish a bit more....steel is about 2500 "layers" worth there abouts... Siya is finished in red gold leaf under black cracked lac..I am finally figuring this part out so I can pretty much control the size and amount of cracked I get....figures now that I am about done with all this Japanese stuff for book IV OAL: 40 1/2"ish.....A nice stout little slicer that should cut pretty well (I hope)... Anyway I hope the pics turn out at least half way OK.. JPH

Huh?? Just telling it like it is...that's all....Yeah, there are folks out there that take offense to us being honest...hence the "Self Proclaimed Fancy Schmancy Master" on my sig instead my usual the "Passionately Purple Cactus Flower of Genteel Desert Manhood"... I and a few others were just torn into by a fellow that took offense to us keeping it real and suggesting that he actually LEARN how to even start with the basics before tackling a sword...Oh well... Maybe he shoulda just jumped into the deep end of the pool before he knew how to swim and then he may of been enlightened.... JPH

Hello Again: OK I am mostly self taught as far as blades go..My mentor and family friend/neighbor when I was a wee yonker Yankee, Herr Hauffmann was a blacksmith. Being Amish he really did alot of work by hand or by using me as a striker..we sharpened scythes, plowshares, made harness rings, redid picks, mattocks, all sorts of farm stuff...tired wheels..you name it we did it EXCEPT for making a sword..the Amish are a peaceful folk and he flat out said NO!... BUt I learned a lot from that fine Old Gentleman and what I learned was solid, basic blacksmithing and one of the first things I learned was to make decent "S" hooks and how to weld. The rest of the stuff as far as blades go..I taught myself...I started swinging a hammer at the tender age of 12..Herr Hauffman thought that he could get rid of that "English Kid" that kept bugging him all the time by putting me to work..boy that just made it worse (or better..depending on your point of view) and every free afternoon I had I was over there learning how to build and maintain a proper fire, upset, slit, bend, scroll and anything and everything he cold show me and after a while I was even able to "earn my keep" by doing the scythe and plowshare sharpening and re-pointing picks and drill bars...it was a great way to learn.. Yeah I went the rest of the way on making blades on my own and I was looking for answers and back then everyone was so tight lipped about it that they would give me a wrong answer so I wouldn't do anything "right"... Sure you can teach yourself..I did and it's a whole lot of work but you learn a bunch more stuff doing it by T&E than by having someone else show you the right way from step one...As Edison said..I never made any mistakes...I just learned alot of ways to do things that didn't work... I just don't want to see anyone get hurt or worse doing something that they aren't quite ready for... JPH

I was going to stay out of this but I just can't.. There is a difference between "wanting to make a sword" and being GOOD at it..just about anyone can make a SLO (sword like object) and yeah, it'll work to a degree...but will it have all the subtle little things incorporated that makes a REAL sword fast in the hand, give decent point, be able to move the way the user wants it to? What about balance, flex, stiffness and all the other stuff that goes into it...Then there is the heat treating ..sure you can "send it out" but then you are trusting someone else with the most important part of doing this...and in doing so how can you say that you "MADE" the sword really. Granted...I get dozen's of requests a month from folks wanting to learn..and most I put in my circular file...those that do get a response (and that is maybe 5 or so out of 100), after the first interview, 99% of them decide that it is way too much work...cause I make sure that I have the forge going and it's about 120F at least in the studio and I position the "applicant" as close to the forge as I can safely and let them feel the heat....if they pass that test I hand them a piece of hot iron (as hot as I can stand it holding it bare handed"..if they take it and don;t drop it..they pass that test...also...if they ask if it is hot? they also pass...if they take it and drop it..they fail... After that then comes the real start of Hades on Earth and well..in the close to 50 years I have been doing this I have had three (3) "successful" students..one passed away very sudden, one went on and I kicked him "loose" cause he really didn't "need" any more real help....and the last one was a much more casual relationship and he passed on a little while back...(Brother Steve knows of whom I speak) In the mean time....If I do get someone that gets past the first set of tests...well the first time someone gets burned..they quit..the first time they get a grinder bump, they quit.. first time they get a slice..they quit...So,speaking as someone who has "paid their dues" to get where I am.. why should I waste MY valuable time and effort on some whiny baby that at the first time they get a "ow-wee" they are never heard from again? As my good friend Bob Loveless has said many times "We ain't making widgets here"..and when you dance with the Devil you ARE going to get burned...It's all part of the process... So I just have to realize the cold, hard fact that I better get everything (as much as I can anyway) out of my head and down on to paper while I can before Death comes calling cause the outlook on a viable student is pretty grim... JPH

<Zen Mode On> Ohhhhhhh Bedbug..if you have to ask when, then you are not ready.... <Zen Mode Off>

Not a dumb question at all...no such thing as a "dumb" question cause if you don't know..you don't know... On this one the Bo-Hi (grooves) were scraped in by hand...the Japanese were not all that keen on forging the grooves in..so they scraped them in by hand.. Once you get the hang of it..it goes pretty quick... JPH

Steve S....: I am working as much as I can on book IV..there is going to be a whole lotta fun in this one..all sorts of neat and spiffy stuff..But i will say this now..I am going to be grilled because it isn't being written with a "Beginner's" mind set..if you do NOT already know how to make what I call an "honest knife"..Ie, one that cuts, cuts. cuts and then cuts some more..regardless as to "how it looks"..(looks to me are not even secondary cause the "prettiest knife in the world" that isn't capable of taki9ng and holding a decent edge is TOTALLY WORTHLESS as a knife....and this opinion that I hold has gotten me into all sorts of trouble...But be that as it may... Book IV will be a continuation in the series and will, more likely than not, be the LAST book I write (at least as far as I can see it at this point in time...). My only wish is that I could find some youngster in his 20's or so..in more or less my "general area" that I can take "under my wing" and show all the things that were shown to me and all the other stuff I have learned over the last 40 plus odd years. It's sad when you look at the cold, hard facts that there are very, very few "out there" that are interested in preserving the "old ways" of doing things..All the vast majority want to learn is the "Newest and the best"...and that is sad cause unless you KNOW the "old way" to do things, to learn a certain steel (or three)...."Inside and out"..and obtain a very "intimate knowledge" on how those steels will react..well then those youngun's will be totally lost. When was the last time anyone heard of "aging" a forging?? I was taught that it can take between 6 weeks and up to 6 months for a forging to "settle in" as far as annealing/normalization goes for a "top quality" end piece...and another 4 to 6 weeks AFTER heat treating for it to be at its best... There is so much that I can "pass on" to someone younger ( and I mean at least 40 some odd years younger than I am..) so they can "preserve the Old Ways" and incorporate them into the "new ways" as I have in my time.... So alas and forlorn..I am reduced to writing it down into texts and tomes... Surely that will preserve the majority of what I have learned but not all...Not all the "fun and interesting stuff" that I could show, in a "controlled environment" that would be otherwise hazardous and possibly fatal if not "walked through it step by step"... Yet NOT A SINGLE ONE has the desire..the "fire in their belly" or the gumption to work through the burns, the grinder bumps, the failures and challenges that doing this in the "old ways" demands...Sigh... Maybe, hopefully I will find that "kid" someday..Yeah I "work simple"..not much in the ways of "Machinery"..95% is hand work, practice and skill...but I was taught...some 40 years+ ago, by my mentor/teacher..Herr Hauffmann that it is the CRAFTSMAN that controls the tools and it is the craftsman's skills that does the work...the tooling is just the means for the craftsman to do the work at hand.... A much sadder and humble man is... JPH

As promised here are some pics of the sword in question: Hello: OK I got some pics taken of the mystery beast sword... Nagasa: 32"...(measured dfrom habaki to kissaki) Ha-Mune (Back edge) length is 14" Bo-Hi..One4 is full length (down the shinogi-gi) and the other Naginata-Hi..running along the Mune "back edge"..."Diamond Point" terminus of the full length Bo-Hi..which as I said I WILL explain in book IV...wha-whah -wha ha....heh heh heh....the hard part was getting it down to clean metal and polished.... Blade type: Kograsu-Maru AKA "Little Crow".... Tsuka length 14", black samegawa under black and gold chevron silk tsuka-ito. Kashirae theme- Temple Lions/Chi-Chi Lions/Fu Dogs.....they are called by all three names..same critter... Siya: Ho-wood (magnolia) wrapped with split rattan for the first 1/3 of the siya length...Amber Horn siya fitings and the whole finished in red gold leaf under black cracked lac. OAL: 47 3/8"...The Tsuka-Ito is black base with gold chevron woven in silk...I love that ito....makes even my work look good.... Even though the Hada is "funky" for whatever reason(s) it may be at this time...this sword cuts like a dream..and thanks to that "back edge" of this particular design...it allows of a whole "new" avenue of attacks and parries...In fact I am working on a "new" Batto style using this sword in my Dojo....still under develoupment as they say... Hope the pics turn out.. JPH

Hello: I’ve been away a bit due to a reoccurring hand problem so I am basically on light duty until that is resolved, so in the meantime I am doing a lot of little stuff here and there and one of the activities is getting myself caught up on my polishing. I am currently busy polishing a Kogarsu Maru Tachi made from steel that I smelted myself using the locally available ore from my area, via direct reduction for the smelt. For the ore itself I used Nevada Desert magnetite, which I obtained from the sands that's all around here. During the smelt I added a small amount of graphite to the mix in order to raise the carbon content. The bloom came out really clean, not many voids and felt very "heavy" mass wise for its size... It was flattened then it was triple cut and re-welded using triple cuts each time for 5 times in order to refine the grain structure. Worked smoothly and was very "solid" under the hammer. No problems with crumbling or anything. Welded great..one of the smoothest refinings I have done so far. It sparked like a 60 t0 70 pt C steel but the sparks were very "white"..not the golden/reddish yellow like most carbon steels... The sword blade was then forged out of this material, rough shaped under hand hammering, rough ground and then shaped, the two Bo-Hi started and then heat treated. ( I’m not going to tell you, yet,, how I got that little arrowhead shaped termination at the Kissaki, as that will in book No. IV. I got that idea for that type of termination from several pieces I have seen what I was doing research for a book IV). The blade was clayed using A P Green High Al furnace repair/cement with concrete tie wire used to hold the clay in place during yaki ire. The quenching medium was warm brine ( my own mix of sodium hydroxide and ammonium nitrate, which is basically caustic blue salts) at a temperature of 265°F. Horizontal quench. The blade came out of yaki ire with no cracks, warps or bends, and with a graceful amount of sori. I then started the polish after I scraped clean and base polished the Bo Hi… While I was polishing I noticed that the Hamon was taking a much "smoother finish" than the unhardened areas of the blade. Now this is not all that unusual, as it is harder but for some reason the colors were little “ off” than what I usually see, more "darker grey", almost a bit "greasy" in colour in the softer areas. This was becoming more noticeable as I progressed up in the polish into the finer grits. Once I got to 2500 grit, I did a very short etch in ferric chloride for approximately 30 to 45 seconds. Upon the removal of the blade the entire surface was black, which for me is more or less normal for the way I work. As I was wet rubbing out the blade with 2500 grit wet/dry paper to get off that black crud I noticed that the Hamon was very smooth and silvery white with a cloudy transition line between the hard and soft areas of the blade (Shibuchi line) The softer area displayed a surface that had an "open" grain that looked like either some flavour of wrought iron or Wootz. Now I have never seen this happen before and I am stumped, maybe alloy banding but I doubt that.... Now let me backtrack a bit, the area where I obtained the magnetite is downwind a little ways from Ti-Met, which is a titanium foundry located here in the Henderson area. Now since titanium is paramagnetic, I feel that some of that material may have piggybacked onto the magnetite‘s surface, being picked up along with it as that is the only way it could have been “picked up“, or maybe my adding the graphite to the smelt may have caused the effect illustrated in the below photographs. Maybe it’s a little both, I do not know. The finish was totally smooth and hand rubbed out to 2500 grit before the etch.NO scratches visible, almost to a full mirror polish. The resulting finish after the etch, on the non-hardened areas of the blade is very similar to, at least to my eyes,as I said before, WI or Wootz. Now I was wondering if any of you fine folks have any idea as to what happened and why I’m getting this effect and result. I’m also wondering if I could of accidentally violated Mr. Daniel Watson’s so-called “Techno-Wootz” patent. Either way I am at a loss as to what happened either during the smelt or the hardening process. So does anyone have any ideas at all? I was thinking as I am continuing to study that the grain looks alot like a wrought iron type of structure, but then,thinking a bit more why wouldn't the grain then be visible in the hardened areas of the blade as well, instead it being only seen in the un-hardened areas? (If any of you are interested I am more than happy to post photographs of the completed piece but right now I’m wondering what in the heck I did to this steel to get this effect). This sure has me stumped. The surface was totally "mirror smooth" before the etch, with a nice Hamon showing and when I saw what happened when it came out of the etch I was totally taken back... Any and all ideas are welcome so enjoy the photos. Thank you JPH

Jordan: There is a difference bewween "steel pipe" and thin walled steel tubing as well as steel plate and thin sheet and both the tubing and thin sheet were what was used... It's simply showmanship and I am proably one of the most guilty out there for doing it. I have cut 1/4" round mild steel barstock into pieces as well as "hacked" my way through 1/8" x 1" mild steel strapping using using various designs of swords. The "hard part" is knowing what the steel that the sword is made from can and can not withstand and the proper technique. I have seen many videos of folks doing this and you need to have dead on technique, a very good knowledge of metals and enough "guts" to follow and power through. Now it's not easy as metal doesn't cut like "soft" (meat and tatami/goza mats) targets and the amount of resistance is considerably greater so you got to have the power to move that "out of the way" during the actual cut so it does take some practice.. It really isn't anything more than showing what just about any properly made, properly heat treated quality sword can do in the hands of a trained individual. I have cut ropes throw up in the aire...ropes that were hanging, as I said before hacked through steel strapping and cut round barsock...plus a whole lot of mats in my tamashigiri classes....it is simply knowing how and using the right sword with the proper edge geometry. I have sold a lof of swords doing that for the last 40 some years... Hope this helps JPH

CG: I realy am loathe to do this but there is a book in print out there that explains what you are asking (and a whole lot more BTW)...there are at least a half dozen ways I know of to do this.... for the record..I do NOT advocate using a toaster oven for any sort of tempering as they have "high" and "low" temperature points that "average out" to what the "setting" is on the thermocouple. Even a regular "kitchen" oven has the same drawbacks but they are usually a bit more closer between the extremes...and it is the high end of the extremes that can cause problems...if ou get above the top end of the tempering range you messed up..even if it was for "only for a minute or two"..once it gets above what you are going for..you messed up... Everyone works differently and has their own point of view on hings.I know what works and what doesn't work for me...It may or may not be the same for you..(OK I admit I am colourblind but still that doesn't stop me...) It would be better if you were to go out with some 1010/1018/A36 mild steel and start "practicing" in drawing a temper and seeing how the colours run into each other and the time it takes fpor the colours to "run" into each other.... Experience is paramount in doing this sort of work and I still to this day do it "by eye"..yeah I mess up from time to time..I am only human but I am pretty much dead on the vast majority of the time....but I have been doing this for well over 40 years..Oh heck..just forget I said anything and do what you want. I am too old and set in my ways to suggest to anyone that they do anything at all.. I need to learn to keep my mouth shut...that will be the easiest thing to do for all concerned... JPH

Hello: Way too hot at quench...5160 is a low Cr alloy and should not be any hotter than 1550F or so at quench... Also, on the temper::Way too low a temper for a filet knife...you want a full "blue" temper for more of a "spring" to allow for the extreme flex.. I have probably used close to 15 tons of 5160 over the years and it is a great steel..I can bend a sword blade 90 degrees have it come back straight and still be able to cut through a iron bar with it with no damage to the blade...all in the HT.... You pretty much toasted this one...as I have said before experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted... JPH

Hello: As someone who has made about 1,000 or so of these they can be hardened to a degree..well hard enough to take a decent edge and hold it for a while but you need to quench in ice cold (lierally) brine solution of sodium hydroxide and salt, something that most folks really are not that keen on doing. No need to draw back a temper as these are not brittle..at least I have never had one break on me yet. It's more of a "novelty" than anything but they can make an OK knife but the whole idea is "Wow..that was a rail road spike" is the driving force in play... JPH

LAr: OK I dunno about your local power company but I know that when I built this place I have 220 v 140 amp service and that didn't cost me any extra..20 amps is not that much...especially out here where everyone is running AC and all..... Methinks you are being sold a pig in a poke there.,.I would call again as ask someone else... As far as the NG goes..you will neeed a higher pressure coming in from the street and at least a 1 1/2" to 2" ID line...now the Gas Co WILL look at you funny and ask you what you intend to do...Or....you can do what I did...run LPG from an outside tank into the forge....perfectly within codes as about 1/2 the homes out here heat with LPG.... JPH

Bubba-San: True, very true. その私を殺すわけではないが私に頭にきていること I hope my Kanji is understandable.. I will be posting a new Dai-sho in the next week or so..plus a new "portrait" photo of me in my Yoroi and my No-Dachi with the 43" blade length (approx) with Hamon. Together we look very "impressive" especially at tamashigiri demoes..That Yoroi fits me like it grew there... Brother Steve...yeah I can suprize alot of folks....heh heh heh JPH

Mr. Jacobs: I do not know anything at all about the laws and regulations in South Africa..I am in the United states and as such I am well aware as to what is and what is NOT USUALLy acceptabvloe. The State where I live in is: 1: A "Shall Issue" Stae as far as concealed firearms carry permits. This means the "good guys" can "pack heat".... 2: Gambling Casinoes are legal everywhere EXCEPT Boulder City...due to regulations that were put in place when they were constrcutiong the dam. 3: Prostitution is 100% legal (when the proper paperwork is filed) in most counties of this State... 4 I can own select fire weapons, suppressors and other things that BATFE calls "Destructive Devices"..(I have a firearms collection that is almost mind boggling BTW)and I am carrying the proper paperwork....I have a 20mm Cannon, a M2 .50 cal, several M-16's, one of the first 125 Thompson SBG's issued to the FBI and a whole lot of other select fire/auto weapons to boot...(Hell's Bells...I have a Gatling Gun in my living room and a 3" Ordnance Rifle out basck!!) 5: I can carry (thanks to my LEO background) a concealed firearm in all 50 of our States..regardless as to if they allow concleaded carry or not..PLUS I can carry aboard airliners as well...TAKE THAT TSA!! After ALL of this//I CAN NOT, nor can I manufacture a "slung shot" (which in the US is the "legal definition" of what you would like to make..NOR can I tell you HOW to make it...cause if I do I can go to jail if you made one and was 1, "cuaght:" with it or used it in a crime.... Now this strikes me as very funny and more than a bit odd due to the fact that I can own machineguns and all that..(US BATFE FFL No. 9-88-003-03-3F-35453...) and YET I if was to MAKE a flail..I could be thrown in prision for at least 5 yerars and face a $10,000.00 US fine...go figure that out.... Hence this is why I said what I did....since this website us USA based.... No other places may. or may NOT be as "assinine" ad we are here..so Good luck.. Now,,, HISTORICALLY speaking the "ball" on a "Morningstar" was hardwood, and the iron spikes were "driven" into the ball....but this is HISTORICAL information for HISTORICAL research... JPH JPH

Hello: You may not be aware, but in most states here in the United States possession of that particular item is a felony..it is commonly referred to as a "slung shot"...and as such, so is the manufacturing of the same... Just a heads up... JPH