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I Forge Iron

Finally Finished!! My Nagi-Dachi Tachi


JPH

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  • 4 months later...

Hello:

It cuts really well...hanbdles quite nicely due to the tsuke length but as I said this one is a bit on the wanting side compared to the nagimaki naoshi set I am just finishing up..still have to polish the blade on the long sword but once that's done I will post pics under a new header..

Happy ya all like it

JPH

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  • 4 months later...

That is beautiful. Just cruising around IFI, I don't often wander into the sword area but I can certainly recognize exquisite beauty when I see it.
I have a Japanese sword here hanging on my wall, a WWII bring back of my late uncle's from Iwo Jima. It is a factory made "run of the mill" type, nothing like the quality here.
Bravo! That's nice to look at.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Wow Jim, That is amazing. I usualy only look at the power hammer page on this forum(I am currently a bit obsessed with the idea of getting one) but I am sure glad I looke at the sword forum. I have long been impressed with your work but I didn't realize your mastery of the art includes Japanese blades as well.

So if I work my butt off for the next thirty years and have some talent, I can hope to produce a blade like this? :lol: Really though truly amazing work, it is not clear to me why your name is not mentioned in regards to Japanese swords as you are clearly one of the best out there.

Thanks again for your advice with cable over on the other forum, I can't wait to see your new book, -Justin Carnecchia

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Justin:

The reasons I am not mentioned are numerous and go back to when my first book came out..Alot of folks who were "in the trade" back then took it as a betrayal and took offense to the fact that I showed folks that doing this ISN'T as hard as they were at one time (mis)lead to believe.

As far as Japanese swords go..to be truthful...I am not all that keen on them..Yeah, I know how they were made..all that was involved in the manufacture, methods of construction, heat treatment and all but I am really not all that "into them" as 99% of most folks are. They are a sword, nothing more...nothing less. I made these to preserve the knowledge that the late Mr Bob Engnath and I learned back in the late 1970's early to mid 1980's on Yaki-ire and how to reproduce Hamon in simple C content steels...When he passed so suddenly he took alot of information with him, and that is a down right shame. So I am putting several chapters in my IV book as to how to do Hamon and a few other things so when I kick the bucket, at least the majority of the information will carry on after I am gone. I hate to admit it... I am not getting any younger ya know and there simply isn't anyone interested in learning "the old school ways" of things in my area that will stick with it. The first burn or grinder bump and they are history and that also is a low down shame. These things happen..when you dance with the Devil you are going to get burned every now and then..all part of the art. So you suck it up and continue to march.

In the 40 plus years I have been doing this stuff I have been interviewed twice...and both interviews were because I was friends with the publishers of the periodicals in question.....the first one was in Tactical Knives waaaay back in the 1980's and the last was in 1997 in the 5th Gun Digest Book of Knives because I knew Jack Lewis and Roger Combs. I ran afoul of what was then known as "The Tennessee Mafia" in the knife world so I am pretty much persona non grata in the various knife related publications..But that's OK..I do what I do and I am happy..I turn away alot of work (and I don't advertise so I must be doing somethng "right") and while I do have a website I keep a few pieces on there, but since I got booted from the one show I do a year, I will be loading that up a good deal now that I will be relying more upon that than face to face sales...

No..you won't find my name in many places other than in regards to my books and articles.. Another "strike" against me is I am neither a Knifemaker's Guild member nor am I a member of the ABS, and members of those groups tend to get preferential treatment when it comes to getting ink and space in the "big time" knife magazines..

You will not find me mentioned much anywhere really cause I like to keep a low profile and I am not one to "blow my own horn"..I would sooner leave that for those that have a "need" to get the "lime light" and the "props"...I am far more concerned in learning ways to do "stuff" and showing folks how than I am having to "show off" what I have done over and over. I never will be a "well known maker"..and that's OK too cause I am not doing this to become "famous"..I am doing this because I LOVE TO DO IT and I even get PAID while I am doing it so how much better can life be?

Hope this explains a few things

JPH

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Jim to me you are famous exactly because of the things you put down above
i have never met you, but hope one day i will, but read your books and what you post online and what is admirable and really shinning thru, is you pasion for the craft and your will to share to others. something a lot could learn from.
thanks for all.
ps cant wait for the 4th book

all the best Daniel

how could i forget. the Tachi is really stunning thanks for showing

Edited by DClaville
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  • 2 weeks later...

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

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
-snip-
I am not getting any younger ya know and there simply isn't anyone interested in learning "the old school ways" of things in my area that will stick with it. The first burn or grinder bump and they are history and that also is a low down shame. These things happen..when you dance with the Devil you are going to get burned every now and then..all part of the art. So you suck it up and continue to march.
-snip-

This may be one of the only times I've really, really wished I lived in Nevada. =P
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  • 1 month later...

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

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  • 10 months later...
  • 1 month later...

I'd like to think that I possess a decent hand when crafting little table trinkets and such but an object with a beauty and detail of this magnitude is surely beyond my skill set.... This is truly magnificent and you should be more than proud of your accomplishment!! Just for my curiosity, what would such a thing cost a person if they wanted you to build one?

-Hillbilly

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