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I Forge Iron

Tanto


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OK i was looking through the shop to find some scrap steel and i found one and its long enough and kind of thick enough to forge a tanto and the blade style i want is the shobu but the thing is that i don't understand is the part about being forged without a ridge-line and how they look is just confusing and i have length, no width and no guide for the curvature of the blade so im kind of eyeballing it for right now so i need help understanding this i am currently forging the handle and here is the Wikipedia page i found my info on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantō 

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this one has no curvature its just the actual blade part the cutting edge of it is what i need the guide for not how far the whole blade is bent

like the kubikiri and the part that has me confused is the hira-zukuri style and you know how on that pic from wikpedia that shows all the blade styles how it has two or three edges im gonna say but not sure what it is but the one long thing that runs to almost the edge and some have another one

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1 minute ago, ThomasPowers said:

So did you go to the local VFW or DAV Memorial Day and ask the WWII Vets if any had brought back a tanto you could look at?

That's a suggestion I'd never have come up with myself. I know of 4 local VFW places near me as well as a couple VA hospitals relatively close to me and never thought of the potential of it being a resource for research. 

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My Grandfather was a marine at the Battle of Iwo Jima and was in Japan during the occupation.  He brought back several swords and talked about piles of them being cut up with a cutting torch during that period.  

It's a resource that is rapidly disappearing!

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Hate to burst your bubble but as of the 2010 census your county had 119 people per sq mile.

Socorro county in NM where my house is at has 2.7 people per square mile (and the one next to it has 0.5 people per square mile).

If I can find stuff out here you should have about a 50 times greater chance of finding it where you are at.

Middle of Nowhere; I can drive from my house to ground zero of the first atomic bomb blast, the Trinity Site and still have a couple of hours to tour the site and drive back to the Owl Bar for lunch...

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Not sure what your issue is with interpreting the Wiki page as regards the style of tanto you are looking to make.  To me it looks like all the info is there for you. If you are having trouble with the proportions, you can always use the Xerox trick: Print the image of the blade profile then use a Xerox machine to scale it up or down till it matches the general length and width listed on the Wiki page.  The convex portion of the blade crossection is generally only roughly forged then ground to final shape, as far as I know.  Slack belt on a grinder, or resilient backed hand sanding "platen" will get you that shape fairly easily.

Of course that is trusting what you see on Wikipedia.  Going to a source of an actual blade, as Thomas suggested is much better.

If you are planning on forging an effective blade you will want to make sure that you use high carbon (tool or spring) steel, not just some random scrap.  Starting your forging trying to make a tanto is pretty ambitious.  Might make sense to try to pick up some basic forging skills first.  You will also need to learn a lot about heat treatment and blade grinding.

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