May 25, 200818 yr I posted a section of this blade when I first etched it, now its ready for delivery. Here is a 460 layer pattern welded katana I made for an Iaido practitioner for light cutting, 29 inch blade, 1/2 inch sori, 0.3 inch thick at tsuba, 0.2 1 inch from tip, Habaki is copper, Tsuba is 1095 and A203E in a radial ladder pattern. 1/4 thick. Differentially ( clay) hardened, then tempered 4 hours at 440F. Very sharp, the Client will make the rest of the mounts, saya etc.
May 26, 200818 yr Great job Steve, that's a beautiful blade. The Tsuba is especially nice with the radial pattern. Now for a dumb question... whats a sori? Mark
May 26, 200818 yr Author the SORI is the amount of curve to the blade, When you lay the blade on a flat surface, its the measurement of the "gap" when the point and the back of the blade at the cross guard are on the table. notes: its strange, a few months ago I started with almost 15 pounds of 1095 and L6 and I ended up with a katana. the Tsuba is only 60 layers. I am honored people like It, I hope my client does, he had the curve and and length, and ladder pattern requested, the rest was up to me. I really wondered about doing a silver Habaki, and about using pure nickel rather than the a203e then hot bluing the tsuba.... so many ideas.... so little time.
May 26, 200818 yr Steve; Actually the "proper term" for this hada would be Ayasugihada, which means Sugi grain..resembles the grain of the Sugi (cryptomeria) tree. Geeze I know a lot of useless stuff.... you used 15 pounds of material?? man...we need to talk... Looks great though....water or oil quench?? JPH
May 26, 200818 yr Author Coal forge, and a 4.6 pound hammer and anvil is wastefull the rolling mill I built last year helps. not really 15 pounds, to be exact, 14 pounds 10.5 oz. scale plus the 1/4 inch grinder disk to make the ladder... After I finish building my new shop, I will build a press. Not to out do the 85 + ton Julius Squeezer :cool: but in the 25 to 50 ton range would be nice. But thank you Jim, praise coming from you is a high Compliment. And I used Oil quench
May 26, 200818 yr Outstanding work, Steve - I hope you earned something at least in the five figures for it...
May 26, 200818 yr Author 5 ??? ummmmm no. You must have me confused with Howard Clark or Jim Hrisoulas, there are only a few that make blades deserving of those figures. I think its the stone mushrooms I used in the leading photo, giving the illusion of a false grandeur. I will admit 4, and I should have charged more than I did. But I think many of us feel that way sometimes after finishing a longer than planned project.
May 29, 200818 yr Steve: Methinks you have me confused with someone else...the vast majority of my work is priced well under 4 figures, at least for high carbon.. The welded stuff goes for a bit more but no where near 5 figures... I would sooner sell 10 $100.00 pieces than 1 $1000.00 piece....more "stuff out there"..the better "advertising..plus you have far more "$100.00 customers that $1,000.00 customers" if you ask me.. JPH
July 6, 200817 yr Can't say I've ever seen a prettier sword of the type, but then I haven't seen a whole lot of em. I have to say the work is fantastic! Finnr
July 22, 200817 yr A beatiful piece of work, hope the owner gives you a picture when he is done so you can share the finished project. William
July 24, 200817 yr Author me too I am hoping for a finished pic, as the new owner is doing all the mounting, as for the rim on the Tsuba I thought about doing it, but it was not in the spec's of the order. When I do a commission tho I have some artistic freedoms, its the clients blade not mine, so I stay close to the requested order. Thank you all for the kind words.
July 27, 200817 yr i think this katana is extremely nice. i am an experienced blacksmith, and i have made few pieces of that stature. it doesn't look like it has a hamon, but i could be wrong. the tsuba is magnificent, but it's missing something flashy. overall i rank this sword up by the paul chen's and bushido's. i rank 9/10
October 1, 200916 yr Impressive work. I have never made a katana but I have made saya, tsuka and the occasional habaki. I always felt that I have way too much to learn before attempting to forge a sword. As a collector, I have seen hundreds if not thousands of antique Japanese nihonto and even though the picture is small and the purists will point out that it is “Japanese like” and argue that it is not a true katana. My counter would be it is quality work, forged by a real artisan and will outlast us all. Great job, thanks for sharing. My only complaint would be that I wish you would have taken more pictures and showed the progression. The new owner is very lucky.
October 7, 200916 yr Author actually I did, its at my web site, here is the direct link Making a Damascus Katana and thank you for the kind words.
October 19, 200916 yr You are welcome. I just went back, found this and checked out your pictures. Now I am even more impressed. I think I drooled on my keyboard. Very Nice.
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