A Wakizashi To Drool Over

murphda2

murphda2

Super Moderator and KD Blade Show Boss
OK, so it isn't finished yet, but I've already begun to drool over this baby.

Many of you were able to see Dan Keffeler's Katana he was showing around at BLADE. This thing was a beauty. Dan had painstakingly milled and fit each and every fitting for the Katana from titanium. I was so impressed with it, I ordered a Wakizashi blade from Dan.

I recently received a few pics from Dan documenting his progress on the piece. Here are a couple of them.

Wakizashi1.jpg

Wakizashi2.jpg
 
This is going to be a long process. Dan is making the blade and will do a finish grind on the blade but leave it for me to do the final polish on. From what I understand, I will have quite a task before me given that the blade is made of CPM 3V. I will also be carving the tsuka and saya as well as making the tsuba and habaki. I am undecided as to rather or not I want to tackle the fuchi and kashira or if I want to purchase them.
 
I was with you through the pics, but I'm gonna have to go look up all those terms except for saya...

Totally flippin' sweet blade though!
 
Lots of work , I understand the CPM -3V is tough stuff .Making all the fittings is the other hard part ! Looks like some nice lines . Should be a Great blade . I am about to finish the wakizashi, one I posted earlier . Have the saya/ tsuka cut along with habaki forged . still need to finish polish, wrap handle, and caste the menuki and fuchi / kashira. still a bunch of stuff left. I dont do the final polish until I finish everything , just in case I scratch the blade . Good luck ... Bubba
 
BRad704 said:
I was with you through the pics, but I'm gonna have to go look up all those terms except for saya...

Totally flippin' sweet blade though!
Click to expand...

HEY GUYS!!!!
A nice little request, when y'all are using Japanese terms, could you put the english version in < X > or something like that behind the Japanese words? It's all extremely interesting right up until I have to start trying to figure out the terms, then it's a "why bother, I'm too confused to keep track of it all", kinda thing. Murph, Bubba, Y'all KNOW I love Japanese blades, it's just a few of us ignorant country boys that don't want to "look" like we are! Even though I spent 6 months in Japan, actually ALL over Japan, I didn't pick up enough of the lingo to cross the street...safely! Being ignorant doesn't mean we're dumb, it means we don't know, it's all easy once you know how to do it, K?

Part of the reason I ask this is that I know it puts me off sometimes, to have to go figure out the parts, even though I remember some of them some of the time,
I think about the newbs that would LOVE to understand what y'all are talking about, but are to shy to ask for fear of ridicule. Which inhibits the learning part of KD, and that's not good!

I know one of y'all will want to post a list with all the definitions, thats not what I'm asking for, it goes right back to stopping to figure out which what the thing was. A list would be OK, but in the spirit of teaching/learning, just include a simple little definition in < X >, would make it so much easier for everyone, heck a couple of us might even get to where we ACTUALLY LEARN something!!!!

Again! Just a freindly request, if you all that know the jargon would include a quick definition with whatever is being referenced, would not only educate the ignorant, it would open the lines of discussion AND understanding as well, Oh! I meant to say PLEASE, too. I am Southern, I got me some manners!

SERIOUSLY, Nice Blade Murph, one I think you will be happy with, especially since you get to do A LOT of the work on it, CPM 3V???? I bet that steel will be harder than SUPERMANS knee caps, once it's been HT'd, wouldn't it be better to do the polish work before HT? Or did I miss something? It'll be awesome, can't wait to see how it turns out, Rex
 
Rex,

I'll try to help you out next time. In the mean time, here is a link to an excellent glossary. Ben Kreiser of Japanese Swords Ltd. was kind enough to add this glossary to his website and I have found it instrumental in learning Japanese termonology for blades.

http://www.japaneseswordsltd.com/frames.html

Unfortunately, even Japanese reference glossaries often use Japanesemterms tomdefine others. You will find that you will need to scroll back and forth through the list to get a true understanding of some terms.
 
You are very correct Bubba. Dr. Stein has a wonderfully detailed list as well (and he's a Knife Dog). I think Ben's glossary was more user friendly for beginners.
 
I received a package on Wednesday! WOW!!!

Now my painstaking efforts begin. This will be a long process as I have to find time to squeeze it in with a military build project I'm wroking on, my military training schedule, work schedule, and the four hours a day I spend on the road commuting to and from work. Please be patient in asking for progress photos.

I've been day dreaming a bit about how I want to proceed with this project. It may be more than I can handle, but I'm thinking of building two seperate koshirae (furniture set) for this blade. The first will most likely be a simple "battle set" where I will do a fairly plain looking set. I'm thinking of attempting to carve the tsuka and saya (handle and scabbard) from Micarta. I will make the tsuba (guard) of flat ground O-1 and then likely purchase the steel fuchi and kashira (handle collar and pommel) from a supplier I have dealt with in the past from Japan. The habaki (blade collar) will be made of copper. Of course, I will do a traditional wrap of same (stingray skin) with a "battle wrap" of cotton ito (traditional Japanese handle wrap).

For the presentation koshirae all I have decided is that I want to attempt to build a two piece habaki of copper and silver. I'm thinking the base piece of the habaki should be copper with a traditionally patina (I'm going to try to patina it to a deep purple, but I have to do research to see if it is possible) and the secound piece in textured and polished silver. I then want to do the same finish with double seppa (washers) of copper and silver. This is about as far as my imagination has gone for the presentation koshirae.

My imagination is really going a bit crazy on all of this right now and I really hope that I can pull it off. Dan has far exceeded anything I could have imagined on the blade and I pray I can do his work justice with my efforts.

I have not yet take photos of the blade since reeiving it, but here are a few photos that Dan sent me prior to shipping it.

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Sounds like you have a plan . Whenever you get ready to work on fittings let me know and I will direct you to a great jewelers supply , they have all the great japanese patinas including one that will turn copper purple. http://www.reactivemetals.com/
 
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