Commercial Sen available?

CUTS LIKE A KRIS

CUTS LIKE A KRIS

Joined
Sep 28, 2005
Messages
4,527
Hello all. As I work primarily by hand, and it looks like my shop will stay very small for a couple of more years, I was wondering if anybody sells a sen for removing stock more rapidly than files/sandpaper. I go slow and make for myself more than others, but would like to increase my stock removal speed and from what I remember this is a viable option. I send out all of my HT, and my crappy little grinders would be worn out by grinding off the teeth, so seems like making my own right now would be not worth it.

Any other options for more handheld help is appreciated. I am planning on getting some EDM stones next time I'm near a supplier as well (Type F "friable" is what I want correct?)


Thanks for all help.
 
Never seen a sen for sale and not sure how practical it would be for stock removal. I have had a few Shigfusa gyutos, the YouTube video of them using it is amazing. The knives they make are clad with soft iron, which is way easier to shape.
 
If I had to guess I would say you would have to get one from Japan and that they are probably expensive, at least to have it shipped over here. Honestly I've never heard of someone using one in the states. I'm sure someone has and if I had to put my money on someone that would know I'd say Murray Carter. You might try emailing him.

Stacy may know how to get one but outside that I have no idea. I would imagine you could probably by a 2x42" belt grinder for close to the same price.

If you do get an authentic one I'd love to see some photos of it. Good luck

-Clint
 
Took a sword class (katana) with Don Fogg several years ago at NESM, and we made our own. Took maybe 1-2 hours total.
I still have mine but don't use it often. It shaves metal quickly, but you'll build some muscle. Send me a PM.

Bill
 
I made one from an old file when I was starting out and didn't have much anything in the way of power tools. I was kinda flying blind, so I'm sure the angle on it wasn't optimum... But I certainly was able to remove annealed steel with it. Sounds like Bill has a great offer to help you out. They're a great tool, you should post up whatever you end up with and how well it works. I remember trying to research them when I wanted one and there really isn't much out there.


Jeremy
 
Anybody got a link to a sen? I've done a couple of searches and nothing turned up.
 
Does it work like a scraper? Like for hand scraping machine ways or such?
 
Bill Hoffman said:
Took a sword class (katana) with Don Fogg several years ago at NESM, and we made our own. Took maybe 1-2 hours total.
I still have mine but don't use it often. It shaves metal quickly, but you'll build some muscle. Send me a PM.

Bill
Click to expand...

Well as a massage therapist by day (and night) I'm sure I can always use a bit more muscle! 😉 I've sent you an email, I can't PM until I upgrade again. Thank you very much.

And to the rest of you for the replies all.

Kuraki- from what I've seen (all from this site) its kind of a mix between a scraper and a draw knife. Apparently can get quite hot while hogging off metal as well!
 
I believe it. You can make chips smoke with a scraper if you try. I've only scraped iron, and with a tungsten carbide scraper. Not sure I would care to do much steel.
 
Use the custom search engine and search "sen". There have been many threads on them.

The long and short is that with power tools available to almost everyone a sen isn't as needed as it was 100 yeas ago. A cheap grinder will remove the excess steel faster.
In a way, you could say the guys who use an angle grinder to rough out the bevels use a "power sen" :)
 
I don't know about a commercial Sen, but last time I was at the hardware store, I noticed they sell (paint?) scrapers that take replaceable tungsten carbide blades for just a couple bucks. I thought about picking one up to try out for this purpose; might be worth looking into.

As to finishing stones, I got the EDM stones from Congress Tools: https://www.congresstools.com/catalog/categories/get-subcategory/?id=14 These have a pretty hard binder so they retain their shape better. These are great for keeping flat surfaces truly flat, especially if your grind doesn't extend up all the way to the spine (like on a saber grind). They won't wash out the ridge line. A softer more friable stone might be better if you're doing convex grinds and want the stone to break down and conform to the curved surface better.

A while back, dad brought me a set of Cummins branded coarse metal files sold by Harbor Freight. They may also sell these exact same files under another brand name. I've found them to be great for fast steel removal- they're just a step shy of being a wood rasp, and hog off steel almost as fast as a 4" angle grinder (at least until your shoulders start to wear out!). I wouldn't bother with regular or fine files from Harbor Freight, but these seem to work very well for coarse work without risking much investment. I think this might be the current version they sell: http://www.harborfreight.com/hand-tools/files/12-in-heavy-duty-file-set-4-pc-69682.html Of course, high quality extra fine cut files are always a sound investment, too. Ten minutes of careful draw filing can save an hour of sanding with coarse sandpaper/stones.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top