My first sword - O-Wakizashi WIP

Very cool Stuart thanks for taking the time to document this, I am working on a Tanto with similar aspects and this will be helpful. SO what kind of wood did you use for the Saya and what type of glue did you use to assemble the saya?
 
Mike, the saya is poplar and I used regular wood glue to put it together.

Last night I scrubbed the saya with steel wool and added another coat. Now to wait for it to dry.

And I took the samegawa off the tsuka just to see and it started to curl a little so I put it back to dry some more.

So... Onto the blade. Hours of sanding later I got it to 2500x then 4000x with 3m tri-mite cloth. I wouldn't say it was super clean but it was pretty darn shiny.

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For the kissaki, I sanded it up to the same point but then pulled it back to 1200x tri-mite and a little scrub with 600x loose abrasive. I just can't seem to get wxactly what I want. All the pictures I see have the kissaki with an even satin finish and short of doing it the traditional way I'm not sure how to get there.

I etched the blade with ferric chloride twice with polish and loose abrasives in between but I didn't like the look. The ferric chloride is just too fast and indiscriminate. So I cleaned it up and went to lemon juice. Much nicer colour and finish. I think this will be a work in progress but I will leave the blade as it is for now. I'd like to try some nugui to contrast the colour better and maybe get some hazuya and jizuya stones to experiment.

But here is the blade as it stands for now. It's a stretch maybe but I seem to see Mount Fuji in my hamons these days. :p Right in the middle of the first photo. :D

Not sure what to call this hamon, some type of midare maybe?

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That is just outstanding, Stuart! What a spectacular blade!

I see Mount Fuji, too. ;)

Roger
 
was in your neck o the woods for a ride today Stu, I was thinking about you and your sword as we looked out over Willis Pt.
 
Stuart, I thoroughly enjoyed this WIP... that Hamon definitely showed its pretty face!
 
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Thanks guys.. Ryan.. it ain't over yet. :p:p Still have the handle wrap and finish up the saya..

If I were to follow my impatience I could probably get away with doing the handle wrap tonight but I'm concerned about the rayskin shrinking.
 
Definitely looking forward to seeing the finished product!
 
That looks like a complex hamon mix. Midare, Choji, and gunome.
Edit: I guess it could just be midare, meh hamons like that are difficult to categorize.

Did the hamon extend past the hamachi, I cannot see in the pictures.

Other then that, I hope you don't mind critiquing on your first sword:
1. Boshi is not meant to touch the shinogi, and should end at the kissaki though you did a very nice turnback on the boshi, just is a little be too far back.
2. Shinogi should have extended a little further into the O'-kissaki, it makes the kissaki look disproportional. Or perhaps it's the angle of the pictures, -shrugs-.
3. Try white vinegar as well for the etching see how you like that. However may I recommend using a hazuya stone, to do nugei* (not sure if that is correct spelling) or hadori (your choice)?
4. Kissaki's where typically polished slightly different depending on the sword school and polishing school. However for the most part they were not satin polished unless they had a cosmetic kissaki put on. Most nihonto at birth wielded a geometric kissaki with physical yokote. The reason why you rarely see antiques with geometric kissaki's and yokotes is because they are old swords that have likely undergone multiple polishing jobs, so their kissaki's are technically gone however are counter polished on, both are traditional and accepted methods however at birth MOST nihonto have physical kissaki's.
5. Burnish the shinogi!! (Mikagi) (or at least I can't tell if it has or hasnt).

Lastly that is an absolutely beauty of a blade. I did take a look at your website, so that appears to be how you made such a nice hamon on your very first sword. :p
 
Thanks.

And thank you Luis G. for a ton of information I just didn't see before. To answer your questions though...

-Yes, the hamon does extend past the hamachi but only a short distance as you can see by the short distance to the filing on the tang. I have to admit that the plan was to go further but I guess I didn't get the heat far enough back into the nakago.

1. First off... THANKS! I didn't even notice this before but yup, looking through my books I can see that the hamon should end in the kissaki. I knew I was uneasy about mine but didn't realize until now what it was... And on the second point, I seem to have a tendency to pull back the turnback of the boshi too far.

2. Could be. I tried to maintain the parallelism but looking at other photos I see what you mean. In my defense, that has got to be the most difficult part of the blade to get right and I am glad I got the physical geometry change at the yokote correct this time. I will get better but each time shows me something more.

3. I will try vinegar some time. I was interested in nugui to create contrast and fear :)p) that I may end up with a full set of stones at some point. But thanks, I think I will pick up a hazuya stone for the next one.

4. My problem here is that I only have books and photos to go on and with lighting and camera angles I see pics like this which led me to believe that the kissaki was somehow made into a satin finish.
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5. I've tried. Bunishing doesn't seem to agree with W2. I have a carbide burnisher for my scrapers but the last time I tried burnishing with it, it ended up causing a gouge that took me 40 mins to fix. Maybe I need a more appropriate tool for the job and will look around at other forums to see what others are using.

Overall, I am please how it is turning out. I only started forging about a year ago and it's a huge project well beyond my experience and knowledge but a welcome challenge. It is both a culmination of my childhood obsession with samurai swords and a new beginning.

So... still playing the waiting game. The samegawa and saya both to dry. So I cleaned up the habaki and did a little decorative work on it. That is a channel but a shallow one.

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And here's the saya. I think the walnut will go nicely with the colouring of the tsuba, menuki, fuchi and kashira. In retrospect, maybe a black rayskin with brown ito would've been nice but I just can't wait to order that in.

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Well as I said for your first sword it's awesome. Definitely a proud work I'd say.

Yes most kissaki's are finished stain because they are cosmetic counterpolished kissaki's however on katana with geometric yokote, the polish is done the same however the boshi is given a extra hazuya stone polish to make it "darker" and to bring out the activities as well as the fine craftsmanship.

From my understanding steel burnishers should be used traditionally (I remember seen a video of a polisher using 3-4 different burnishers, however don't count on me), I have one reference on kinda how it's done, but I'd rather not post it as it is very incomplete imo. I am afraid most polishers simply do not give trade secrets.
 
Hooray, I was looking forward to an update. Looking great; its really neat to see a sword go from raw ingredients to finished product, and it's simply amazing for a first sword. Looking great!
 
Awesome work man! I could never attempt to make a pocketknife, much less a sword. :) This kind of stuff makes you really appreciate the hard work sword smiths had to go through hundreds of years ago (not only today).
 
Beautiful work.

I would love to make one of these some day, but I am afraid I do not posses the patience yet.
 
Tonight I did the Tsuka-maki, the handle wrap. It only took me about 5 hours!!!! You want to talk about needing patience,,... :rolleyes: By the end I was getting a system down so next time won't take nearly as long.

But first... I signed the tang in Katakana... It says "BURANSON"... the closest Japanese equivalent to my last name.. :p:p :D

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I forgot to take pictures of putting on the ray skin but there's not much to show there. Trim it on the grinder then glueing it on.

First I cut the Hishi-gami, the little paper triangles that give form to the wrap.

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Then I proceed.. This first bit took forever as I was learning how to control these paper pieces and strands of ito that just didn't want to go where I wanted them too. You'll notice that it is a center seam for the ray skin. That is the stronger way to do it but also my ray skin was barely big enough to work and would only work in this configuration.

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Getting the hang of it.. only about 1 1/2 hours into this at this point.. :eek:

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THEN!!!! oh sh#t... I was looking it over and I notice this... I got confused and wrapped it twice the same way... it's supposed to alternate..

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And of course it had to be so early on... :mad: I took a break. My wife tried to convince me that it's okay but I knew I would never forgive myself if I knowingly left that there, so I unravelled it and basically started over... :(


But.. then I finished!! :D:D:D Well sort of.. There is some polishing to do on the saya and a little clean up.

Being the first try, I didn't know how much the build up would be with the ray skin and the ito so the handle ended up a little on the fat side.. Luckily I have quite large hands so it feels okay to me but it looks a little big. In retrospect, I think part of the problem was my choice of going cheap on the fittings, ray skin and ito. But now I understand so the next one will be better.

Here's some preliminary pics of it put together. Tomorrow I will take some nicer ones.

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A big thanks to all for following me along on this journey and for your comments and encouragement. It's appreciated!
 
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