MJDForge

Price drop to $85 shipped for quick sale

Yanagiba in 1095, top part if the handle is ebony, bottom part is walnut. Overall length is 11 1/2", cutting edge is 6". Designed for right handed use. Asking $125 shipped. If interested, email me at archangel.blades@gmail.com

Emiliano, I actually agree with you halfway about the choil on a lines standpoint, although keeping ergonomics and safety in mind, the choil ended up being the choice to go with. I did a couple of experimental models leading up to this final design (although I unfortunately don't have any pictures) and the first one didn't have a choil. The result was that I nearly cut myself while trying to use it, so the second and final versions had a choil. The choil was actually a toss-up for lines in the design, because I like the kind of interruption of the lines a choil gives. It's to me kind of like saying "okay, here's the blade, and here's the handle." I personally liked it both ways.

Thank you very much for the input, it's very helpful. Also, if anyone wanted to borrow the handle construction method, I would be more than flattered. As this forum always has been, it is a place for sharing techniques and learning as much as showing off.

John, these are super simple to put together. The only thing that you really have to worry about clearances on is the front piece, which you slot just like you would any bolster or guard. The only thing I used to hold them together was two-part epoxy. I put a lot on the tang, and then I filled the cavities in the wood as much as I could. I drilled the cavities for the tang quite a bit oversized. The steel was 1/8" stock, and I drilled the cavities with a 3/16" bit, and just used it as a milling bit to clear out the webbing in between. I pushed them down on top of each other, and squeezed the excess epoxy out the sides. After I push it on, I gently tap the base of the handle (I clamp the blade upright in a vise) with a rubber mallet until it stops moving. It's super important to be gentle with the taps, especially when you're using a very straight-grained wood as the front piece.

I made this one a while ago, and I totally forgot to post it. The design is basically an extended version of the knives I made as groomsmen's gifts for a friend's wedding. The steel on this one is again 1075, and the handle is, starting from the layer nearest the blade, cherry, maple, and bloodwood. I'm getting better at making these, although the handle for this one didn't come out quite like I wanted it to. It ended up thinner than I would have liked due to the holes I drilled in the maple being just a little bit lopsided. The customer was very happy with it, though, and I guess that's what really counts. I left some of the scale marks in from heat treatment, and the finish is a high satin.

The reason I say this is my last blade for a while is that I am currently in the process of building a new shop. I'm making good progress there, though, so I expect to be back up and running again by December. I poured the anvil pad yesterday, which was an important milestone. Lots of excitement there.

I am still looking for a name for this design, so if you have any ideas, I would appreciate the input.

Without further ado, though, here are the pictures:

A friend recently asked me to make him a set of six knives for gifts to his groomsmen at his upcoming wedding. He wanted knives that were obviously a set, but also distinct in themselves. I thought this would be a pretty interesting challenge, so I decided to do it. What I decided to do was make the blades very nearly identical, and use the handles to give the knives individual character. The blades are all the same shape, but half of them have a satin polish and a very shallow false edge, while the other half have the "gator skin" texture from heat treatment left on. The steel for these is Admiral 1075/1080 CRA, starting stock was 1/8 x 1", tempered for two hours at 375F. Blade length is just under 3", overall length is around 8". I forgot to measure them before I sent them out, unfortunately (oops :x) All of the blades are sealed with tung oil and finished to 000 steel wool. The rest of the information is best conveyed through pictures, so here they are:

All of the handle materials will be listed from bolster down. This one is cherry, maple, and cedar.

This one is bamboo, mahogany, and cedar.

This one is cherry, cedar, and oak.

This one is bamboo, cultured marble, and cedar.

This one is bamboo, maple, and cherry.

This one is cherry, bloodwood, and cedar. I think it's kind of funny how red the cherry looks in all the other knives, but when you put it next to the bloodwood it looks positively brown.

These were really fun to make, and I think I'm going to make them available as regular items. Any thoughts on design tweaks/pricing? I know this isn't the forum to ask about it, but I mostly wanted to show them off, the other bit was just an aside.

SOLD

Price drop to $35 shipped to US lower 48

Price change to $45 shipped to lower 48

price drop to $50 because that just makes more sense.

This is a piece I made for myself but decided to sell because I need the money more. The steel is 5160 heat-colored to a deep gold color (400F temper). Overall length is just over 8", with a 3" blade. This is forged from a single piece of steel with the forge marks left in the handle, as well as one small one in the right side of the blade. The handle although being forged from the same piece is actually quite comfortable and offers excellent control in kitchen applications.

Asking price is $60 plus shipping, negotiable.

I'm willing to make more of these on by request, different blade lengths available, pricing negotiable.

Offers to be sent to my email at archangel.knives@gmail.com

I did something a little bit different from the usual the other day, and finally got it finished and photographed today. You may have noticed that I've slowed down on production over the past few weeks, and that's because we've been down a man at work. That's ending in the next couple of weeks, though, so I'll be back in the forge a lot more.

Anyway, on to the blade. The steel is 5160, and the total length is about six inches. I did a heat color on this to protect it from rust and also because it looks sweet as hell. Not much to tell about this one, really. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

I also include this as kind of a peak behind the curtain on how I do some of my pictures. A towel on top of an ironing board, with a Tums bottle providing support. Pretty simple, but with the two lights and the mirror it works very well.

WOW. That was incredibly helpful, Dave. I'm not only incredibly grateful for the information, but also honored to have you comment on my thread. Steven, thanks for the advice. I may or may not continue with the mokume. I'll likely be buying some copper from Don as mentioned above, but until then I'm focusing on the blade. This will likely see some new development soon.

I think actually what I'm going to do is straighten the blade, which I'm still able to do because I forged the bevels rather thick. I'm probably going to do something similar in style to a medieval backsword, although shorter than was typical. I'm most likely going to do an s guard, similar to the one in the picture below. I prefer straight swords over curved swords in both terms of aesthetics and handling, so that's what I'm going to go with. Thanks for the input, it made me explore some new information which led to tangents.

It is khopesh-ish, now that you mention it. Not by design, I just ran out of coal.

I like the idea of a steel butt plate, but I think attaching it might be a little bit iffy. I think a better option would be some carving or embellishment of some kind on the butt.

I love this piece and I can't really put my finger on what exactly it is about it. But I think my favorite part is the way the handle lines flow, and especially toward the guard. Very nice.

Well, bad news on this one. Two things caused radical design changes on this one. The first is that there just wasn't nearly as much material here as I thought there was, and the second is that I burned the tip four times and had to cut a total of two and a half inches (6 cm) off. I guess this comes from switching from charcoal to coal. So, the blade is going to end up being a lot closer to a wakizashi in shape, but the hilt will be very much different. The blade length on this is about 20" or 50 cm, and overall is about 26" or 66 cm. I was tempted several times to cut this in half and do two big knives, but I had decided I was going to make a sword with this and so I shall. If anyone has some design advice for the hilt, I would greatly appreciate it. But, without further ado, here's some pictures:

a mid forging picture:

And this is how it looks now. The recurve is not part of the final design, I just haven't forged the bevels for that section yet. I ran out of fuel while I was forging out the tang.

This little bugger popped after I took this picture. It hurts enough to have kept me out of the forge entirely today (all of these pictures are from yesterday)

This is what keeps me going in the 99 degree heat (mid thirties for anyone who doesn't live in the US) while standing next to a coal fire:

And finally a bit of beauty that revealed itself while I was working:

I probably won't get back in the shop tomorrow, and I definitely won't be able to over the weekend. So, hopefully, I'll be able to get some more fuel and work on this at the beginning of next week. Thanks for looking, and if you have any design advice on the I would definitely appreciate it.

Well, I've gotten the pre-heat treatment polish done, so now I just need to mix up some clay to do a hamon. One thing I'm not sure of, though, is the shape the base of the blade needs to be (sorry, I'm not up on my Japanese blade terminology). That's one of the only things I'm really holding off on heat treatment for. So, if anyone has some useful diagrams or anything they'd like to post or link to, I would appreciate it greatly. Anyway, here's a picture of the finish that's on it, as well as a picture of the current geometry of the base of the blade.

I actually thought the first picture was after you had cleaned it up some. Your forging lines are incredible!

I actually caught my mistake this morning. I was a bit groggy last night when posting, and somehow misspelled it every time I typed it. I shouldn't try to do things that require thinking late at night, I guess. Thanks for the info, Alan, and I'm really not sure what to call it. I'm not really using any historical precedent, but the blade's going to be very seax-like and the hilt will be very much like a bastard sword. I'm hoping, although it's highly unlikely, that I can get this finished by the end of the month as kind of a birthday present to me. But, anyway, I did finish up a concept sketch of the hilt at least. And so, here it is, as promised.

Very nice. I especially like the filework on the spine. It's simple and elegant.

So, I got in the forge today and felt a little bit froggy. So I picked up a rather large piece of 1075 that I had lying around and decided that I saw a langsaex hidden inside. Only one picture so far, and a concept sketch will come a little bit later because I haven't quite decided what to do with the hilt. I just picked up the steel and said "what the hell, let's make a sword." As is fairly typical with my projects, the planning will come after the project has begun. I'll be doing some research tonight, and may have some concept sketches by tomorrow. The reason I'm calling it a bastard saex is that It's going to be a marriage of styles between a bastard sword and a langsaex, with a narrower blade than is typical on historical saexes, as well as a crossguard, hilt, and pommel similar to a medieval bastard sword. Anyway, here's the one picture:

Yeah, scrap yards are scarce around here, though. I may end up making some mokume for it, since nickels are... Well... A nickle each. It's an entirely new area for me, though, so it will require a lot of growth.

Thanks for the advice, Scott. My biggest concern with the habaki is material costs, really. I'll keep that in mind, though. Most likely, this will sit as a bare blade for a while until I decide to make fittings for it.