Texas Samurai BrisketSword

[Dan O'Connor]

I am not sure how it was I got away from this forum. Lots of travel with work, time on social media and spending the last couple of years developing anti-scale and hamon clay. Anyway, more back into making blades. The name for this is a bit tongue in cheek I admit. Kind of a hit with the local crowd.

Composite picture of one knife/sword.

 

Loosely based off of a type of Yanagi-ba.

18" blade

W2 steel

Single bevel

Hollow back

Saya-European yew and desert ironwood

Hamon

Oiled leather sheath for saya

 

 

 

 

Edited May 5, 2020 by Dan O'Connor

[Dan Hertzson]

Wow, that is really sweet.  I had given up on hamons, now you have me interested in them again.

 

Just how heavy is that thing at 18"?  Do you have to use 2 hands to carve the brisket?

[Dan O'Connor]

[Joël Mercier]

Very nice one Daniel! I'm sure you just need to let the weight of the blade do the work on a single buttery stroke.

 

On a side note, are you, like me, sad that the beautiful hamon is going to get a patina? As much as I like playing with hamons, it saddens me to do one on a kitchen knife because of this .

[Dan O'Connor]

Thanks Dan. Not really that heavy. .190" at the tang and tapers a good bit and the hollow back takes out a goodly amount of weight. The 18" length was more to see if I could do it. 14" is a more manageable length.

[Alan Longmire]

Dan!  Welcome back! 

 

Excellent re-introduction.  I missed you, man.  We need your knowledge of things Japanese and Texan around here!  Not to mention some good brisket...

[Jeremy Blohm]

Beautiful blade and the handle wood is extraordinarily beautiful!!!

 

I'm glad you back Daniel. Your Japanese  style power hammer was the inspiration I needed to build my hammer. 

[Einar]

Wow, that is awesome. 

[Garry Keown]

I love every aspect of this stunner.

[Dan O'Connor]

Thanks Guys.

I get so caught up in the tools, like the hammer I built, as well as the  whys and what fors of bladesmithing/knifemaking, I forget to actually make stuff. Trying to change that. Spent a boatload of time experimenting with hamons.You should see some of the info on the forum. Some surprising revelations. Be prepared to back up your arguments to what I post.  Disclaimer- a lot of it will reference the clays I developed, make and sell, but will most likely apply to whatever you are using now.

[Rob Toneguzzo]

That’s tremendously marvellous work Dan!

[Joël Mercier]

7 hours ago, Dan O'Connor said:

Some surprising revelations. 

I am very much looking forward to that.

[Dan Hertzson]

16 hours ago, Dan O'Connor said:

Not really that heavy. .190" at the tang and tapers a good bit and the hollow back takes out a goodly amount of weight.

 

Very impressive.  Thin, long, curved back, differential quench and not warped (not that I would expect it for you, but if I tried to quench a 18" blade that was around 1/8" thick at the spine I'd certainly get warping.  I'm relatively new to this forum, so don't think I've seen your work before.  Really appreciate you sharing the details.

[Dan O'Connor]

4 minutes ago, Dan Hertzson said:

 

.  Thin, long, curved back, differential quench and not warped (not that I would expect it for you, but if I tried to quench a 18" blade that was around 1/8" thick at the spine I'd certainly get warping. 

 Ha! Warps like a snake-Multiple times!  Warps when I normalize. Warps when I heat treat. Warps when I grind the hollow post heat treat. That is the beauty of the differential hardening and leaving a bit of meat all over to have room to tidy up. Just take it to my smooth, flat sawmakers anvil and carefully bang it straight each time with a 2lb polished and slightly crowned  hammer.

[Dan Hertzson]

Thanks, nice tip.  I've done that with mild/HC San-Mai and Ni-Mai, but was never bold enough to try with simple HC steel.

[steven smith]

the blade profile is really cool, im working on a few more swordy things with a similar shape.

 

the curve in the blade makes it look powerful, it looks larger than 18".

 

i just noticed it has a chisel grind, i know what you mean about all that straightening, differential hardening is the way to go. 

[SteveShimanek]

Glad to see you posting again, Dan....I wondered what you have been up to. Nice work!

[Dan O'Connor]

More detailed view of the hamon

[Joël Mercier]

One of the busiest I've seen . What was your clay thickness at spine?

[Dan O'Connor]

A

12 minutes ago, Joël Mercier said:

One of the busiest I've seen . What was your clay thickness at spine?

Around 1.5mm

[Alan Longmire]

So the white is your anti-scale clay and the gray is your hamon clay?  

[Dan O'Connor]

1 minute ago, Alan Longmire said:

So the white is your anti-scale clay and the gray is your hamon clay?  

That is correct Alan. More red than gray but yes.

[Alan Longmire]

I just pinned your post about it in Tools and Toolmaking, and watched the videos again.  

[Dan O'Connor]

1 hour ago, Alan Longmire said:

I just pinned your post about it in Tools and Toolmaking, and watched the videos again.  

Thanks Alan.

Will update it with better contact info.

[Gerald Boggs]

Dan, those are some beautiful blades, but I thought Texans considered the brisket a waste product.