I'm Back! Well Nearly...

[Stirring Moose]

Hi everyone! Been a long while since I've visited the Forum as I've not been doing any jewellery work recently. Been making some motorcycles look very lovely but that's not entirely relevant here...!

I've been looking around at what everyone as been up to and think I can safely say the standard hasn't dropped at all during my absence; some mighty impressive stuff on here!

Nearest I've got to actual jewellery of late is the little project shown below. It's a martial arts knife called a tanto. The blade is made in aluminium and is deliberately not fully sharpened as it is only intended as a training aid rather than a lethal weapon. I made the blade, handle and sheath and then hand engraved the blade with the kanji characters for "shuhari", a martial arts concept describing the stages of learning up to full mastery. Apologies for this being a bit left-field for this forum but it's the best I can offer at the moment. Few more jewellery jobs on the horizon though so will keep you all posted.









S.M.

[CJ57]

Welcome back. It's not left field, still a rather smart piece of metal smithing. Is the shape specific to the martial art or your own interpretation and design?

[mizgeorge]

I think that's very elegant indeed. What type of wood have you used?

I also think you're very brave to engrave in an non-native tongue. I once made an atrocious (and rather rude) mistake in Russian which wasn't discovered by my proofreader until after it had been published in a magazine with a pretty substantial readership...

[Dennis]

Lovely work really welcome here.

George rude? Never. Dennis.

[ajda]

Beautiful! I love the clean lines, the purity and simplicity - everything that's most appealing about Japanese culture. I did Aikido for a short while many years ago (other than that never really got into martial arts), taught by a friend who had a fabulous collection of Japanese swords. No left-field apology needed as far as I'm concerned. I'd love to see more of this sort of thing, maybe a few motorcycles too...? I've not been active long on this forum, so it's good to "meet" you and I look forward to more.
Alan

[Stirring Moose]

First up, thanks for the kind comments everyone. Much appreciated as ever.

Moving on, I see I have questions to answer so will attempt them in order:

Caroline, the shape is in fact a reasonably close copy of an existing tanto used in karate as that is what the client asked for. I believe, however, that there is a fair amount of variation permissible within the definition of a tanto so there is scope for design and interpretation should one wish to do so.

George, the wood used is actually just plain old oak. To be absolutely correct, it should be a specific Japanese wood (the name of which temporarily escapes me) which I tried to source but which is virtually impossible to obtain over here. The oak is a reasonable visual match, however, and is left unstained but coated in a clear satin varnish. On the subject of engraving the kanji and the associated potential pratfalls, I had two unfair advantages. One was that the client has a Japanese friend who could check the design, the second was that my best mate has very conveniently just married a Japanese lady who could check it a second time. Thus the design was well vetted before any gravers got near any metal!

Alan, I'm never entirely sure what's coming next so can't really promise anything but I'll post up anything I think people might like to see I get mixed up in all sorts, from relatively "standard" jewellery, through projects like this and onto custom bikes and race cars. Can't be doing with boredom lol!

S.M.

[ps_bond]

George, the wood used is actually just plain old oak. To be absolutely correct, it should be a specific Japanese wood (the name of which temporarily escapes me) which I tried to source but which is virtually impossible to obtain over here.

Honoki is the traditional wood - it's one of the magnolia family and, as you say, a sod to source over here. A reasonable substitute is tulipwood - liriodendron tulipifera. Some sawmills carry it; it's a close, straight grain with very low tannin content (as opposed to oak - which should never be used as a sheath for steel due to the formation of iron tannate). Ford Hallam's site, followingtheironbrush.org has a lot of relevant info there.

A few years each of judo, aikido, ju jitsu, aikido again and just recently restarted ju jitsu after a lengthy absence. I don't bounce quite as well as I used to

[Stirring Moose]

Interesting stuff there Peter, thanks for that. As I've said, it's totally up in the air whether I get mixed up in this kind of thing again or not, but your info will definitely be added to the Stirring Moose Big Book of Stuff for future reference just in case

S.M.

[caroleallen]

That knife is so elegant. Love it.

[ps_bond]

It is - the point would bother me on the mat though, despite it being a blunt practice blade. How did you shape the habaki to the blade?