[Please click on any image for detailed views] |
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Integral Tanto: thirteen and a half inches overall. The handle is a tanned ray-skin same over an integral steel core, overlaid with a wrap of khaki-green parachute cord, finished with several 'turks head' knots. The sheath is shown in full when you click on the image above: it's a welted pouch sheath, hand saddle-stitched and tooled, then dyed in suble blues and blacks. |
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Tanto Blade: For some reason, it proved very hard to get good shots of the cloudy hamon on this tanto blade! The blade is seven and a half inch nagasa, shobu zukuri in 1086 steel, water quenched. It is double-edged, and the hamon lies close to the grind-line top and bottom. |
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Detail image of the forged habaki, with carbon fiber ornament and brass pins (the knife has a kind of steampunk feel that I wanted to accentuate). Pressure fitted, hammer finished, mild steel tsuba guard. |
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I am well into making tantos right now, with my new gas forge. This is a very unusual style for me, but I'm pleased by it - slightly piratical or steampunk, but clean blade lines and a complex temper-line. My focus right now is on the blades, hence I'm experimenting with various handle-wraps in semi-traditional styles. These make perfectly functional (and pleasant textured) grips, but because they're less time consuming, mean I can offer the finished knife for less. To take advantage of this, buy now for £275.
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