All Blog Entries

  1. Waiting for swords is horrendously agonizing.

    Waiting sucks. I have a sword on the way, in the mail, and I got it with a tracking number. The thing about the tracking number...it's been four days since the last update, which says that it's been accepted at the senders post off ice. ...That's it. From four days ago. FOUR DAYS! It's driving me nuts! I mean, come on, USPS! Throw me a bone, here!

    Really, though...I suppose it's not their fault. They're busy and all, so I have to give them some slack...but still. It sucks. I don't ...
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  2. Menuki?!

    Elvis?!

    Wait...no. It was menuki.

    Menuki are those pretty little things under the wrap on Japanese swords. They come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and a good number of materials (Though it's almost always metal of some sort; iron, steel, copper, silver, shakudo, shibuchi, etc.). Sometimes they're animals, sometimes they're plants, sometimes they're people, sometimes they're things like mon (crests), weapons, buildings, or simple shapes.

    Now that we have ...
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  3. Samegawa is NOT Manta!

    Why would it be manta?

    The manta ray (Manta birostris) is an extremely large, open water ray that enjoys long swims near reefs, warm sunshine, eating plankton, and cuddling puppies. They are currently listed as "Near Threatened" and are not often captured.

    While they are HUGE, their nodes are small. Not really the most desirable thing for samegawa, small nodes. Not only that, compare the number of mantas that are even sighted, let alone caught, to the number ...
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  4. How Sharp is too sharp?

    Everyone likes sharp swords! Everyone wants their sword even sharper! The sharper the sword, the better it cuts! Razor sharp!

    ...Something that so many people overlook is the fact that a blade CAN be too sharp. The key in making a sword that will last is having an edge geometry that is sharp, but not too sharp. It needs reinforcement. Sure, a razor blade can cut something soft with a lot less effort than an axe, but if you take into account that not everything that is cut is soft, ...
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  5. Hamon Width and Breaking?

    Okay, so I was doing some research a while ago and ran across an article. I just remembered it and managed to find it again, and it continues to press buttons and flip switches in my mind. It relays in some detail some of the findings of a man named Suishinshi Masahide. He is known as THE sword smith who brought around the Shinshinto period of sword making. Rather than focusing on the wide, pretty, flashy hamon that many liked during the earlier Edo period, he re-invented his sword smithing to focus ...
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