WIP polish 2 new blades

bubba-san

bubba-san

Well-Known Member
These are 2 blades I forged over the weekend when Doug Southerland came to visit me Sunday and monday tanto is 9260 and bowie is W-1 .
I hope to start polishing them tomorrow . I will start with arato water stone , and graduate to Binsue -do stone for more refinement .

I am beat tonight . No cracks or bends so far , hamon is looking OK so far , wish me luck I dont find any cracks , OL is approx 16" on each piece.... Bubba
 
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good luck bubba. Spray a little wd40 on your elbow. Can you show us a pic of the stone in action?
 
Bubba,
Can you show the stones you're using as well as the other Japanese Water stones you use for sharpening and everything else they're used for?
I love the Japanese way of Blade making, not that I will ever do it, I'm doing good the way I am, their way is hard on an old mans body...not that I'm all the old....just my body!

I recently watched a video on You Tube of Jesus Hernandez, and (a friend of his, last name was Sorrel, I think) it showed how they made their Tama Hagane, it was AMAZING!!! Totally mind blowing, maybe one day if I could find someone to partner up with, kinda share the expenses as well as the steel, maybe I could give it a try. A while back I watched a show that used to come on Discovery,(I think the name was Weapon Masters) (I think), had this wirey little fellow that did all the hard work, he was the machinist/inventor/comic relief, while the older fella was the historian, and gathered info on what ever they were going to build, they did one show on the Samrui sword, actually went to Japan and watched as they had the blooms coming out of the foundry, (I'm not as up on Japanese terminology as you are, sorry.) It was awesome to be able to be that close to the process, they even showed how they selected the steel for the edge and the spine. When I was in the Marines, I spent 6 months in Japan, part of it in Okinawa, and the rest on the main land, Mt. Fuji and Yakuska. My absolute favorite country, I went to and I've been to several others, that were nice, and pretty, Japan held a mystique about it, the history, culture, everything about was awe inspiring. OK, enough tripping down memory lane!

Another thing Bubba, have you seen the stones in Japanese Wood Worker? If not, their web site is japanesewoodworker.com, I think, I'd have to check to be sure, but they have water stones, and I recently found out they have Japanese forging hammers, their web site isn't the easiest to navigate, you really have to keep looking at the different Titles of the different catergories, there are different things in all of them, excellent site once you can find your way around.

Last question, where is the best place to get the stones you use? I know they aren't cheap, so where have you found the best price. I've been quietly admiring your work for a while, you really do make some nice blades, the swords, blow me away, keeping one straight? My elbows would be blown out if I tried to hand sand that length, and it would take me months! Once I get A LOT better I may give one a try,......maybe, that's as close to a commitment as I'll go, loving the style of the blades and really going whole hog into them are 2 different things. I'll stick to admiring them right now, when the time is right and I'm ready to give it an honest attempt, I'll know! Until then, you keep on making these beauties!!!! Thanks, Rex
 
Sure thing Rex , I would be honored to make some steel with you sometime , We made a few blooms last year that turned out pretty good . The arato and binsue stones are the first 2 stones in the polishing process, and the most affordable , here is where I get mine .http://www.namikawa-ltd.co.jp/cgi-bin/item_e.cgi?cate=9&no=22 . You can view the stones here , when I polish the blades You will see a few of them , will post soon . 10,000 yen is a 100$ bucks if that helps . Namikawa has the good authentic stuff , although some japanese smiths are starting to use ceramic stones because of scarcity of mined ones . they also have fittings and just about any thing to do with japanese bladesmithing and construction. I lived in yokosuka for a few years , thats where I became interested in japanese weapons and blades . Good port to buy steel. Got my first sword there , and received my initial training .
Know what you mean about hard on ol mans body ! do I .I have a few shoulder problems . I have all kinds of links to everything Japanese .Just ask me what you might need . Japanese woodworkers has some nice hammers ,that are reasonable .
Keeping them blades straight is a matter of hitting steel the same amount of times on each side continually . Then you can also use big wooden mallet to take out too much curve . Polishing is a physical thing , my old butt gets sore all the time . A good hot shower always helps that . If you have trouble navigating japanese site let me know , speak some japanese from living there , although I am getting rusty. Thanks for the kind comments about my work , certainly appreciate it , Take care ......... Bubba
 
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So you lived in Yokosuka? When were you there? I'm guessing you were a squid!!!!??? No offense, being a Jarhead has it's draw backs as well, when I was there that Naval Base was a fine place, with an awesome E-club, if you were in the Navy, I would assume you were on a ship, there were some awesome ships ported there, the most memorable for me was the USS Midway, I was there and actually had a piece of the flight deck when they had her in dry dock doing upgrades, one was stripping the wooded deck off and replacing it with steel, it blew me away that in the 80's they were still using a wooded deck! I was there in there in 85' to 86', probably the best time of my life! Kinda weird, but my way of rating countries was based on the food, while Norway was beautiful and tad bit cool, the women were OMG beautiful, their food SUCKED!!!! Their idea of seasonings was salt! And they didn't even have pepper, much less anything else resembling an herb. After being the field for a month, and a 2 week "effects", what they called the actual war game where we were pitted against the British Royal Marines, once I got to civilization and an actual bed, I wanted a steak! Went to find one and all I could find was a Reindeer steak, of course I wanted mushroom gravy, the best they could come up with was Asparagus sauce! It satisfied my need for a good meal but it wasn't nothing like a hot plate of shrimp Yakisoba, with squid! Japan was awesome, Okinawa, while very Americanized still had some areas that were unaffected, they were few areas like that, mostly on the North end of the island, where we weren't very welcome. Unless we were training in the jungle, which we only went as a unit. Nice to meet someone that has chewed some of the same dirt as I have, let me know when you were there, it'd be a hoot if we were there at the same time, be a bigger hoot if we knew each other, of course that would be a mighty SMALL world there!

Getting together to make the Tama Hagane would be awesome, the logistics would be a nightmare! You being in Missouri and me being in Alabama, that's a big drive there. The smelt would take about 3 days, did you, by chance look up that video of Jesus Hernandez? His set-up was very interesting, it was a vertical foundry, I think they used charcoal to fire it, I'd have to look at it again, but I'm sure of it being vertical. It would be cool!

BTW, can you get any of the Walnut Burl that Don Hanson gets? Some I got from him was flaming crotch walnut, freakin AWESOME stuff! Absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! Thanks Bud, let me know about the dates you were over there, and keep in touch, Rex
 
I was there several times during Vietnam for R&R 1964 - 1968 , after the war over in 75 " was stationed there for about 11years total , yep I was a squid . was also stationed at danang for about 13 months, was in 1st corps with some Jars . I had to wear marine uniform because they didnt want me to look different . Was also GFS at Haiphong north of dmz about 60 miles from Hanoi . seen plenty action , we were first US ship fired on by North Vietnam shore batteries in the vietnam War , we served with the Uss Turner Joy and figured in the tonkin gulf resolution. Here is a link for different types of polishing stones and a tutorial for them http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/togi,process.html check it out lots of info ..... Bubba
 
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Bubba,
First of all, I want to THANK YOU for your service during the Vietnam War, the most thankless war our warriors ever participated in. The reception you guys got when returning was CRIMINAL!!!! Sickening to me that these sorry *(*(&((*^(*, that's the best I can do when I think of how you all were treated when y'all came home, the ones that were lucky enough that is. What's ironic is that the service men were over there were fighting for their right to treat y'all the way they did! I don't know if any of them feel any shame for their actions in retrospect, but I hope they do. They deserve criminal charges, but freedom is being free, and free speech is part of it, still distgusting as far as I'm concerned. So I say, ''THANK YOU for your sacrifice, for your service and for allowing the rest of us to live the American dream!''

So which base were you stationed at? Was it Okinawa? Or the mainland? On Okinawa, I was at Camp Schawb, the northern most base, except for NTA,( Nothern training Area) which was all jungle. I have to say it's an honor to make friends with you, I hold Vietnam Vets in the highest esteem, I guess because my Platoon Seargent was a vet, and I admired him a lot, held so much respect for him, he left an eternal impression on me.

I'll check out the links, when I get home, thanks for sending them, Rex
 
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