Wakizashi in the works

Benr.t

Benr.t

Well-Known Member
Hey guys! I am working on a new wakizashi design and I figured I would put up a few pics of the build along the way. This one is a bit different than my other waki. With it's narrower/lighter blade it is less chopper and more battle blade. Steel is .290" Cpm 3v, OAL is a about 22.5" and the blade is just over 14".


Here is a video showing me starting the fuller on one side of the blade. I take about .005" a pass for roughing and finish passes are about .002". This is all done manually. :)


[video=youtube;dNR319dxYc0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNR319dxYc0[/video]


Here is the finished fuller......





After I finish profiling the blade, I mill in my signature tapered fuller in the spine.





The finished profile, ready to grind.


 
Ben,

This is a freaking beast and beautiful at the same time. Can't wait to see more of it.

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I truly believe you can make anything you set your mind to, Ben. I cannot wait to see the end product because I know it will be outstanding.
 
Thanks guys!!

Sorry I didn't take more pics, but here is the blade ground.








Doing the pre HT hand sanding. I like to do this on 3V saves me from finding a deep scratch after it is hardened. Which is stupid hard to sand out post HT.





Seriously one of the best things to me is building a sword that's a tribute to ancient design, out of uber modern steel, and having it develop sori while plate quenching. Such a full circle thing for me.


This pic is post hardening and ready to go into LN.


 
Ok, back at it today!


Here is the blade after I blasted and blued the fuller and flats.





Hammered copper Menuki and seppa. Also the titanium tsuba. I give it an orange peel texture after I fit it up to the tang.
I thought I got a picture of just the finished fittings, but apparently I didn't. I'll show pics on the finished blade.





I spent all afternoon doing this! Hand sanding 14" of 3V is not fun!





And the finished blade.....


[video=youtube;a70sxNXG9yk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a70sxNXG9yk[/video]


Here are the fittings and the persuaders I use to drive them in place. :cool:





The blade clamped in my vise ready to drive on the fittings.





More tomorrow....
 
Just finished this guy up. Here are the rest of the pics.


Here the Ti Tsuba and copper seppa are pressed on it their final resting place.





I use hard neoprene underneath the wraps on my Waki and tanto. It fills out the grip and adds nice shock (vibration) resistance when cutting. And unlike leather or wood it wont ever rot. : )





The finished hemp under wrap.





High tech menuki holding devices.





Since I only have two hands and no photographer, I don't have any middle of the wrap pics. But here I am tying the finishing knot. Bobbi pins are extremely useful here.





Here is the handle after the epoxy is applied. I use west systems G/flex for this. I brush it on pretty thick, it will soak in completely on the wrap and I will clean up the menuki and Tsuba.







Finished pics to come......
 
Here are the finished pics.......Swords don't fit in my light tent, so I snapped some outside pics.























 
Amazing work. I love seeing the awesome blades your making through Instagram. Great stuff.

John

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