Fogarty

Yikes! sorry about that Brian.................. Dan, do you have your experiences working with the Yoshihara brothers written up anywhere? I would love to hear the details on that and whatever you were able to take away from it all. MAybe on Don Foggs forum? or your website? Thanks! Chuck Fogarty

Hi Dan, The pics of your forge build were really nice! I hope to see more of it as it goes along. Great stuff! I hope your new start and new commitment to the craft ends up with some fantastic blades bieng forged. I am a bladesmith who is working on Japanese style blades right now. Im forging them out of W-2 round bar that I bought a bunch of from Don Hanson, that steel is just incredible for hamon formation. I use a gas forge because Im disabled and it is much more convienient to work with. Don Foggs forum is one of the coolest places on the internet. Here lately Ive been thinking about forging some tantos or small waks out of 5160. This steel seems to have a bad rep for sword forging but for even large working knives it is the bomb. As a deep hardening alloy steel it will only show a simple hardening line. But if you do it in the style of a suguha hamon, maybe even clay coated so the hardening line would somewhat follow the clay I think it would turn out pretty good and if you give it the right number of narrow temp band thermal cycles so that you get that nice carbide banding you can even get it to look like it has a straight grained hada (maybe) on the unhardened portion. It would make a great user or martial arts knife that would stand up to huge amounts of abuse and still look really cool. I think this fits in with your idea of the non traditional but with levels of nuance that put it above a stock removal blade or one that has been quickly and simply forged. Here recently I just made my first sen and I have found so many uses for it. An incredible tool that makes shaping blades easy as pie. Using a sen is way better than draw filing for me. The Japanese bladesmiths never had the division of labor we had in the west to make complex tools like files so they made something easier to make and easier to use too! Chuck Fogarty

I think for that third blade I posted it might be a good idea for me to try and identify the text that goes with that particular oshigata and put it up on the translation section and maybe it will have the form name listed. Chuck Fogarty

Heh, Arkansaka toothpick, that is a good one! I will have to remember that. Carlo, you may very well be correct about the mounts. I wasnt thinking about the tsuka not being wrapped. Good catch there. Just goes to show all the different directions these things can take you in. Thanks for the observations. I disagree about it being too large a cross section to penetrate hardened leather, it looks perfect for that to me. For metal armor I think the tip would actually need to be wider and shorter, like a bodkin tip on a english arrow. If you are trying to pierce chainmail armor then you want a long skinny tip like the tip on a algerian flyss that can get between and bust the links. Chuck Fogarty

The other blade that looks like a naginata would be a good naginata except the tang is not nearly long enough to be a pole arm. What a puzzle! Chuck Fogarty

Brian, thanks for the reply. I could be really wrong here, but I dont think that blade is a throwing blade. If it is the same blade that Eric posted the pics of in the mounts (and to me it appears to be the same blade), I think the mounts are the key here. They are in Aikuchu (spelling?) mounts meant for wearing with armor. My guess is that that blade is made for piercing through armor. It follows design elements of armor piercing blades Ive seen from many different cultures. The triangular shaped front is perfect for punching through laquered armor, but would be too long(probably) for punching through metal armor. The much thinner back means no drag and a really quick stab once you get past the armor. Chuck Fogarty

Thanks for the replies everyone. We dont seem to be any closer to naming these forms, though. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to the third one that I posted? Carlo, Im not trying to beat anyone, some of these guys are so good it would hard to try to "beat" them anyway, we are all just following our own paths as smiths. Rick Barrett, Howard Clark, John Smith, Walter Sorrells and many others to numerous to mention are all fantastic smiths who work primarily in the Japanese style. Some of these guys have inspired me to make these types of blades, sure, but I have been bladesmithing for 9 years now and I have made all sorts of knives. One thing I have never done yet is a fantasy knife though, I prefer to do reproductions of historic blades and I also like to make modern working knives. I really prefer to do reproductions of unusual blades that not that many people have done before. There are more than enough real historic blades out there to reproduce, no fantasy needed. In order to do real historical work though, you have to do a lot of studying and question asking from the experts just like you do if you are collecting nihonto and that is why I am here asking these questions. The first two blades are unknown to me personally, they just came up in a discussion and I thought here would be the best place to ID them. The third blade I traced straight out of a oshigata book of shinto blades so I know for a fact that it was a shinto era nihonto. I would appreciate any help in naming these blade forms Thanks. Chuck Fogarty

Thanks for the reply Eric! I looked at that other post and that looks like the same blade! Very bizzare shape there. But in a good wayLOL Chuck Fogarty

Thanks for the replies everyone. The reason I think these are nihonto is that they are very well made and if they were modern someone would be claiming them. They certainly could be modern made in Japan though. How about that 3rd pic I posted? Anyone know what this might be called? It looks like a speedboat to me. I traced that directly out of a oshigata book of Shinto blades which unfortunately I have no translation for. We were wondering what the forms were called because we thought they looked interesting and might possibly want to copy them but if any of us did copy them we would need to know what to call them when we sell them. As knifemakers we are mostly interested in the more unusual blade forms just because they are more interesting to make. Everyone makes Hira and Shinogi blades but a lot less people make any shobu or moroha or unokubi etc. Chuck Fogarty

Im sorry I didnt make this clear, but these are pictures of nihonto, not something someone made recently. I think the guy said that these pics came off of a nihonto auction site. Chuck Fogarty

How about this one? Chuck Fogarty

Hi Everyone, Got these two pics from a knifemaking forum and nobody there knew what these blade forms were, so I thought I would ask here. Anyone with any info about what these forms are called please help. Thanks Chuck Fogarty

Thanks for the info Chuck Fogarty

Hi All, Im Chuck Fogarty and I just became a member of the board here. Barry asked this question on my behalf before I knew about this board. One other question. Is this book translated anywhere? Thanks Chuck Fogarty