Two tanto blades made by University Students

The blades are constructed with the Makuri style (=>steel construction, Makuri)
The outer steel is folded 13 times. Several times of the fold'n welding work are done by man power instead of electric power hammer. Because we have strong helpers who can work with big hammer. They are students from the United States. As a matter of fact, they are from various corners of this planet, those are Lebanon, Venezuela, China, Taiwan and United States.





Movies


Two tanto blades are made out from the steel they forged.

The hardening work (Tempering work)

Another group of the students from the US experienced the hardening work. Thay put clay on the blades.

Then, heat the blade to red hot in the forge, and quenched putting into the water.



Tanto A
The hamon is made of large particles. It looks very nice. Utsuri appears around the starting of hamon as mizukage. What is more, the gradation of steel particles is fantastic. It appears all through the blade. It is a kind of utsuri, but the particles are larger than normal utsuri. Unfortunately it is difficult to see it in the pictures.





Tanto B
The hamon looks wilder than that of A. The gradation of particles on hamon and on ji is very interesting. The large hamon particles spread in the upper half of the blade. It is so-called "Hitatsura" hamon.
Sketch of the hamon





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