Dha dah dao: Neo-tribal bush sword daisho

This should be playing in the background:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuB6xTi8UXU

This is a pair of dha that I made a little while back. They are based on southeast Asian dha, which have a vaguely similar profile to katana, though with very different construction.



Both of these have integral socket handles, which are not traditional on dha (nothing I do is traditional, really). Handles are wrapped in hemp, with cotton cord Turk's head knots, sealed in black shellac. Both of them have spines averaging 1/8" thick.

The big one has an overall length of 27 5/8", a blade length of 19", a three-strand Turk's head knot at the blade end of the handle and a two-strand at the butt end.



The little one has an overall length of 19 3/8", a blade length of 12 3/4", and two-strand Turk's head knots fore and aft.



These two are quite fun. I'm really pleased with them. Here's Tobin Nieto, with whom I share a table at the local monthly gun show, doing his best Chinese demon impersonations with them. :D

Primal utility

I had a fellow stop by my table at the last gun show who liked a couple of knives I had for sale, but wanted something between the two. I wrote down the details of what he wanted and his contact information and told him I'd get started on it Monday. A couple of weeks later, he picked it up, quite pleased with the outcome.

Approximately 4" blade forged from 3/4" round 5160 bar, triple normalized, filed primary bevel, triple quenched, triple tempered, hemp cord main wrap, cotton cord two strand Turk's head knot, amber shellac sealer, shaving sharp.

Scavenger blade: bush tanto

I've been busy lately but haven't put up many pics of what I've been doing. I feel like I'm falling behind! :)

This was one I made a while back. It's what I term a "scavenger blade", a stock removal blade that is made from a plow disk from my family's farm. The blade was cut from the disk, flattened out, the profile cleaned up, and then it was normalized multiple times to make sure it didn't try to return to its previous curved cross section. Then the bevels were ground in and it was heat treated.

The blade is 8" long and the overall length is 13 1/8", with a spine thickness of approximately 1/8". The handle has full-length leather slabs underneath a hemp cord wrap and a triple strand Turk's head knot in black cotton, all sealed with amber shellac. I think of this as a "bush tanto", though a couple of people have commented that they think it would make a good barbecue slicer. The texture on the blade comes from rust pitting on the plow disk from years of sitting under live oak leaves.



I tried to figure out how to get a stock removal wakizashi out of a plow disk but wasn't able to. :D

Quasi-khopesh short bush sword

I didn't have a khopesh in mind when I began this, but that's the closest existant pattern to what I ended up with. I like the timeless quality of this one; I could equally see it being weilded by Gilgamesh to hew down the cedars or in the hands of one of the "chig" aliens in Space: Above and Beyond.

Forged spring steel, integral socket handle, triple hardened in veggie oil, triple tempered. The back edge of the clip is fully sharpened. Handle wrapped in hmep with cottorn double Turk's head knots all sealed in black shellac. Blade is 12", overall length is 18 1/2".

The Wasteland Crow Project: Barong and Symbiote

Following the first Wasteland Crow Project collaboration between myself and Noah Legel of Wasteland Leatherwork some time back, we planned to do more. This was the second project I forged for that, to be sent to him at the same time as a third project for him to do the leatherworking portion. The barong and symbiote both have integral socket handles, false edges, and raised clips, with cotton cord handle wraps sealed with black shellac. The symbiote is loosely based on balisong blade profiles I have seen.













The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley, or so I've heard.

The barong and symbiote, after sitting in my shop for over a year waiting on the other project which suffered multiple setbacks, were purchased by a fellow who saw the pictures on the Wasteland Crow Project Blog. So I took them out of the display case, did some maintenance, made sure they were both shaving sharp, and shipped 'em off to Noah to do his magic.

Here's what they looked like right before getting packed away:



I eagerly anticipate seeing what Noah comes up with.