As some may or may not know.. I've been exploring quite a bit within Japanese genres. Most of my work has been interpretive.. but I thought this piece may have more relevance here as it is a reproduction of a historical piece.

I have a larger o-tanto project in the works with Marcus Chambers.. but this is an offshoot. I made the kogatana blade for this wonderful kozuka made by Marcus. The kogatana is forged from historical shear steel. I haven't yet finished the polish on the other side.. but will update when I do.There is a nice hamon that shows even on the filed side.

Here is some info from Marcus on his design: "I am riffing on an Mitsuoki Otsuki piece that was originally done in copper and gold. This is mild steel and I'll be using shinchu for the inlay. I have been wanting to make a kozuka of this shape for sometime and decided it was time." The motif is dead reeds.

(I believe Marcus will have this piece available soon for purchase.. contact him via his website for inquiries: http://www.marcuschambersmetalarts.com/)


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beautiful and proffessional work. I like the subtile style of this decorations in japanese art.
I have forged in the past many of japanese sukashi tsuba for katana... It just reminded me of those days :)
thanks for sharing.

That is a beautiful, lovely piece with a subtlety of design that often extraordinarily difficult to portray.

Thank you both for the comments. I was hesitant to post this here.. glad to hear somebody appreciates this kind of work. Having begun the process of learning Japanese engraving myself.. I'm humbled to have this piece in my possession briefly.

In case people are not aware.. the dead reeds in this are physically inlayed into the iron... there is no solder or anything other than pressure holding them in place. It is very exacting work...

Beautifull and really interesting to see other techniques

Really neat work. Eastern works are not really my thing but that one really speaks in some way. Nicely done.

Thank you guys....

Here is an updated picture showing the other side of the blade with hamon:

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Marcus has this piece up for sale now:


[url]http://www.marcuschambersmetalarts.com/#!available-work/c1kd1[/url]