[Harlan Hastings]

Here's a picture of a little project I started some time ago. Tanto blade by Randal Graham, habaki (shakudo) by Patrick Hastings, and polish/shirasaya by Keith Larman.

[Keith Larman]

I really need to take a good photo of that habaki Patrick made for you. I'll try to do that today before I ship the piece. Patrick made the habaki of solid shakudo. What was cool is that he textured the habaki just like the filework on the tanto in the shinogi-ji. A really nice touch. And Patrick's "homemade" shakudo is amazingly rich and deep. For those who don't know, shakudo is an alloy of copper and gold. When aged correctly the surface forms a deep purplish/black patina. The Japanese were masters of altering alloys to create coloration in the patina to preserve materials. Since the environment was so wet and hot, they chose to patinate things (except for the blade of course) to preserve them. So they would literally work with materials knowing how they would oxidize and eventually stabilize and work that into the color themes of their work. And given the tanto is tiny, Patrick did an amazing job of fit and finish on that tiny little guy. I was *really* glad when Harlan said to send it to Patrick for habaki. I couldn't have done as nice a job as Patrick did.

[Lee O'Hagan]

Thats a bueat, guy's,
The shira saya looks awfully well done too, Keith,
Is it any harder to work on these smaller pieces, Keith?
The tanto Randall recently posted on his new site (availables page)also looks very fine,
This is a different one isnt it Harlan ?
Very nice work all round, thanks for sharing,

[Randal Graham]

The little Tanto on my site currently is a different one than what Keith Pictured, yeah.
The one on my site is a test blade made from Tamahagane produced in MN at the smelt demo there.
After seeing the polish on Harlan's little tanto, I've been thinking it needs to become "unavailable" and polished by someone with more skill than myself :0)

[Lee O'Hagan]

Thanks Randal,
Definately looking forward to seeing more and more added to your site,
Again fine work by all involved and thankyou for taking the time out to share,