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TimeWarp – Forging a Carriage Spring Tanto
Charcoal forging a traditional tanto style blade from half of a reclaimed horse carriage leaf spring at 4x speed (total actual forging time including heating was about 2 hours). Serious students of the forge can watch the full process version here: https://rumble.com/v2fctln-timewarp-1-forging-a-tanto-from-a-century-old-carriage-spring.html The two distinct stages are sunobe and hizukuri…sunobe establishes the geometry and proportions,…
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Crossed Heart Forge on YouTube
Crossed Heart Forge has a YouTube channel, check it out and please subscribe! also available on rumble:
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Field Trip To A Bladesmith’s Forge
A workshop visit from the The Samurai Carpenter
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Testing Bladesmithing Charcoal
A comparison of proper softwood blacksmithing / bladesmithing charcoal with “overcooked” high temperature charcoal which is best suited for biochar applications. Bladesmithing charcoal tests: 1. hard and clean, not crumbly and dusty 2. dense and solid, not spongy and blown out 3. musical and ringing when tapped, not dead and dull 4. burns with a…
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Making a Mountain Tanto
The wider profile of the mountain style tanto is inspired by a kamakura sword and has a more deeply curved tip (fukura-tsuku) and shorter drop point. The simple and humble mounting style is inspired by the age-old style of farming and foresting tools traditionally used in managing satoyama lands. Satoyama are the managed forest areas…
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Tools for Satoyama
Satoyama are the managed forest areas that border the cultivated fields and the mountain wilds in Japan. Historically they provided fertilizer, firewood, edible plants, mushrooms, fish, and game, and supported local industries such as farming, construction, and charcoal making. Balancing the interaction of wetlands, streams, forests, and fields is an important component of the satoyama…
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Making a Tanto Style Takedown Handle
The tang and handle of a classical tanto are constructed in a manner that requires only a single bamboo peg to hold the entire knife assembly together. In addition to the sense of beautiful simplicity, this design allows the knife to be taken apart for cleaning, polishing, or sharpening work. Carving and fitting the inside…
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Forest Kotanto
A clay tempered blade hand forged in a charcoal fire, water quenched with clay, sharpened with waterstones, and finished simply and humbly in the age-old style of farming and foresting tools traditionally used in managing satoyama lands. Satoyama are the managed forest areas that border the cultivated fields and the mountain wilds in Japan. Historically…
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Mountain Kotanto
A clay tempered blade hand forged in a charcoal fire, water quenched with clay, sharpened with waterstones, and finished simply and humbly in the age-old style of farming and foresting tools traditionally used in managing satoyama lands. Satoyama are the managed forest areas that border the cultivated fields and the mountain wilds in Japan. Historically…
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MadeFor: Into the fire
Though the countries sit on opposite sides of the Pacific, this blacksmith in Canada has been honouring a sacred Japanese tradition for more than half of his life. In Canada, through Vancouver and over the Salish Sea, on Vancouver Island, there’s a small farm bustling with the sounds of alpacas, chickens, a rooster, giant hand-reared…
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MadeFor: Creating Off The Grid
See the full feature on MadeFor.com.au: Crossed Heart Forge – Off The Grid We come into this world with an innate yearning to discover. The belief that there is something out there bigger than us, beyond our own frontier, constantly compels us to make more with what we’ve got, for the time we have here.
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An Australian Media Visit to the Forge
Read the article on MadeFor.com.au: MadeFor – Crossed Heart Forge
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Sounds of the Workshop: Tanto Overview
The tools are simple and few, but the work is long and hard. A collection of clips documenting the steps and sounds involved at many stages of the process of crafting charcoal forged classical tanto and mountings from reclaimed materials. Footage from several recent projects is included, some extended and some previously unreleased, some from…
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Touzai Tanto
Touzai (東西) can be literally translated “East West” and carries the idea of spanning across distance or covering and including everywhere. There is also a saying, “kokontouzai” (古今東西) which means for all time and all places, literally “old, now, East, West”. This project began with the concept of ideas from different times and places coming…
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Making Sekigane for a Wrought Iron Tsuba
Guards for classical Japanese style takedown knives are generally formed as variations of flat discs that slide over the tang. When working with wrought iron or steel, small copper inserts called sekigane (責金) are often used to prevent contact between the blade and the tsuba. This photo essay will attempt to portray a simple approach…