This tanto was forged from an antique horse-drawn carriage spring in 2016, was used at several demos as an example of the forged surface as it comes out of the fire, made a cameo in a short film in 2017 as one of the filing stages, was finished with geometry inspired by a visit to Japan in 2018, and is the first of my blades to incorporate antique sword parts in its mounting.
The inome (pronounced “ee-no-may”, 猪の目, eye of the boar) name comes from the pierced heart-shape designs on the decorative o-seppa (washers) on either side of the tsuba (handguard). This lovely motif is ubiquitous in Japan, seen often in architecture, furniture, and sword mountings. In this context, the inome symbol conveys the idea of the focused, forward-moving wild boar of Japan’s forests and mountains, never giving up or retreating.
The blade began as a reclaimed carriage spring and was hand forged in a charcoal fire, smoothed with files and a sen scraper, differentially hardened using traditional water quench yaki-ire, and polished by hand with natural Japanese water stones.
This tanto consists of ten separate components that began as twenty-two individual pieces, crafted and finished entirely with hand tools and traditional techniques.
Materials for the chisagatana style koshirae mounting include Japanese hounoki wood for the handle and scabbard, copper bus bar for the habaki, reclaimed brass doorplate for a seppa, buffalo horn for the mekugi and kurikata, and an iron spike salvaged from thirty feet under the Pacific for the tsuba. The centerpiece of the mounting comes from an outdoor antique market in Kyoto, a gold-accented Edo-era fuchi made from nanako-ji (魚子地, fish roe) textured shakudo (a traditional alloy of gold, silver, and copper). The first antique sword I ever saw in person twenty-some years ago had nanako decoration and nanako is one of the first sword vocabulary words I learned. The tsuba sits between two Showa-era zouheitou (officer’s sword) o-seppa with pierced inome (猪の目, eye of the boar) motifs. The saya is finished in black sabi-nuri (rust texture) style ishime-ji (stone surface) made from natural source urushi lacquer and ground tea leaves, and the koiguchi band is also antique.
Blade has a hira-zukuri profile, suguha hamon with artifact on the omote, an iori mune, and an ubuha (unsharpened portion near the hamachi). The blade is 8.75″ long, overall length is just under 13.5″, and the overall length of the koshirae is just over 15″. Accompanied by a handsewn reclaimed silk storage bag. Pairs well with Yakisugi Antler Tanto Kake display stand.
Specifications
長さ/刃長 Nagasa: 7 sun 3 bu 5 rin (222mm)
元幅 Motohaba: 9 bu (27mm)
重ね/元重 Motokasane: 2 bu 3 rin (7mm)
反り Sori: muzori
中心/茎 Nakago: 3 sun 6 bu (109mm)
柄長 Tsuka: 3 sun 2 bu 5 rin (98mm)
拵全長 Koshirae: 12 sun 6 bu (382mm)
形 Katachi: hira-zukuri, iori-mune
刃文 Hamon: suguha, with ubuha
帽子/鋩子 Boshi: ko-maru
中心/茎 Nakago: futsu, kuri-jiri, one mekugi-ana, signed near the tip
銘 Mei: hot stamped katabami-ken kamon
拵 Koshirae: chisagatana, issaku (with the addition of four antique parts)
Material: Reclaimed carriage spring steel, Edo-period gold and shakudo nanako fuchi, antique brass koiguchi and Showa-era zouheitou o-seppa, ocean-salvaged iron spike, copper bus bar, brass doorplate, buffalo horn, Hounoki, leather, natural urushi and tea leaves
This piece is in a private collection in Michigan.
The raw material for this blade spent the last century as a leaf spring for a horse-drawn carriage.
The horse drawn carriage spring and pivot assembly as found on a homestead.
Chisel-cutting the bolt and separating the century-old leaf springs for sorting and inspection.
Potential blade steels are tested using several methods to determine their suitability and the best approach for heat treatment. The older, lower alloy steels are preferred by our inspectors.
Forged to within ~1mm of the final shape (including bevels) and filed only around the profile.
This tanto was used at several demos as an example of the surface as it comes out of the fire. Using water on the anvil during the final stages of forging keeps the surface clean and smooth.
Smoothing the surface with sen (scraper) and draw-filing in preparation for application of clay for yaki-ire.
Habaki & Tsuba
Habaki forged to shape, fire soldered, fit and cold hardened by hammering, and finished using hand files.
A custom made tang shaped punch is used to create the opening in the iron tsuba and it is shaped, textured, and rust patinated before carefully hammering in copper sekigane (責金) to protect the blade.
The rust patina is polished using an antler tip, boiled in water to convert red iron oxide to stable black iron oxide, then given a thin layer of natural fukiurushi lacquer and baked to cure.
The weathering process used during forging, called yakite or yakinamashi, involves oxidizing the surface using high heat and an oxygen-rich charcoal forge blast, periodically dipping quickly into water and wire brushing to reveal naturally occurring hard and soft areas of the iron.
The exposed high areas of harder iron that remain after wear and weathering are known as tekkotsu (鉄骨, iron bones) and compliment the hammer textured (槌目地, tsuchimei-ji) surface.
The habaki is patinated using a blend of copper salts similar to rokusho. When just the right shade is reached, old and newly crafted parts begin to work together as a team.
Tsuka
After carving and shaping the tsuka, ink stone (made from charcoal and hide glue, for Japanese calligraphy) is used to stain the wood that will be under the handle wrapping.
The leather wrapping is secured using nori-urushi, a mixture of natural urushi lacquer and sokui (rice paste glue). The wrapping is fit between an Edo-period fuchi in shakudo and gold and a newly carved and lacquered horn kashira.
The horn kashira has a tenon made from horn that fits into the wood core of the tsuka and is attached with nori-urushi.
Keeping the length of the tsuka within traditional proportional constraints was very close given the length of the tang and the thickness of the horn kashira, less than 1mm to spare!
Carving & Lacquering the Saya
After carving the inside to fit the blade the halves are rejoined with sokui and the scabbard is shaped with kanna and smoothed with fine rasps.
An antique koiguchi band is fit while carefully preserving the natural patina of the centuries.
A horn kurikata is shaped and fit to the saya using a carved sliding dovetail.
The joint between the halves is reinforced with washi paper and sokui along both sides.
The first layer of natural fukiurushi seals the wood and prepares the surface for the following layers.
A second layer is used to adhere finely screened ground tea leaves and allowed to cure, a third layer (shown) saturates and seals the tea and is filed down to create the desired surface texture.
After wiping clean, the rough filed lacquer with tea showing through the surface resembles a true sabi-nuri (rusted steel surface), similar to an old cast iron tetsubin tea kettle.
A fourth and final layer of very thin black urushi is wiped over to seal and darken the surface. The black fukiurushi highlights the combination of smooth peaks and pitted valleys and turns the look to ishime-ji (stone surface).
A look at all the koshirae parts before assembly (with the exception of the kashira already glued in place)
The horn parts are polished and sealed with black fukiurushi before being installed on the tsuka and sabi-nuri style ishimeji lacquered saya.
Polishing
Once all the parts are made and fitted the blade can be taken through the final polishing stages using Japanese waterstones.
Several fine natural stones make up the last steps, right down to small fingertip-sized stone flakes with washi paper lacquered to the back for strength.
The omote (front/display side) with interesting artifact midway along the hamon.
The ura (back/private side).
Omote (public/display side) with angled natural window light.
Ura (back/private side) with angled natural window light.
Final Assembly
Koshirae ready for assembly.
The combination of antique and newly crafted parts lends a feel of timelessness to the mounting.
Inome tanto forged from reclaimed antique steel on Vancouver Island, Canada.
The thick yoroidoshi style spine with peaked iori mune.
Antique shakudo nanako fuchi and zouheitou seppa together.
At the right angle the individual punch marks around each raised nanako dot can be seen.
Angled top view showing the proportions of the tsuka (handle) and tsuba (handguard) fittings along with the kurikata (cord loop) and saya (scabbard).
View of the edge showing habaki fitment and slight ubuha edge (unsharpened portion next to hamachi), used to indicate freshness of a blade.
View of the spine showing some of the subtle curves of the handle. Note how the single brass seppa balances the gold rims on the shakudo seppa.
**Please note that in order to preserve the patina and texture of the antique components involved in this mounting there may be minor damage, scuffs, variations in colour, and other indications of their stories over the centuries.
