Description

This blade brings a lot of the tanto construction into a shape that is decidedly for the outdoors. The geometry is very traditional and includes a distal taper, peaked spine, hira-zukuri bevels, and nihonto tang, but the dropped spearpoint tip and blade length make it very useful for most tasks in the forest. Very high carbon steel and a fine taper make this a great whittling, carving, and utility knife.

The clay tempered blade was hand forged from a file and still bears the snake skin marks of the teeth on the tang. It has been taken almost down to a zero edge and rough polished on diamond stones but still has some ha-niku left to work with. The polish may be left as is for a working knife, but the final geometry is set and there are only some slight fire texture pits from yaki-ire to remove for a proper final polish if preferred. This knife makes a cameo appearance beginning around 5:20 in the Stria video as the blade being heat treated.

The tang is constructed in a similar manner to a Japanese tanto requiring only a single bamboo peg to hold the knife assembly together. In addition to the sense of beautiful simplicity, this design allows the knife to be taken apart for cleaning, polishing, or major resharpening work.

The double tapered tang is designed to be mounted in the style of nihonto, with a single removable bamboo peg, but has not been drilled yet and can be filed or drilled for riveting, pinning, or other handle systems as well. The blade is just over 5″ long and the overall length to the tip of the tang is just under 8.5″. The spine at the munemachi is about 5mm thick, shape is iori mune.

Please contact if you would like to commission a custom habaki, final polish, or mounting for this blade.

Material: Reclaimed file