Museum Forge Update

Traditional Japanese swordsmithing forges can be constructed with simple materials and natural ingredients. This article will present a photographic overview of the process of refurbishing the swordsmith’s forge at a museum on Vancouver Island. Most of history was forged with very simple… Continue reading →

Charcoal Kiln V.4.0

As part of the island kajiba project, reclaimed and natural materials were used to construct a larger traditional style charcoal making kiln. The basic concept is a simple chamber with a door on one end and a chimney on the other, insulated… Continue reading →

The Axe – Ono Style Cloth Mask

The Axe is a Japanese inspired cloth face mask which can come in handy if you are chopping charcoal, playing ninja-and-seek, traveling, or navigating a worldwide crisis at the end-of-days. A well made cotton mask can be surprisingly effective at filtering out… Continue reading →

Repair broken Natural Waterstone with Urushi

Repairing a broken natural Japanese waterstone using urushi lacquer. Natural urushi lacquer is strong enough to repair the stone but will not interfere with sharpening and polishing as some glues may. Carving a cypress base to hold the stone together as well as using urushi lacquer to reattach the halves provides a double solution. The stone is a Kumamoto binsui-do, approximately #700, from Monotaro in Japan. Urushi is from Watanabe~san.

Building Simple Charcoal Forges

Building two examples of quick and simple sideblast charcoal forges with found and reclaimed materials to demonstrate that lack of equipment and materials should not be a major obstacle.

Ways to improve and expand on these concepts include: mixing copious amounts of chopped straw or charcoal powder (6:2) into the clay to make it refractory, using high temperature kiln bricks, making the walls higher and longer, using the clay to narrow the tuyere to about 1sun/3cm right where it enters at the bottom side of the forge, putting a barrier up to protect the fuigo (and allowing a shorter pipe), allowing the clay to dry before lighting the forge, etc.

Learn more about fuigo, a full traditional swordsmith forge build, or a smaller tanto forge design.

Glass Top Fuigo – Inside View of Box Bellows

A look at the inside operation of a prototype fuigo (鞴) box bellows…four wooden flap valves (called ben / は弁), two for intake and two for the manifold, control the direction and location of the airflow on each stroke of the piston to provide double action to the single output into the fire.

more about fuigo | making valves | fuigo archives

Making a Bamboo Scoop for Water Forging

Simple technology for pouring water on the anvil, takeno mizusashi (竹の水差し) made from a piece of bamboo.

Forging with a thin film of water on the anvil and hammer prevents forge scale or oxide from being hammered into the surface of the steel. The hot steel instantly vaporizes the water and the resulting steam explosion blows the scale off of the work, keeping it clean as it is worked. This type of bamboo scoop is a traditional style tool for evenly applying water to the surface of the anvil or the hot steel. Read more about the process of making one.

Making Fire with Bamboo – museum forge first lighting

The first night turned out to be quite an event as there were three forges and six blacksmiths/strikers operating in the museum workshop. Thanks to Tim of Reforged Ironworks, and Josh for their energy and charcoal chopping to get the forge up and running, and their assistance swinging the big sledges to finish drifting and shaping the smaller hand hammers as the first preparatory projects in the charcoal forge. Read more about the museum forge project or watch a more detailed demonstration of lighting fire with bamboo.

Sumi-kiri – chopping charcoal for bladesmithing

Charcoal is chopped and then processed through four sizes of screen, the largest is for tanren, the second for hizukuri (I tend to use the largest for hizukuri as well and keep the second size mainly for yaki-ire), the third size isn’t… Continue reading →

Making 篩 for charcoal screening

Traditional Japanese swordsmithing forges are fueled by softwood charcoal which is first chopped, screened, and sorted into several sizes for different stages of the forging process. The “furui” (篩) or sieve is used to separate different sizes of charcoal during the sumi-kiri process. This one is the smallest mesh of the four, made from window screen, and saves the fines for the charcoal bed and allows the powder to fall through. See the whole museum forge project here.

Making 箕 for charcoal sorting

Traditional Japanese swordsmithing forges are fueled by softwood charcoal which is first chopped, screened, and sorted into several sizes for different stages of the forging process. The winnowing basket shaped “mi” (箕) is used to store and move charcoal between screens during the sumi-kiri process. See the whole museum forge project here.

Building a Charcoal Tanto Forge

This forge is a scaled down version specifically geared for tanto and smaller knives but has a removable spacer to allow for a larger fire when needed. Details about traditional measurements and clay mixtures here.

Crossed Heart Forge

Charcoal forged classical tanto & fusion style takedown knives crafted by hand from reclaimed steel and natural materials using traditional techniques.

Category Archives: D.I.Y. Technology