Bill Menees's Blog

Over the Labor Day weekend, I started on knife #5. I recently watched an awesome video on making katanas, and now I'm extremely fired up to make one. Unfortunately, I don't yet have all the equipment or skills to make such a large blade, so I decided to make a "small" tanto knife instead.

The picture at the top is a 12 inch bar of D-2 tool steel that this knife started from. Notice that the top edge of the bar is beveled. That's because this steel has already led a long and productive life as a wood planer blade. Unfortunately, that also means that it is work hardened, which makes it a little more difficult to work with than new steel. But it's what I have, so it's what I'm using. For more info on D-2 steel see Engnath's Steels Used By Knife Makers.

The picture at the bottom is the 12 inch tanto blade after it has been profiled and rough ground. Since I only have a 1x30 belt sander, I can't hollow grind the blade. So it is flat ground, which makes it a little ugly. It still has plenty of scratches, so now I'm working through various phases of hand sanding to get those out. I sure miss Bob's belt sander and buffer.

I've also started a guard (tsuba), but I haven't finished or polished it yet. I plan to round off each corner with a 1/2" radius, and then I'll blacken it with some gun bluing (why isn't it called gun blackening?) That will make it look cooler.

I plan to use oak for the handle slabs, and then I'll wrap it with the traditional katana wrap (ito). Then I'll make a scabbard (saya) from the oak too. (For help with the terms see the Visual Guide to Japanese Sword Terminology.)

I hope this will turn out well. I'm leaving out a ton of small details found on traditional katanas and tantos, but it should still be a cool knife. Or at least it will be good practice for the next one.

Labels: Knifemaking