Thread: Kagi-ba-Sword forging shop

Bruno; Agreed, nor could I make an unusable tool. I too have only a limited amount of time and knives & razors are just a hobby. It tends to be a very practical progression for me as a machinist though and I am finding that I enjoy it and kinda wish it was my full time trade.

Obsidian blades, isn't there a high risk of chipping a blade and leaving tiny fragments in the person???

Jeff

I think obsidian is perfect for things like eye surgery, since they are ultra sharp and eye tissue typically does not contain hard parts.
Once you need to go inside a person and cut tough things and might hit bone, there is a risk of chipping.

Not that I would know for sure. I am too queasy to watch a surgeon going spelunking inside a knee joint or ribcage on bigscreen

indians in central/south america used obsidian knives for centuries.......... flint also can be knapped into a very very very sharp edge capable of cutting a large amount of meat without dulling.....

notice how we are making kinda a full circle when it comes to cutlery?? with the rebirth of ceramic bladed knives that altho fragile are capable of a extreme amount of usage and retaining their edge.....

wonder if they could make a straight with a ceramic blade.... *(altho you lose the zen of honing and stropping...)

The indians did not have to worry about chips being left behind in the body.
Turns out that if you carve open someone's chest to cut out the heart, any chips left behind do not pose a big problem
Offtopic anecdote: my lovely 4 year old daughter's (with the grim reaper t-shirt) most interesting object in the chocolate museum was the authentic obsidian human sacrifice dagger...

Anyway to answer your question: long time ago we had a member who made a ceramic razor. A frameback IIRC. His conclusion was that they are not good razors. Very scratchy. And it tugged. It was also very difficult to hone it.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Offtopic anecdote: my lovely 4 year old daughter's (with the grim reaper t-shirt) most interesting object in the chocolate museum was the authentic obsidian human sacrifice dagger...

She sounds like a chip off the old block

Originally Posted by onimaru55

She sounds like a chip off the old block

Yeah.
That knife was really giving me a weird vibe though.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Yeah.
That knife was really giving me a weird vibe though.

Some folks say they can feel that kind of stuff. As if the tool picks up something from the maker, or the owner, depending on how it was used. That kind of thing. It might have been really strange to hold it in your hand....

Originally Posted by Mike Blue

Some folks say they can feel that kind of stuff. As if the tool picks up something from the maker, or the owner, depending on how it was used. That kind of thing. It might have been really strange to hold it in your hand....

This a a hard thing to talk about. I know of at least one maker that used this idea to market his knives and swords. (many of which where made in a "factory" in Mexico.)

Talked about the special "spirit" he instilled in all of his blades.

I work off the assumption that if I work in a mindful way "something" of myself lives in what I make. And something FROM what I make lives in me.

Hence my comment about "What we make makes us".

BUT- I do not ever claim that this makes my work "extra special". This way of working is for my benefit. Either it speaks to someone or it doesn't.

In my world however, there is an underlying spirit or Ki as Mike said present in all things.
It is the underlying principle as to why I built my own house.
I don't try to convince anybody that this is true nor do I care. It is enough that this "system" works for me.

So Bruno, if you want to use the precious time you have to make blades only for those that use them-So be it.

Since we are veering into that territory...
I agree with what you say.

I have made only a couple of razors yet.
With each razor, I didn't really know what to make or how to shape it. I decided to think up a name for every blade. Something that would define what it 'is'. As soon as I knew that, their shapes emerges naturally without too much effort.

Oh and perhaps a better analogy would have been that I look at this like someone breeding hunting dogs. There is room for all kinds of dogs in this world: seeing eye dogs, lapdogs, sheepdogs, etc. If someone breeds and trains hunting dogs, he'll rather have his dogs end up with hunters, rather than with an old granny who just wants a lapdog.

I make what I see in the metal. That doesn't happen unless I have a blueprint or drawing, or I am inspired. So far with the blades it has primarily been when inspired. At that point what I "craft" comes out well, and while not perfect to a visual inspection they fit their form and function. I am getting better. I forced some grinding on a knife blade yesterday and was slightly hurried and messed it up. To bad cause it had a real nice profile, I may be able to salvage the piece though with some creative grinding. I hope.

From my point of view I believe that there may be found the will of God holding all things together. Therefor by reason the spirit of God may be found in all things. If I build with this in mind my work is significantly better.

Jeff