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This
DOJO DAISHO will be the first set for a new line in 1080 and 5160 steels by
Joe Walters. |
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Dojo
Swords blades are entirely custom made at Joe Walters'
Moonlit Forge from
either 1080 or 5160 dual marquenched steel to form a very
resistant shinogi and hard, tough edge steel, that provides a consistent
and excellent edge holding, durability and superb flexibility that
entirely defies the needs of the most demanding martial artist. |
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Main Specifications Follow |
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Hamon:
gunome-midare. |
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| PHOTOGRAPHS | |
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| Daisho sugata looks awesome. This is a vertical picture turned horizontal | |
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| Kissaki looks fantastic at this stage though Joe will be refining it. | |
| TSUBAS | |
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| Different steps on the making of the daisho tsuba. | |
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| two layer silver textured habaki | vagra menuki |
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The making of the two layers textured habaki. |
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| EARLY FINISHED PICTURES DATED SEPTEMBER 1,2004 US TIME | |
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The Daisho
early pictures sent by Joe. The hybrid polish is very well
visible. The sori is a perfect tori-sori with a deep
curvature for motion cutting. |
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The daisho in the saya. Even though the pictures are not too clear, the saya are superb work and the tsuba dimensions are just so right to me. |
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| THE HAMON | |
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Though it is obviously a hybrid polish for cutting, the hamon is a gunome-midare. The dark area silhouette may appear strange. It may be nugui applied over a frosted hamon. It does not bother me at all. On the contrary, I see poetry in it... |
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For a moment let us just concentrate on the poetic beauty of such a hamon, as if water reflections of a lake were frozen in the steel and revealed through the tides coming from the ha and spreading into the monosteel of the ji. Frosted in steel, the tide has retained its reflections of serenity. |
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The tsuka in black leather is very nicely wrapped. Horn mekugi. |
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Another view of the tsuka and presentation tsuba in a very deep blackened steel. Itomaki continues to look perfect. Notice the blue hue on the steel and the hamon jumping across the room. |
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| THESE PICTURES WERE TAKEN ON THEIR ARRIVAL DATE AND WITHOUT STUDIO LIGHTING | |
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These are quick pictures without any proper lighting |
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THE KATANA |
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The kissaki is wicked and the blades are extremely sharp. It is a very light blade, yet very robust, heat treated to face soft and even hard targets such as dowels and bamboo. |
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On the contrary, the wakizashi shows a very shallow sori. Again this is taken in natural light with no other sources of lighting that is uneven... |
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The hamon, even in its strange frosted hybrid polish is beautiful and it is asking for a full polish when the blades are retired. There is plenty to be revealed after a full polish. Meantime I don't care much about tiny scratches in the shinogi-ji. It is intended for cutting first and foremost. |
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Very sturdy tsuka 14 inches long, a bit bulky but provides an extraordinarily good grip and 8 inches tsuka with an elegant profile. Black leather ito-maki as seen. |
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STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL METALLURGY |
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As I was inspecting the ji and the polish, very strange activity that definitely does not come from polishing scratches have come up. My first attempts to photograph it failed so I decided to scan the blade up to 400 percent. There is a very unique activity in both blades that remind me of san mai but in a monosteel. |
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The look I had on the blade, mainly on the area near the shinogi-ji, show a pattern that has nothing to do with the hybrid polish scratches. |
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This
other picture confirms the activity that I'm sure, results from the heat
treatment the blades have been subject to as there are spots where
concentric circles of activity formation prove the evidence of
intrinsic work. |
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No-to |
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