UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Anthony DiCristofano



Anthony DiCristofano was born on August 6, 1963 in Chicago, Illinois. U.S.A.
Since the age of 25 he developed a deep interest in Japanese culture and art, which lead him to study Japanese language, quickly reaching fluency.
Anthony was interested in many aspects of Japanese culture, but began to focus on the sword.
He then began studying kendo and sword smithing to better understand the sword and to find his path to inner peace in 1995.
Later, because of time restraints Anthony DiCristofano began to put more emphasis on smithing than training as he finally felt he found his path working with steel.
Since 2000 Anthony DiCristofano has been making swords as a professional smith.
 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Brandon Thell - Polisher



Brandon Thell was born in St.Paul MN
He became interested in Japanese swords at age 15 and took up Iai-Jitsu.
At age 16 he became interested in polishing and other areas of Japanese style swords.
He started as a self taught polisher, which was very difficult.
He then studied with a very talented polisher of nihon-tô who became his mentor and still is.
Due to his accomplishments, he received the recognition of blade smiths such as Anthony DiCristofano, Jason Dingledine, Michael Bell and Rick Barrett who fully confided in his polishing skills. He has also polished swords by Howard Clark and Randal Graham as well as restoration and polishing of nihon-tô.
Presently Brandon Thell caters for mounting of swords as well through his own sources.
The present blade was polished by Mr. Brandon Thell