SOTW #8 - Creating a Hand Carved Aikuchi Tanto Mount @islandblacksmith

Uploaded November 2014 | Updated September 2026, 7 hours ago

islandblacksmith.ca
...Sounds of the *woodshop*, that is...a.k.a.: the quiet edition. Sit back and chill to the sounds of sharp blades and smooth wood. This is a collection of clips documenting the steps and sounds involved at most every stage of the process of hand making a traditional aikuchi tanto mount from reclaimed driftwood. The project began as a large piece of Nootka Cypress driftwood and is worked entirely by hand through each step, employing tools and techniques as they would have been used centuries ago when this style of knife was developed in Japan.

The blade is made from century-old shear steel from a horse drawn carriage spring and based on design elements of the 13th century Aizu Shintogo tanto:
islandblacksmith.ca/2014/04/aizu-shintogo-kunimitsu-tanto-kata/.

Read more about the process of making this work on the photo essay page:
islandblacksmith.ca/process/making-aikuchi-tanto-kuro-urushi-koshirae

The next step will be to finish the surface with natural urushi lacquer.

SOTW #8 - Creating a Hand Carved Aikuchi Tanto Mount

TimeWarp #10 - Forging Habaki for a Tanto

Charcoal Making - Testing Blacksmithing Charcoal

Soulsmithing 2: adventures in hitech/lotech - fuigo blower manifold

Making a Bamboo Scoop for Water Forging (竹の水差し)

TimeWarp #1 - Forging a Tanto from a Century-old Carriage Spring

Jikatabi Skateboarding - Anvil Skating in Tabi Boots

TimeWarp #8 - Carving a mekugi and Mountain Kotanto final assembly

$Sumi-kiri - chopping charcoal for bladesmithing Read more about the museum project here: http://islandblacksmith.ca/2017/01/building-traditional-swordsmith-forge/ See more charcoal making videos here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBJ5AOs7cMwAi0VcrZt-tyGIsrOUrzhyj A sample of the sumi-kiri process; charcoal chopping, screening, and sorting techniques, and may offer some useful details for astute observers.** Traditional Japanese swordsmithing forges are fueled by softwood charcoal which is first chopped, screened, and sorted into several sizes for different stages of the forging process. The charcoal is chopped and then processed through four sizes of screen, the largest is for tanren, the second for hizukuri (I tend to use the largest for hizukuri as well and keep the second size mainly for yaki-ire), the third size isnt highly useful but may be crushed into fines or saved for tatara, the fourth is the fines for lining the bottom of the forge, and the remainder is dust for mixing into yaki-ire clay or for brasque refractory. Measurements for the screen sizes are given in sun-shaku and the type of charcoal they keep in is listed rather than what they allow to pass through. 3.03022 cm = 0.1 shaku（尺） = 1 sun（寸） = 10 bu（分） = 100 rin（厘） **Three things to note, 1. after setting up, i moved the camera orientation 180 degrees and rather than move all of the charcoal i moved only the chair to the opposite side, but for efficiency it is a good idea to have the charcoal at the left side within reach of the non-chopping hand...2. rather than chopping directly into a screen as i do, the normal procedure is to chop onto the tarp and then rake most of the largest charcoal off the top by hand before screening the remaining pile (https://youtu.be/3DdXdxSb3vE)...3. also, some of this charcoal is quite soft having been heated too quickly in the kiln or overcooked so it looks more crumbly than it should.$

SOTW #13 - Salvaged Carriage Spring Disassembly

Soulsmithing 4: adventures in hitech/lotech - building the fuigo floor

One last look at the old blacksmith workshop - baby birds extended edit